Pilots Exploring
Posted on 05 Jul 2021 @ 5:18pm by Lieutenant Commander Gemma Alexander & Ensign Kendra Kyle & Ensign Peris
3,943 words; about a 20 minute read
Mission:
Extinction
Timeline: Mission Day 21 at 1630
The Black Knights had modified their patrol routes. Some were keeping close to the Black Hawk and the main planet they found. Others were getting to stretch their legs a bit and of course Archer jumped at the chance to be on the deeper range patrols. She checked the readouts, they were on a recon mission to check out a marginal Class L planet. "Archer to wings, report status?" She asked her two wingmen.
Ensign Peris, a Deltan female with the callsign "Cueball," kept an eye on her sensors as she remained off Archer's port side. "No bogeys in range," she reported, her throaty voice still carrying something of a feminine presence.
"Sounds grand Cueball, Roberts you good?" Archer said automaticly checking her HUD to make sure she and her two wingmen were still green.
"Roger that," said Clark. "All clear on my side."
Peris kept an eye on the sensor readouts projected on her heads up display. "I'm confused, Archer. Are we supposed to be searching for pirates or cataloging stellar phenomena?"
"Pirates first though I'm sure the science guys would like whatever data we bring back. I'd just like to get closer to the planet before I want to spot any pirates, we want their base not some merry chase. Which while fun, is not the main goal here." Archer replied as she checked her sensors and heading.
Peris nodded, even though that couldn't be seen by anyone. "Well, nothing is appearing on my sensors, at least nothing that is foreign or unusual to this Class L. How much longer do you want to stay here?"
"Just long enough to do a good scan of the planet which I guess we've now done." She replied checking the data from the three ships. "We'll make a loop in the surrounding space to make sure they're not on some hunk of rock nearby then head to the next most likely on the list." She looked at the information for the next planet, "I suppose if this was easy they'd have found them by now. Sending updating heading for the loop and next target" She continued. She was disappointed about no pirates but was happy to be flying, just her, her wingmen and this craft. Least paperwork couldn't find her here.
"Roger that, Archer," Peris confirmed, continuing to stay in formation. "Sensors in active mode, so far nothing on the scope."
"Seems pretty quiet out here, today," commented Clark. "Nothing on my sensors either."
"Time to fly on to Target 2." She glanced over her negative scan results the mission parameters, "Next most likely the Class H planet or the Asteroid belt. Others are checking the rest. Sending updated navigation for oh let's try the belt, that's were I'd hide one."
"Roger, Archer," Peris stated, adjusting her course and sensors for the asteroid belt. "I'm definitely picking up several indicators of magnetic flux. Recommend reliance on visual scanning."
Clark brought his fighter to bear on Archer's coordinates for their next waypoint. "Visual scanning...in an asteroid belt. This is going to be fun, for sure."
"I hear you Clark, if it was easy they'd wouldn't have sent us." She replied lightly, "Don't forget your Tac Officers will help as well, first one to see anything useful wins Pirate I Spy." Her own Tac officer, a Vulcan, didn't smile at the joke but nodded at the instruction. Archer tapped a few more keys and made minor flight adjustments as they approached their next check point.
"Slow to search speed begin search pattern Delta 4, approaching first grouping." She slowed the craft carefully to a fraction of impulse and adjusted to an ideal search pattern. The challenge would be looking at the huge hunks of rock and their shadowed crevices. Looking for any signs of technology or life while trying to move slow enough to actually be able to see anything in time before they passed it, "Cueball, take high bird. Make sure we don't get an unexpected visitors, we'll rotate out as we move along."
"High bird, aye." Peris manuevered her craft to float above the asteroid field. She then inverted the craft so she could visually keep an eye on Archer and Roberts. "Ice Gecko," she said to the pale skinned Saurian who sat in the gunner's seat, "keep the weapons hot and use tactical sensors to search for heat signatures. Let's not have any surprises today."
"Excellent Cueball ok Clark time to play I Spy." She adjusted and started around the chunk of rock, glancing around but leaving the real looking to her gunner as she focused on flying, "You ever play I Spy Pancake?". The Vulcan officer, who did not get to name himself but who had long gotten used to the pilot nickname, replied, "No, but it was explained to me, there are visual acuity tests on Vulcan as well. Though none so...colorful." He replied deadpanned as he focused on trying to find anything below.
Clark nodded, though it couldn't be seen by anyone but his back-seater, and answered. "It's been a while since I've played that game. But think I can remember how." He slowed his fighter so the he and his Trill gunner could search the asteroids. "Low and slow, Spots. Low and slow," Clark said to her.
The Trill female audibly sighed and responded in the affirmative. She hadn't liked the callsign she'd been given when she joined the Black Knights as it wasn't all that original. But it was growing on her. Like a fungus.
"Clear skies up here," Peris announced over her comm. "Magentic fields are extremely out of sorts, however. My sensors are dancing all around and can't pinpoint anything."
"Not surprised with the amount of spacial interference." A thought occurred and she checked her sensors after finishing her sweep. "Looks naturally occurring but if you notice an area particularly wiggy, we should check it out. If was going to hide it'd be there." She checked the immediate area. After awhile with nothing being found, Archer called it, "Ok nothing here, continuing to next grid in the field. And it was like that for a bit, they'd rotate out high bird while two searched the likely chunks. It was a boring but somewhat tense routine as they couldn't relay on sensors as they moved agility around the belt.
They were at their next location, Clark as high bird this time while Archer and Cueball followed the routine, low and slow. Light beams skimming the surface as they looked for clues, Pancake spoke up, "I see a glint. Please return to previous." It took Archer a moment as she honestly by this point was not expecting anything but, "Archer to Cueball going to circle a position." Then she spun around on the same track she'd just come from and when Pancake called, "Hold." She locked it into a hover position and he began moving the beam of light to find what he thought he'd seen, "It appears to be a glinting like metal does when hit with light." The vulcan explained to the team as he carefully searched while Archer maintained position.
Clark maintained the new position he'd rotated into, but adjusted to hopefully get a better look. "Metallic glinting on an asteroid, though? Wouldn't that be common depending on the asteroid's makeup?"
Pancake replied, "This seemed significant like not a mineral 'sparkle'." As he continued to move the beam. Archer held position checking her records, "Reports have these not mine friendly likely because of the sensor issue in part but who knows whats down there. Don't suppose it hurts to check." Pancake gave her a suggested alternate hovering location and she shifted their location smoothly, "You got 5 minutes then we're moving on." She said to her Gunner.
Peris had noted Archer's pause below and adjusted her heading into a small patrol circuit. With sensors down, it was best for at least one craft to keep moving to spot any potential dangers. So far, she found none.
Clark pulled his fighter alongside the Squadron Commander's for wingman duty. "Five minutes, huh. Let's get to it then."
Pancake frowned but replied, "Understood." Pancake was systematically looking for the mysterious glimmer he'd seen, finally, "Found it! appears to be craft wreckage looks old..." as he was talking a small group of small but fast craft skimmed along the edges of the high bird's sight line, just as blind on sensors in this mess as anyone else.
"Is that..." Peris asked, catching the glimmer of something off in the distance. "I think we've got a contact!" she called out, her throaty voice booming over the comms. "Moving to investigate." As indicated, she pushed her craft to one-third impulse to try and continue visually tracking the contact.
"Old craft wreckage," said Clark. "That could mean lots of things." He cut off his thought at the word 'contact' from Peris. "Ready for back-up on your mark, Cueball."
"We can come back to this, backing up cueball." Alexander also replied as with a frown, Pancake turned off the search beam as she took to to the sky.
Two of three craft skimmed around an asteroid almost invisible but one pilot, not as smooth as the others took an easier route that with an engine shine that could be seen from some distance away.
"Distance to contact roughly one kilometer," Peris reported, still outside the asteroid field. "Sensors still can't get a lock."
"And the hunt is on. Clark, Cueball on me let's go introduce ourselves." She said as they came closer.
Which is about when one of the pilots finally noticed their weren't alone, "Hey Snix, there's some feddies on your tail."
"Really?" replied snix, "I don't see anything." He said checking his systems and looking around.
"That's because you're an idiot," replied a third voice.
"Shut it Garla, let's get out of here and warn the boss, I'm not tangling with feddies. Try to lose them in the field." The first voice, Jiko commanded the others. and they fell into line.
Alexander glanced at her HUD, frustrated as contacts appeared and disappeared. "You guys see them, you stick like a prom date. Gunners go to manual if you need too." She continued as the triad streaked after the others. "Clark on me, Cueball hinge door."
It was then she saw them, two of them zig zagging around trying to throw off the Federation pilots barrelling toward them. One trying to but not being very good at it. "Switching to manual targeting." Pancake spoke up behind her.
In the hinge door plan, Cueball would act as the pivot point holding position briefly as Archer and Clark swung around to slam the targets. Clark being far left would try to cut off the front man, Archer the middle and Cueball the tail ender. "Remember we need at least one alive." Gemma said confidently.
"Copy, Archer," Peris said, a bit uneasy as to the squadron commander's declaration. Rules of engagement hadn't been broken, nor had these targets done anything that warranted making a kill. The standing orders to capture and detain pirates not withstanding, Peris would do everything she could, short of sacrificing her own life, to keep from killing. That is, of course, unless the game suddenly changed. "Ice Gecko, standby phasers," she told her gunner. "Weapons and engines are the initial targets. Paint that rear craft with a target lock as soon as you can."
Archer systems lit up with what was happening on the other craft to see the preparation, nodding to herself she opened her coms "Clarification. Full RoE: should they fail to stop, disable first, kill only if needed. My point is I expect us to be the ones standing should it come to it. I'm calling in backup. For now just keep them in sight. There's something I have to try first."
"Copy, Archer," Peris said from her perch. For now, she retained her target lock in the highly likely event that it was needed.
Archer tapped a few keys, calling in another part of the Squadron who had been patrolling nearby, then on an opening hailing frequency, "This is Lieutenant Commander Alexander of the Federation. You are required to stop and be examined."
She waited a few heartbeats all the while keeping pace with her target. There was no answer but that they continued to dodge around, until the sloppy pilot panicked and fired wild torpedo that exploded on a nearby asteroid.
The asteroid was small enough to be broken apart by the weapon's detonation. Debris surged upward and outward, causing Cueball to have to break off her pursuit in order to avoid a collision. Several fragments did bounce off her shields. The evasive maneuver also had an unintended side effect, forcing Peris to dodge several other asteroid fragments. "Archer, Cueball. They're making me dance out here. I no longer have your back." It would be at least another minute before she could recover and make an effort to return to formation.
"Bravo Two and Three are inbound to Alpha One," Kendra acknowledged the verbal command for them to redirect from their assignment. She hit a key to expand the information on the screen coming in with the situation update. "Looks like they have three active targets," Kendra said, to Galahad her new wingman.
Kendra had not known him long but in the short time and few times they'd gotten time together out in space they seemed to be able to get into a good grove and fly intuitively with each other. She was actually quite impressed with the connection they had while flying... even if they were still prompting each other a bit.
"Ready to maneuver port," she said, "three-two-one."
Galahad locked into his position, "I got your coat Captain My Captain." He replied, "Ready to dance when you are. Looks like there's a report that sensors are not being useful so may be manual everything. ETA 5 minutes."
"Roger that, and I'm a long way from Captain," Kyle laughed. Truth be told she was borderline late for Lieutenant Junior Grade or at least so in her mind. "You ready back there?" Kendra asked her new TAC?
"Good to go, ready for manual," he responded. He was not much for chatting short and to the point to be honest he hadn't really known what to think about his new pilot and really had made no evaluation as of yet.
Jiko cursed, he'd been saddled with Snix because he was a like a second cousin of the First Mate. Snix was a cargo pilot who thought he could fly with the big boys and now they were all scattering because the super genius blew up a random asteroid. And if Snix curses were anything to go by he'd taken damage from his own torpedo. Garla was experienced however and like Jiko kept her head. If they could just get back to each other and see their way clear they could get out of here then go to warp.
Archer muttered a curse of her own as her screen lit up, trying to adjust for the sudden light of the explosion as she quickly dodged the debris, "That's our answer. Understood Prentis, go high see if you can get eyes on them if they get to open space we might lose them. Cueball, you online?" Pancake spoke up, "Trying to reacquire target." He said calmly attempting to reorientate.
"Trying to catch back up, Archer," Peris replied over the comm. "ETA thirty seconds."
"Bravo Two and Three ETA two minutes," Kendra said, on the channel, the Alpha Wing was using as she and her wingman approached. She didn't want anyone, especially while on manual tactical observations, to mistake them for the bad guys.
"Understood, marking you as friendlies. Sending last known heading of the bogies. Looks like they are making best speed to get to clear space. You need to cut them off. Any gets eyes on, shout out." Archer replied coming around in a wide arc trying to spot them.
"Jiko where'd you go?"
Jiko rolled his eyes and gave Snix his coordinates, "Just come find us idiot. We're going to swing around and if we have too blow another 'troid to get them off our tails. I am not going toe to toe with Feddies." A common pirate trait was the complete hatred of anything like a fair fight. They were fast and well armed but not about to take on professionals. He and Garla continued to dodge around trying to avoid catching the eyes of their pursuers.
Peris' position did provide her with an excellent vantage point, even though she was at least thirty seconds out. "They're trying to exit the field," she called out over the comms. "Still out of range for me, but if they escape, I'll be able to intercept."
"We're on an intercept course," Kendra reported.
Clark was following the leads and listening to the back-and-forth. Pirates...and now they were trying to escape. Days like this, he wished he'd never left the Sol System.
"Eyes on lead craft." Archer reported, "Sending coordinates."
Galahad reported to Legacy, "We're on site I'm seeing one non-federation craft, others may be nearby."
"Yeah, I see it," Kyle said, "looks like one of the craft they were after. Tally-ho," she said. "Hail them," she ordered her back seat.
"Trying on all channels," her tactical officer reported. "Unidentified Craft, Unidentified Craft this is Starfleet Fighter Bravo-Three, respond immediately to our hail and bring your craft station keeping."
"Oh great now there's more of them. Focus on the lead ship talking now we have to get past them!" Ordered the lead pirate. The three craft continued their zig zagging flight but this time, it was different. Lasers and torpedoes streaked toward Legacy and Galahad.
Archer saw the fire streaked toward their reinforcements. "Legacy! Incoming! All craft box them in, disable!" She streaked toward them as Pancake modified his firing solution to take out their engines or weapons whichever came first. She swung near one of the craft and Pancake let lose.
The pirate Garla cursed as her engines took a hit.
Cueball could see the action, but was still just out of range. The Deltan made some adjustments to her flight path hoping to get ahead of the target craft. "Gecko," she told her TSO, "let's borrow a page from their playbook. Target an asteroid with a couple torpedoes. Let's see if we can slow them down."
"Got it," the Saurian TSO replied. A moment later, the torpedo shot from the tube and struck an asteroid just ahead of the pirate craft. It wasn't enough to destroy the asteroid, but a large chunk of it split off and disintegrated, spraying debris along their flight path.
Legacy and Galahad took evasive maneuvers when the fire came toward them she caught a bit of debris though a warning sounding on her console. "We're still good," she said, confidently silencing the alarm. "Galahad you okay?" she asked, as she began banking around to rejoin the fight.
"I'm good Boss." Galahad replied as he dodged. The pirate scouts, the two still moving as Garla's engines were fried, were forced to pulled up and out of the way of the path they were heading on as debris pelted them.
"Let's see if we can't get behind them," Kyle said, bringing her fighter around in a sweeping movement to keep clear of the other fighters and to try and re-engage.
===[DujlIj Hegh, Bridge]===
The ship was still utilizing it's stolen Reman cloak as it approached the outer perimeter of the asteroid field. And Kelinor was sitting forward, elbows on his knees and head his hands. His Orion First Mate, Veshku, was arguing with his Nausicaan Head of Security, Galar. Again. "That's enough!" he shouted as he stood. "You were right about what the sensors picked up. And now we're cleaning up a simple scouting mission in an asteroid field where one of our abandoned bases is located. I'll deal with it," Kelinor told Galar. "For now, remain cloaked and outside the asteroid field. Target the Starfleet fighters with the phasers and prepare a wide spread of photon torpedoes towards the asteroids nearest them. Fire once we drop the cloak. Veshku, send our scouts a message that they have thirty seconds to dock or they'll be sailing on the real Barge of the Dead."
"I've got eyes on Bogey 1. Roberts and Cueball Keep Bogey 2 in sight and check high bird. Be advised Bogey 2 may still have teeth if she's crazy enough to use them. Legacy Let's lock this down, try to keep eyes on Bogey 1 or 3." Archer reported over coms.
Garla aka Bogey 2 sat pissed off in her floating craft as the leader zipped passed her, leaving her to her own devices.
Bogey 3, the final pilot was having a hard time the new debris completely threw him off track, some hitting him but not quite stopping him. His movements ended up flying him right passed the sights of Legacy's tac officer as the pirate tried to regain control of his injured vessel while alarms screamed at him and his navigation system fritzed.
Their leaders message came over their coms and the 'not much time' got even tighter as their attempts to escape got a bit more frantic.
"Locking on to disable Bogey 1" Pancake reported calmly from the backseat as he manually set up a firing solution.
Peris aka Cueball spoke up on her comm. "We've got a lock on Bogey 2," she called out. A second later, her TSO fired, taking out the bogey's engines.
And the pirate scout leader cursed as he jerked his craft. He pulled to the side but not quite enough, it wasn't spot on hut not the miss he'd been going for and hit his engines. He watched in horror as he began to lose speed. He would never make the meet up now.
"Confirmed Cueball, Bogey 1 hit, losing speed. Good job..." She was blinded for a moment as there was another explosion. Bogey 3 so busy trying to avoid Legacy's team, he failed to watch properly for all the debris still in the way. Including the large piece he'd just slammed into. "Legacy, Galahad and Cueball let's secure the other two before they do something stupid too. Be advised they still have teeth. Clarke keep on highbird, let us know if anyone else pops in. Let's wrap this with a bow."
One quick phaser shot from Cueball's fighter disabled the power for Bogey 2's weapons. "Bogey 2 disabled. Initiating tractor beam to escort to the Black Hawk."
===[DujlIj Hegh, Bridge]===
The Nausicaan security shook his head as he stood at Tactical. "The whelps have the learned the hard way. Orders?"
"Acceptable losses," said Kelinor. "Stand down. Helm, get us the hell out of here."
Weapons systems stood down and the pirate ship set a course out of the system.
"Acknowledged." Archer replied continuing to coordinate the processes. The Black Hawk pilots corralled, secured and prepped for transport. She confirmed her squad would tow the pirates while she had Legacy and Galahad as escort. "It'll be nice to get out of this sensor soup. Make course for home." She said tapping a few keys, once she'd settled on her heading and cleared the field she reported status to the Black Hawk. She figured if any of these three had useful intel, she knew a few interrogators back at the Hawk who'd be able to pull it free. She grinned to herself at the thought as they made their way.
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