| Farewell and Adieu - A Place Where Repairs Should Be Done |
| Summary: | TCS Meriwether Lewis runs headlong into a minefield, and the pilots onboard scramble to save the wounded ship. |
| Date: | 2658.158 |
| Related Logs: | Farewell and Adieu - Briefing, For We've Received Orders, Like Little Tin Turtles, And There We Lay Doggo |
| Players: |
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Evening on the Meriwether Lewis, and it's a bit of a somber one. A handful of the pilots and ships crew collected in the informal crew lounge that's formed in the lower nexus of the ship. Cole stands with a beer in hand, looking at the seated group. "Right folks, I'm not the religious sort and I don't do funerals." Cole comments simply. "But we're here tonight to say goodbye to a couple of our own. Captain Henry "Cracker" Graham and Lieutenant Jessica "Siren" Isley died doing their duty last night, saving the rest of our sorry asses. So let's raise a glass to their memory."
Kanani remains quiet as Cole speaks, a contemplative look on her face, as she listens to the little speech, in honor of the fallen pilots. At the call to raise glasses, hers is raised up in a silent toast.
With his sensors destroyed and along with the nose of his Stiletto, Kell didn't realize that they lost their Rapier escorts until after they had docked. Losing pilots is a reality since in this war, being a fighter pilot isn't known for its longevity but on a mission like this where it's more close knit, the loss is felt a bit more. He raises his as well when the salute to their memory is made, taking a long drink.
Cole takes a long drink straight from the bottle as well, before lowering it again and falling silent. "But, much as we'd like it to, the war doesn't stop for this sort of thing" Cole adds, before dropping back into his seat. "Enjoy your drinks tonight, but don't go too crazy with them. We jump out of Tingerhoff tomorrow, and I expect there will be a reception waiting on the way out"
Kanani takes a long drink from her glass, setting it down on the table afterwards. She sits back in her chair and gives a faint sigh, nodding a bit at Cole's words. "Wouldn't surprise me at all. Especially now, they're almost certain to be watching their jump points closely."
Putting his glass down, Kell nods at Cole's suggestion and releases a sigh, knowing that breaking out of this system will definitely be a mess. "Wouldn't be surprised if they blockaded the jump point with a whole fleet. They're probably very ticked off that we decapitated their head kitty."
"Only problem is, they don't know for sure where we're planning on leaving" Cole replies to the other two. "Could be headed out through Nexus, or through Capella, or even through Perry. They've got alot of points at the border to cover, and I don't think they have /that/ many forces to deploy for it" Cole explains. "Not without screwing up the rest of their deployments, and giving our fleet a.."
WHAM.
The Lewis rocks pitching forward violently… slamming most of the room's contents forward into the fore bulkhead, including those unfortunate individuals who weren't quick enough to grab something anchored down when the blast hit. The lights flicker and then go out, leaving the crew in pitch black. Then there's that curious floating sensation. The sound of a pained scream does, however, give a hint that at least one of the crew might have been unfortunate enough to get caught between a thrown object and the bulkhead.
"Heh, that is true. They certainly weren't expecting us so the sooner we leave, the less time they have to set up any sort of blockade or jump point picket." Kell nods in agreement with Cole's assessment. He was about to add something else when the entire world goes to hell. Quick reflexes saves the young Lieutenant from a nasty bruising or worse as he manages to grab a hold of the table while keeping his head down.
Kanani is thrown out of her chair, and smacks into the wall, face first. Fortunately nothing worse happens to her, and she's not knocked out, though the lights and gravity failing, do nothing to help her confusion at the moment.
There's a muffled cry from the galley as the impact rocks the ship. Clutching at the bulkhead hatchway, Alec - flight suit dripping with soup - sticks his head into the crew quarters. "What the hell?!"
That floating sensation continues for a moment more, before red emergency lighting illuminates the room. A couple of navy crewmen quickly push off the wall, moving to the assistance of the crewmate of theirs who was unfortunate enough to catch his legs between a cargo crate and the bulkhead.
"Flight wing, status!" Cole calls out into the room from where he's buy hanging onto the counter he'd been seated next to. Making sure that all of his people are alright seems to be the first concern on his mind.
"Razor here, no injuries." The Lieutenant is all business now as he has no clue what hit them. It could be a torpedo from a Kilrathi bomber ambush or a stray asteroid that the ship's sensors didn't pick up or the helmsman didn't see in time. Or worse, a minefield.
Kanani blinks some as the emergency lighting comes on, and she gives a grimace. "Oww… I smacked my head against the wall." Is all she replies, still groggy from the blow.
"Covered in f'ing soup, what does it- Fine, sir!" Alec manages to get ahold of himself long enough to give a decent answer, bewildered as he seems. "What… waht's going on?"
With at least some degree of power restored, the next thing to happen is probably predictable. The alarm klaxon begins to sound, broken a moment later by Nucefora's voice over the intercom calling the crew to battle stations. Those particularly astute might note that the tug of the ship's gravity is gone, but a little force can be felt as the ship spins end over end.
"Christ" Cole grumbles, looking along towards the staircase. "Right, let's see if we can't get up to the fighters. Tsunami, if you don't think you're in any shape to fly… stay here with the Navy."
Kanani frowns slightly, and ponders that briefly. If she hadn't just been thrown against the wall she might go along, but… "I dunno. Too groggy after that, can't think straight."
Navigating the interiors of a capital ship in zero-g isn't what Kell considers as fun but it'll have to do, "Since my fighter is too busted up, I'll go see if the gunners on the ship could use a hand, in case one of them got knocked out in that hit. If I fly now, I'll just be a floating target dummy for the cats."
"Flying on an empty stomach's bad luck, I'll tell you!" McGrath claims, already heading for the ladder to the upper decks. "Broadswords, right?"
"Either way, we'll need to be heading up" Cole comments, before he goes to push off the counter and try to move along towards the ladder. Though he's hardly the model of zero-gravity grace himself, to put it mildly.
Kanani just sorta floats around, grabbing onto a table, and trying to keep from crashing into anything else. Since she's already got enough bumps today.
Pushing off of the table he was seated at, Kell begins to float in the direction of the ladder as well, doing what he could do to float as quick as possible without knocking himself out.
Kicking off from the bulkhead, Alec manages to catch hold of the ladder, flattening himself against it with an 'oof' before pulling himself up through the hatch with a single tug at the rungs.
Cole's push off seems to be good enough to let him make the stairs at least, before moving to push himself along up through the hatchway. The scene waiting up above, however, isn't exactly a promising one. A sealed blast door blocks the way forward to the impromptu docking hatches, and the blast door aft to the engine area seems to have sealed off as well.
While the rest of the pilots try to get to their ships, Kanani stays in the lounge, one hand holding onto something to keep her from floating away, and the other, still holding her head, as she tries to stop everything from spinning around her. Of course the lack of gravity isn't helping much, either.
Following the other two pilots through the hatchway, Kell looks fore and aft before frowning, "Aw damn, don't tell me we're stuck here." The tone of irritation and frustration can be heard as it seems the Lieutenant doesn't like to sit around and put his life in someon else's hand if he could do something about it.
"This is bad, isn't it?" Alec asks. "Like, really bad. Is there some way to tell if there's hard vacuum on the other side of this? Is there even any way to get through one of these?"
"Yeah" Cole replies. "But not from here" he adds, holding on to the hatch still… pointing along towards a communications panel on the wall. "If someone wants to contact the bridge, I'm sure they can get us a damage readout from here. Intercom's obviously still working, since we heard the alarm" he explains. "Not so sure I'm going to be able to hit a target that small from here, though." He might be good at torpedoing things, but Cole knows damn well he's out of his depth in the 'sailing across a room weightless, trying to hit a button' department.
Kanani continues to slowly recover from the knock on her head, bitterly lamenting the apparent lack of aspirin on board the ship. Or at least lack of any that she can get ahold of right now.
Eyeing the intercom that Cole pointed out, Kell looks at Cole, then at Alec to see if either are going to attempt it. When neither goes for it, he braces himself against the ladder first, trying to establish a solid hold before eyeing the target. "I'll give it a shot."
Alec nods. "Better you'n me, man," he says, currently holding onto the ceiling and bobbing ineffectually in the lack of gravity.
"Well, you have fun with that" Cole comments to Draygo with a chuckle. "I'll be keeping my happy ass hanging onto this hatch and hoping someone gets gravity back online."
With the intercom lined up with his sight, Kell depresses his knees to get some energy and pushes off, floating off at a pretty straight line but a little faster than he had intended. He sort of smacks into the wall next to the intercom with a slight 'oof' but nothing major. Looking back at the other two pilots for a second, Kell turns back to the intercom and hits the transmit button, "Control, this is Lieutenant Draygo, us four pilots are currently sealed in at the Crew Lounge, unable to get to our fighters to assist or the gunnery stations. Please advise on situation, over."
Kanani is another person who'd really like to have the gravity working once again. Since the lack of it, isn't very helpful for trying to deal with a massive headache.
Alec, still floating near the ceiling, is gritting his teeth and looking like he expects another explosion. Or, failign that, some bad news…
"That's because gunnery's got a skylight" Comes the response from the bridge, in a tense sounding Nucefora's voice. "And whatever's gone on in engineering, we don't have enough power to bring the containment fields online. Nevermind shields, or propulsion, or weapons systems. Do you have any access to the engineering section?"
Cole looks over towards the hatch back that way, and then towards Draygo. "Think that hatch is shut as tight as the one forward is" he tells the pilot. "See if he can get a read on the pressurization back there?"
The news is definitely bad and a greater sense of urgency can be felt now. Nodding at Cole's question, Kell depresses the transmit button on the intercom again, "The blast door to engineer seems to be sealed but we can check to see how tight, can you give us a pressure reading for engineering? Don't want to find that we can open it, but end up sucking vacuum."
"That's… not as bad as… I thought we were under attack or something. Can you ask him if there's any Kilrathi around?" Alec urges.
It's probably just as well that Kanani can't hear the bad news. It'd likely just give her more of a headache than she's got at the moment. As well as making her worry even more than she is now.
"I can hear you in the background, you know" Nucefora replies a little sharply. "No, there are no Kilrathi around. But this minefield isn't looking very friendly, and it hadn't been marked by any of the patrols. We're a sitting duck for any Kilrathi that cares to come along and take a shot right now." A moment's pause. "Engineering appears to have atmospheric pressure"
"Right. So we just need to find a way to get in" Cole comments, giving a little shake of his head. "Tsunami, you might as well come on up here. We're not going to be flying, and this might take all four of us!" he calls down the hatch.
Kell hates it when some of his suspicions are correct and minefield was one of the worst ones, especially those that are unmarked. Space barbed wires in a sense, easy to get caught in one, painful as hell, and even harder to get out. "We'll do what we can from here, Control. Will keep you posted. Out."
Alec keeps floating, trying to pull his way along the ceiling, from girder to girder. "Is there a fuse box, or… something we can use to open this thing, or…" he stops, as a thought strikes him. "Aren't there usually people in Engineering?"
Kanani blinks as Cole calls down towards her, telling her to go on up. She groans a bit, before she gets a bearing on the ladder, and then kicks off, trying to catch it.
Should be some sort of override near the hatch, yeah" Cole replies. "Don't know exactly where they'd put it here though, never served on a venture. They might be different, as small as they are" he explains. "And there should be someone in engineering. But, who knows what kind of shape they're in with the hit that we took. We'll worry about that once we get inside"
Gliding along the wall, Kell moves from the intercom towards the rear blast door where the others are and begins looking for that elusive override panel. Not exactly sure what it looks like in detail, the young Lieutenant manages to spot something that may look like a panel that operates the blast doors and points it out, "Is that it? Was't exactly an ace student in the academny when they taught the technical stuff but…"
"This is not exactly anyone's field of expertise, man," Alec quips. "Way I see it, may as well press it and see." He looks down as Kanani emerges from the hatch, looking a little releived that she's up and about - and, maybe, taking comfort in numbers.
"Yeah, that's it" Cole replies with a little nod as he goes to gently push his way along over towards the hatch. "Should be a little manual control in there to release the seal. Fun part's gonna be, if the internal systems are powered down. Getting this thing open's gonna be a bitch"
Opening the panel, Kell takes a look at it and looks at Cole, as if to double check that he can turn the handle. With a slight shrug, the pilot reaches into the panel and with a firm grip, twists the handle to the override side.
McGrath pulls himself over to float to the bulkhead door, arms outstretched to stop himself from banging his head. Hearing the thunk of the pull, he crosses his fingers.
Kanani climbs up the ladder, having made a spectacular leap through the air, to grab on to it, despite her headache. Still it would probably seem more impressive if there had been working gravity while she did it.
There's a quiet hiss as the pressure equalizes between the two sections of the ship, but it dies down rather quickly. No, all the air isn't going to leak out. This time. The pressure hatch itself, however, remains firmly stuck in place. Just no longer sealed.
"And… that's what I was afraid of" Cole comments, looking towards the hatch. "Probably going to take all of us to move the thing, they're built survive some pretty heavy duty debris impacts"
Shaking his head slightly, Kell mutters, "Why can't anything work smoothly in our favor." He does move into position to help the others open the blast door when they are ready.
"This is what happens when you save up all your luck for the cockpit. Soddin' hell," Alec curses, as he clambers down the wall head-first and tries to orient himself to be able to help with the bulkhead.
Kanani floats her way over towards towards the other pilots as they try to get the door open. "So what are we gonna need to do, to get this open?" She ponders out loud.
"Yeah. Murphy's a bitch, ain't he?" Cole asks. "Pretty much going to have to brute force it up. On the bright side, with gravity out, we don't have to worry about it dropping back on our heads. On the downside, we're going to have to make sure we get force on the door, and not just end up catapulting ourselves across the room."
Gliding against the blast door still, Kell slowly positions himself so that both of his boots are now flat on the ground to give himself a good base when they start to force to door open. "Ready whenever you three are."
"This is gonna be a bit harsh," Alec says, mirroring Kell's prep. "Maybe… hm. Give this a try, and if it doesn't work, maybe there's something down below we could use as a lever."
Kanani floats her way over to the hatch, and sets herself up to help lift the door. "Ok. I think I'm ready when you all are." She states as she tries to brace her feet on the floor as well as she can.
Alec succeeds in pushing himself off the floor, floating lazily (if rather uselessly). The other three, however, slowly manage to force the hatch upwards to the engineering section… showing exactly why there wasn't a response from within. Both of the duty engineers are spinning lazily through the room, either unconscious or worse.
Straining as the flat of his feet pushes hard against the bottom of the corridor, Kell is one of the three pilots that manage to maintain a grip on the door and apply enough strength to open it. Wincing at the sight of the two out of commissioned engineers, Draygo glances towards the others, "I hope one of you can get the stuff back online."
Alec curses, floating out of contact and making frantic swimming motions to try and get back to the engineering bulkhead. "Don't look at me!" he calls out.
Kanani shakes her head as she looks into the engineering section. "I wouldn't trust me to work on that equipment, even if my head didn't feel like it was being hammered on right now."
"Don't think I would either, it's the only corvette we've got right now" Cole comments with a little chuckle as he moves along into the room. "Alright, let's see what I can make of this mess. Someone check those two out, see if they're still breathing." he orders, gesturing towards the engineers. "And if they are, try and get 'em somewhere they won't get beat to hell when gravity comes back"
Gently pushing himself towards the unconscious engineers, Kell floats towards the two and begins to look them over, doing the obvious like checking for breathing and pulse.
"There!" Finally managing to touch a toe to the floor, Alec pushes out back towards engineering, with an eye towards catching hold of the bulkhead doorframe and being able to help out the other engineer.
Kanani watches Kell and Alec move to help out the engineers, along with watching Cole, to make sure he don't blow up the corvette, since she figures she's better off, just 'overseeing' everything, instead of doing important stuff, since right now she's likely to make things worse.
And a little fiddling from Cole at the consoles, a couple bits of percussive maintenance, and the occasional bit of profanity… and the ship comes to life once more. More or less. Things settle back to the floor with a thud (and an "OW!" from below), and the main lights flicker back to life. Perhaps the scariest thing is when the blast door foreward opens, revealing a chunk of the roof blown out of the fire control section… and dozens of Kilrathi mines visible hanging among the stars.
Escorting one of the engineers towards the Crew Lounge where the pilots had come from, Kell was about to help guide the man in when the blast doors forward opens up. Eyes widen a bit at the amount of damage dealt by the mines, not to mention more floating around outside, getting ready to do more damage.
Glad to be on his feet (and landing with a thunk, thankfully able to orient himself on a piece of wall-mounted machinery beforehand), Alec smiles in relief. "Thank god for that. We can get moving now, right…?" He tails off as he catches sight of the hull breach. "Oh crap," he says, resignedly. "That's not looking healthy."
Kanani is glad that the gravity is back as well, since that's one less thing she'll need to worry about. Of course when she sees the roof torn out of the gunnery section, that just adds another thing to worry about. Some days you just can't win.
"Think the Navy's going to have to get this cleaned up" Cole admits. "I've got us started back up again. Was just the failsafes that took most everything offline. But getting this sorted out and back to normal's going to take a real engineer" he explains.
