Limping in

Posted on Wed Aug 24th, 2011 @ 4:20am by Walter Jones & Bruce Air (PNPC)

750 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Session 5: Rush
Location: Jones Safehouse

The asteroid belt stretched as far as the remaining sensors on the ship could see. Small ones, only a few meters wide, drifted lazily past the windows of the bridge.

"All right Bruce, take us to these co-ordinates, it is a sort of safe house that we are going to. Think you can get us there? I never thought I'd have to take the ship through this mess."

Bruce almost laughed, "This? This is easy! Navigational Deflectors will handle anything up to about a meter without any additional strain on them. The rest I can jockey around. This is the stuff I made my name for."

Bruce keyed the RCS and the ship began to move forward slowly. Sure enough the Navigational deflector did it's job forcing a path ahead of them like an ice breaker. Deflected 'roids spin off, many creating collisions with others, spreading the clear path further.

As they began to move deeper into the field, however a new issue presented itself. The 'roids were not stationary, but moved in a dynamic play of gravity, and now a very large gravitational body was moving through disrupting that dance.

On one side a rather large asteroid began to shift in towards the ship. Air felt the gravitational tug through the controls before he saw it.

"Oh," he said, "This is going to be pretty interesting."

"Define 'interesting'," Morgan asked.

Bruce looked back at him and said, deadpan, "Oh god oh god we're all gonna die."

The Asteroid was picking up speed. Air made a few adjustments to the IDF and started to count aloud. Just as it seemed certain that the asteroid would hit them, the entire ship Yawed around the bridge and then rolled out from under the asteroid. The giant rock swung with the spinning ship, but then sailed past in the direction they were traveling gathering smaller stray 'roids as it went.

"I dub thee Harbinger!" Air whooped, dropping the ship into its wake.

An alarm sounded but air switched it off. What ever was de-pressurising, it wasn't the bridge, so it could wait.

"Damnit Bruce.." Jones went and looked at the control panel. "I'm going to have you out there welding patches on to the old girl." He watched as rather large rock zipped past them. "There it is, see that large rather stationary rock off on the distance" Jones pulled up a scan of it. "Take us to 312 Mark 25. That is going to be our new home away from home for a bit."

Air nodded at the new course and brought the ship into a slow banking turn to avoid extra stresses. The asteroid itself was large enough to have an entire city inside it.

"Any where in particular, Sir," or you want me to touch down on the rock face?"

"Give me a second." Jones looked over the computer console in front of him and typed in a few commands. A section of the rock face disappeared revealing a cavern large enough for the ship to enter in.

"Right there, but be careful, it is spinning slightly clockwise, you'll need to match the rotation"

Bruce gave him a withering glance, "Please. I am ex-Nova Squad. I can land this baby on that rock if it had a -3.7 retrograde azimuth and travelling at Warp 3."

There was a sudden explosion and Air gripped the panel to brace himself. The ship began to shudder. He looked back at Jones, "We're good."

He looked down at the controls, "I think... yeah... we're good."

The ship was leaking atmosphere and at least one RCS was flaring irregularly but Bruce managed to pick the gap between rocks and enter the relative quiet space around the asteroid.

The actual dock was ingenious. The asteroid was hollowed out and the dock was at the very center of the asteroid's gravity well. The meant that the asteroid's mass itself helped kept the ship stationary, even as the asteroid turned. It also meant that the Warden seemed to hover a few feet above the docking gantry.

There was a dull thunk as the docking clamps engaged.

"This is your captain speaking, we're here. Get the stuff stowed and I'll meet you on the docking platform outside." Jones nodded to Bruce. "Get her shut down but leave the defensive systems on, If anyone wants to take her they'll be in for a rude surprise."

"Rodger that. I just need to lock down the Plasma feed to thruster P3. I'll be there directly."

 

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