Landing into a Riot

Posted on Wed Jul 25th, 2012 @ 6:34pm by Walter Jones & Hank Tasco & Charlotte Ashcroft & Jan Valentine & Bruce Air (PNPC)

1,245 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Session 6: Take 5
Location: Bridge

It had been a few boring days at warp. The ship had for the most part remained intact save for a few conduits exploding and some larger rats eating through the circuitry.

Jones, who had been sleeping for the last few hours on the bridge was awoke by the navigation sensors, alerting him that they were almost at their destination. Groggily wiping his eyes, he looked around for anyone. "Are we still alive?"

Bruce flicked a switch off. This did nothing to the noise. He banged the panel hard with his fist.

"What the---OAAAAAAH!" Jan said, crawling inside one of the overhead air ducts. A rusty section cracked and gave way, causing the engineer to tumble to the deck.

Jan landed with a hard thud in front of Jones, and struggled to get up, coughing.

"I*cough* think that *cough* section needs replacing." Jan said, struggling to speak.

Bruce had managed to turn off the alert, "We're here. Doc says we should be clean of the virus unless we take on any particularly susceptible passengers; the elderly, infirm, or Romulans... actually I think that last one was a joke. it is kinda hard to tell with him."

"Oh yes, he's a bag of laughs," Lottie emerged onto the bridge, she frowned at the air duct and at Jan's appearance. Then shrugged her shoulders as if it was an everyday occurrence, "We've got details of where we'll needed right Jones?"

"I've got the co-ordinates right here. Fly within range, contact who we need to contact, beam them up and get out!" Walt smiled big thinking about the easy money this was going to make them.

"Hmmm," Lottie's tone wasn't as convincing for nothing ever went that smoothly especially not with this crew.

"Oh Jones, I've finished setting up the holoprojectors in the forward cargo hold, they're patched in and ready to be programmed." Jan said, dusting himself off and wandering over to the engineering station.

"Great!" Jones tossed over a data chip. "See if you can get it working."

On queue, the Warden dropped out of warp. The Romulan homeworld loomed large on the viewscreen. Several ships were warping in and out of orbit of the planet. One ship, which looked like it had been pieced together from the hulls of several garbage scowls scraped past the almost out of place Groumal, on its way to warp out of the system.

"Have you guys ever seen anything like this before?" Jones said as he turned around and looked at everyone.

Lottie frowned at the view before them; "Looks like a free for all."

"Geez these people are desperate, some of those ships out there make the Warden look like a top of the line flagship." Jan commented, noticing some truly scary looking junker freighters.

Air pointed at one of them, "That's a Packled ship. They are desperate. I think I see a proto-Vulcan cruiser in there. They are digging ships out of museums."

There was a strange look in Bruce's eyes as he looked covetously at the array of relics in flight.

"Like rats fleeing a sinking ship huh?" Walt said to no one in particular.

The comm system lit up, the Warden was being hailed by the Romulan orbital control facility.

"Someone's trying to get in contact," she observed. "Our guys, perhaps?"

"Yeah lets see who it is." The captain hit the button on the comm lit up with the face of a Romulan Senator.

"Captain Jones, I am sending you the co-ordinates to beam my family and belongings up. Please make haste as there are many desperate people down here trying to get out." The Romulan senator looked at the people on the old freighter with desperate eyes.

"Jan lock on and beam them up. Doc get ready to see if they need any medical assistance."

Morgan lifted up his archaic black medical bag and headed for the transporter room. "If they need medical aid," he muttered under his breath.

"Don't bother heading for the transporter room doc. Sorry Jones, radiation from the star is ionizing the atmosphere. I won't be able to get a stable lock on them, we'd wind up scattering their atoms across the atmosphere." Jan said, analyzing the sensor data.

"So are we shuttling down then?" Hank asked from his station at the side of the bridge. "Cause if the plan was to grab as many Rommies as possible that might take longer than its safe to stay here."

Air was wide eyed, "Are you serious? You are going to fly one of those donkey's into that dog's breakfast? You've got Buckleys, mate."

He broke into a wide grin, "When do we leave?"

Jones looked at the co-ordinates streaming in. "We are taking the whole ship down. Lottie get some weapons together, I bet the locals are going to want to try and storm the ship." Walt pulled up the comm and the Senator again. His scowling face looming on the screen. "Senator, be ready at the space port in 20 minutes we are landing to get you out of there, grab what you can and be there." Without waiting for a response, the captain killed the channel and stood up.

"Never easy money is it?"

"That would be dull," Lottie called over her shoulder as she departed the bridge.

Air stretched his fingers with a wide grin. He glanced over at Jan, "How much can you give me on RCS, IDS and SIF. I won't need any Warp, and probably only 10% Impulse."

"Uh, only 40%. Wasn't planning on landing the ship, I'm gonna go check the landing struts for leaks." Jan said, hurrying off the bridge.

Air was fit to out-smile the Cheshire cat, "Right. This is going to be rough. I suggest you all hold on, strap in and practice your screaming. It might help."



The Groumal was a freighter, not known for her speed or manoeuvrability, but she was empty of almost all cargo at the moment and in the hands of a pilot who had been rated in the top five in the Federation on his graduation year.

She danced and spun like a drunkard at Tokyo Drift, but every move was controlled and calculated. The ship groaned as it turned and wove around, but it held and responded to the orders Air gave it. The Heat shields screamed at the strain but nothing tore away. Despite themselves, the crew was more than a little impressed. Not that they'd ever say it to the Aussie.

With a sudden judder Air kicked in the RCS breaking thrusters as they wound towards a place on the port. There were lots of people, but precious few ships, which meant plenty of open spaces for the Warden to put down.

"In 3... 2... 1...," Air said. There was a whine as the Hydraulic legs took the weight of the ship, but the crew didn't actually feel the connection. Air spun in his seat and let out a whoop of joy.

"This is your pilot speaking, we have arrived!"

"Got a hydraulic leak in Starboard landing strut 4, secondary seals locking down." Jan said.

"Let's not purge the impulse engines and thrusters yet, we might need to take off quickly, and they take forever to restart." Jan said.

"Roger that," Air replied. "Staying at Hot standby. Let's not keep them there to long though. I ran them pretty hot on the trip down, and the ride up is going to be just as rough."

 

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