Do I have to do Anymore Flying Today

Posted on Fri Feb 28th, 2020 @ 2:11am by Commander Siaxx Warfield & Commander Moni Nasao PhD & Lieutenant Commander Kthaara 'Leadfoot' Taavoro & Lieutenant JG Rachael "Ripcord" Yamaguchi-Cullen & Saki Yamaguchi-Cullen

Mission: Mission 29: Songs Around the Campfire
Location: Various Locations - USS Roanoke / Yeneer G8
Timeline: 0800Hrs - March 6th, 2391 - Time Dilation: 4 Years

Leadfoot looked at his wingman, and his wingman's weapons officer, saying, "Well, you know the deal, we will be doing another search run."

Warrant Officer Robin "Warpath" Mika, asked in a playful manner," So, big kitty, where is your gun-nut at?."

Leadfoot shrugged, " Oh, he came down with a little tummy ache, a stomach flu."

Robin cringed a little, "Ohh, not fun, so who is the replacement?."

Leadfoot pointed at Moni Nasao whom walked in, "Her."

Moni Nasao noticed Leadfoot chatting with another pilot. "Hello." she almost purred at the second pilot. "What am I interrupting?" she inquired.

Robin gave her a fake look of annoyance," Excuse me, we are trying to have sex here if you don't mind."

Nasao blinked her green eyes as she regarded her with a look. "Indeed." she responded. "and I wasn't invited... I'm almost offended." she sighed dramatically. "I guess I'll have to leave you two to it I guess.." her tail twitched behind her as she said it.

Leadfoot shook his head," Sorry, you have been drafted, you have to participate now."

Nasao chuckled. "Could be educational." she admitted. "Are we all here?"

Leadfoot nodded, then pointed to Warpath," Alright get in your bird you lazy bum, we got flying to do."

"But mommy, I'm afraid of heights," Robin complained as she climbed into her fighter."

Leadfoot got a very stern look," There is no heights in space, now get to it."

"Yes masta," Robin replied sheepishly as she closed the cockpit to her fighter.

Nasao thought the interaction was amusing, the soft woofing sound she made was the equivalent of human laughter. "Shall we Big Kitty?" Nasao inquired. "Is there anything special about your fighter I need to know or no?" On the face it, it was a fair question.

Leadfoot shook his head as he climbed into the cockpit," Nah, nothin to too special. The R&D guys have been doing some upgrades, so the weapons systems are different, however I don't really expect to use them right now."

Nasao nodded her head. "Alright.." as she went over to the fighter she knew belonged to Leadfoot, she then climbed into the TAC chair at the back of the cockpit so she could take some time to familiarize himself with the layout.

Leadfoot casually powered up his bird and did all his preflight checks. once he was done he looked at the signal officer. the signal officer gave him the clear and leadfoot guided his fighter out of the dock, with warpath's fighter following.

Nasao checked the systems over as she found that she did indeed know how to operate these systems. "We're all good back here. If anyone looks at us funny... I will be able to relocate his face... and the rest of him, should you want it done.."

Leadfoot smiled," Only thing we may really have to relocate is an asteroid, probably not much else."

After about an hour long flight through their search, Leadfoot's comm system picked up a rather garbled subspace signal, seemingly emanating from nowhere. Leadfoot pointed it out," Hey what do you make of this."

Nasao rotated her ears forward as she regarded the message. "Its been mashed up a bit..." she paused. "wait... its severally sped up.." as she played back the message a few times. "But where dd it come from?, there are no planets or moons, no stations of ships out here... just us.."

Warpath's voice came over the Comm," Hey Leadfoot, are you getting this strange subspace signal that I am getting."

"Yeah," he replied," Looks like its coming from about 30 degree's down, and about 10 light minutes away, but I am not seeing anything in that area. Nearest object I am picking up is an interstellar planet, but its 12 light minutes in the other direction. next nearest one is a gas giant a light hour away."

Warpath replied," well, might as well check it out, could be some kind of hard to detect wormhole or something."

Leadfoot nodded," Yeah." He then closed the comm channel and guided his fighter to the source of the signal. Ordinarily he wouldn't be surprised if the runabout was forced to land on an interstellar planet, they where common enough in the galaxy, but something about this bothered him. He had heard the stories of what tends to happen to ships that encounter random space anomalies, and especially for runabouts, they where bad news.

Nasao blinked her large eyes slowly. "No signs of any ships out there..."
she sighed. "Its as quiet as the Savannah before a thunderstorm."

Leadfoot didn't say anything as he guided his fighter closer to the signal. His scanners still didn't pick up anything, even when he got to the point where the signal seemed like it was coming from all directions.

"What the fuck is up with this shit."

Nasao shrugged. "Detecting a metallic signature... wait.. its the Tolkien.."

Leadfoot opened his mouth to say something but didn't get the chance when suddenly a bright flash of light appeared and the fighter shook violently, knocking it clean out of warp. Leadfoot desperately tried to keep control of his fighter, but he had little luck, and then as suddenly as it started, it stopped, and out of nowhere, a star system appeared on his sensors. He was about to say something else when he noticed his port warp nacelle flying forward ahead of his fighter.

"Um, that's not good."

Moni Nasao sighed. "The warp drive is fragged..." she paused. "dump the core." she ordered before she hit the override as she ejected the core and the antimatter pods. "Big kitty... try and find us a place to set down... before we fall down..." she said to Leadfoot.

Leadfoot guided the fighter to the planet where the runabout's signal was coming from. The fighter constantly jerked due to the missile nacelle, and he had to fight the controls to bring the fighter down. As he entered the planet's atmosphere, a loud banging sound could be heard as his impulse drive went out, and some of his thrusters went. He tried his best to guide the fighter near the signal, but it wasn't wanting to cooperate. He managed to get something of a level descent going when another banging sound could be heard, and several hundred meters above the ground, his fighter entered a nose dive, and plunged nose first, into the forest, and everything went black.

Hakaya was at the edge of their basecamp when she spotted the fighter crash into the forest a few kilometers away, prompting her to say to Rachael, "Well, I wonder if that is one of ours."

Rachael turned her head as she regarded Hakaya. "Not a clue..." she paused. "I'll go have a look see... maybe someone survived that..." she turned and headed towards the cave. Hakaya at her side. "I'll go get some kit and I'll go immediately."

Meanwhile, Leadfoot woke up with one hell of a headache. It took him a minute to process the fact that his fighter was standing on its nose, with the front end buried in the dirt. Opening the cockpit, he promptly fell down upon releasing the seat restraints. Climbing to his feet, the then proceeded to help Moni out of her seat as she woke up.

Nasao blinked her eyes as she came to. "Uhh.... what hap-...oh.." she looked around as she asked. "well... this is.. new." she commented as Leadfoot helped her to the ground. "Well... we're alive... nice flying big kitty." she commented. "think she can be fixed?"

Leadfoot looked at the sparking mess of what was left of his fighter. One nacelle was missing, the other was bent, and the pylon holding it was cracked, hull plating was missing, and the impulse engine manifolds looked partially melted. prompting Leadfoot to say," I would say no, this bird isn't worth its weight in scrap at this point." Leadfoot opened up his survival kit and pulled out a couple of phaser rifles, saying, "Well, we might as well find the others, from the signals that I picked up from their runabout, they should still be alive, I did pick up humanoid and Akurian lifesigns."

Nasao nodded as she accepted the rifle. "Alright... lets strip our gear from this bird.." she looked over the damage. "wow..." she paused. "did something hit us or did we hit something?" she inquired. "Let me see if I can download the sensor records onto something.." she sighed as she extracted her equipment from the small cargo area.

30 minutes later, Hakaya, Rachael, and Teval ran into Leadfoot and Moni, about a kilometer away from their crash sight, prompting Hakaya to say, "Hey Leadfoot, I never expected to see you here."

Leadfoot shrugged," Eh, I never expected to be here, so what the hell was that that we hit."

Nasao regarded the new arrivals. "No idea... wait... aren't you Commander Yamaguchi's youngest?" she regarded Rachael who looked different then last time she saw the child.

"Yes.." Rachael responded. "In a manner of speaking.. that is.." she paused. "You hit the same thing we did... coming through the anomaly's event horizon.." she paused. "I've regarded it as something of a black hole.."

Leadfoot didn't really understand, but he said anyway," So, we are stuck here, huh."

"Yep." Rachael responded with a simple shrug. "Its not a bad planet... asides from the various predators.."