Dodge The Hail
Posted on Fri Aug 5th, 2011 @ 4:00am by Sky Summers & Charlotte Ashcroft & Walter Jones
1,740 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Session 5: Rush
Timeline: (Backpost)
Blue Moon
She had been in flight for more than a week, rations starting to dwindle but she knew that Jones and his crew would be in the area somewhere. She had to find them as the only safe place left for her was back with them, even if that wasn't the safest of places to be but so far it had been more a game of cat and mouse. The sector was massive with more than six habitable systems and she had little time to find them, or the resources to mount a search of all six systems.
Instead she powered up her comm system, the first time since leaving Thalassa having shut it down to hide from the hunters she knew were still on her tail. It was her last ditch attempt to find them.
"Sky Summers to Warden... Are you out there Jones... I'm in trouble and I need your help!"
SS Warden
Lottie threw herself out of seat at the hail and slapped the ships comm. "Jones get your ass up here now," she bellowed. "We have incoming."
Walt ran up to the cabin. He was just about to venture on the the starbase when Lottie called up. He poked his head through the bridge door, holding an old pistol in his hand. "We getting attacked? What the hell is going on?" He looked from left to right to see what was going on.
"No, its the Blue Moon... its Sky Summers she's hailing us requesting assistance. Only problem is she has a tail..." Lottie showed him the sensor logs.
"Shit.. well, I'm not taking the entire ship we can take the drake and the slipstream out there and get her, smash and grab, you let me go in with the Drake, take out her tail and while I'm keeping them busy, you pop in with the slipstream and grab her." He moved over next to Lottie and whispered in her ear. "We haven't heard anything from her in a while though, think this is a trap?"
"Might well be, especially since we have a hefty price upon our heads. She could be bait for a big fish." Lottie responded in the same soft tone.
Jones leaned over the comm panel and hailed Sky "We're coming to get you and we'll take care of your tail too." Jones looked over to the woman before him with a bit of a worried face.
Blue Moon
Her hair was hanging around her face, black smears of ash from the damaged consoles across her cheeks and all she could muster was a simple "Thank you Jones", yet under that something a kin to hatred flared. The man now on her view screen had changed her life from the ground up and now after years of not seeing him or his ship she was still on the run because of him.
"My warp drive is failing as are most of my secondary systems!"
Warden
"We'll on our way" Jones was already running down to the makeshift shuttle bay. He yelled back to Lottie. "I've got her co-ordinates plugged into the shuttle, we just need to get to her." He almost jumped down the ladders leading to the main bay and almost knocking his head into one of the bulkheads. The whole time, he couldn't get the thought out of his mind that this was a trap. With the price on their head, everyone was coming to get them. Sky never seemed like that, but money changed everyone. Death was a pretty girl with a beautiful smile.
Trailing behind him Lottie slide down the ladder, skipping nimbly across the floor. "We'll be needing everything we can muster to reach her in time," she called ahead.
Jones made it to the open hanger and made a dash for the tank like Drake shuttle. "According to some rough calculations at max warp, we can get to her in 5 minutes, lets hope she's not dead by then."
"Lets hope not," Lottie dashed toward the slipstream keying the console to start emergency take off procedures.
Jones had jumped into the Drake and pulled up the control panel. "Fortunately, I doubt they'll kill us since we are worth a lot less dead then alive." Jones smiled a bit as the heavy craft began to lift off of the deck and maneuver towards the exit of the cramped bay.
"According to the better fix I got, she's close, damn close. Alright at warp 6 it is going to take me two and a half minutes to reach them, your ship can do Warp 8, if you leave a minute after I warp out you should get there just as I've engaged them." The engines roared to life as Jones careened out of the doors and into open space, his ship looming huge behind him still attached to the mining dock. "Hopefully they'll run off when I get there but if not, grab beam her out then warp out, I'll meet you back here."
The small, sleek Slipstream shuttled turned smoothly in the shuttlebay as Lottie guided the craft fo the open bay doors. "Alright," Lottie replied. "I'm secretly hoping this will go better then the last time I went into a situation
with you unarmed."
"You've got a phaser in the left compartment there, roll down the window and and point it at them." With that Jones punched the warp controls and disappeared in a flash.
She chuckled nudging the craft out of hanger and counted down the second to her departure, checking on the monitor both Sky' and Walter's position had not altered. Drumming in her fingers in patiently the timer reached its limit and with a quick quester the shuttle leapt off the mark like monster and streaked into the starlight.
Blue Moon
The bounty hunter was having a trouble locking onto the woman's ship, for being a harlot she was a decent pilot. The hunters wingman took a few shots at the ship, forcing it back into the lead ships range. The lock on squealed as it locked on.
"I have you now..." The bounty hunter fired knocking out the rear nacelle of the blue moon.
Sky was sent tumbling from her seat at the pilots console, cracking her head on the edge of the console and a fresh rage of pain shot up through her forehead as warm blood started to trickle from the open wound. "Sky to Jones... I've lost one of my nacelle's and attitude control is offline. I'm venting drive plasma!"
Meanwhile
The streaks of warp boiled away from the Drake and Jones quickly looked over the situation. Sky's ship was badly damaged, the bounty hunters ship was closing in and it's wingman was a few thousand meters off. With a quick lock, Walt launched two micro-torpedoes at the wingman. Their red streaks contrasted against the dark of space, smacking into the port side nacelle in an explosive red shower.
"Come get me you son of a bitch, she's small potatoes." Jones yelled over the comm as the ships phaser banks lit up, trying to target vital systems. He flew over top of Sky's ship.
The bounty hunter quickly turned his ship around and starting firing at the Drake shuttle. "Vok! Get that one! He's worth more!!"
Sky for her part tried to manipulate the dying Blue Moon around and away from the combat and with a fight and very little finesse she managed it. The Blue Moon was her life and if she could save it she would.
However things were not looking good. "I'm looking at a core breach. Estimate no more than four minuets before it ruptures!"
"Don't worry Sky I've got you," a second, softer voice came over the comm of the Blue Moon - the voice of Charlotte Ashcroft in the slipstream shuttle.
Jones swung the shuttle around and let loose another volley of phaser fire, hitting the cockpit of the other shuttle, sending shrapnel, and body parts flying into space.
The lead bounty hunter turned on the slipstream, and fired. A streak of orange flew from the ship towards the slipstream shuttle.
Hyper aware the shuttle had next to no defenses to rely on, survivor required some rather impressive piloting skills, of which Lottie did not possess. Luckily the shuttles on board computer had a few trick of its own. Sensing the oncoming fire and lack of response from the pilot the shuttle dropped itself into nose dive as its pilot loosed a scream of surprise before realizing what was happening.
Lightly touching the helm control Lottie eased the craft into evasive maneuvers, flitting between the lacing phaser fire like a nimble creature while Jones continued to heckle the remaining fighter.
Walter swung around and lobbed another torpedo into the remaining ship. Cloud of sparks erupted from the aft section right before the ship jumped to warp, and away from the scene of the battle. The three shuttles remained, in a haze of debris.
"You two ok over there?" Jones hit the comm button on panel.
"Apart from feeling rather sick, I'm alright," Lottie replied.
Nothing but static could be heard emanating from Sky's communications channel with very little else to be heard.
"Lottie, can you get a fix on Sky in that broken mess of a hulk?" Jones quickly whipped the Drake around and pulled along side Sky's shuttle. "I'm pulling anything in there, though I took a few good hits."
The first mate studied the shuttles sensors: "Yes, I've got her, bringing her aboard now." She fingered the consoles and turned toward the transporter pad having heard the tale tell whine.
In a shimmer of energy from the small crafts transporter the still well dressed Sky appeared on the deck of the small craft. Her arm was brought up over her mouth and as soon as the effect had released her she started to cough heavily. Dust and soot covered her delicate skin as she brushed the debris from her never before seen tangled hair.
"I'm fine... Go!"
Jones was thankful that Sky was fine. "Alright, lets get out of here. Sky, I'll pay you back for the shuttle." Walt swung the shuttle around and fired a micro torpedo into the husk that once was the Blue Moon, exploding in a shower of debris before the two shuttles disappeared back into warp.
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