Arrival at SS Liberté Location

Posted on Thu Nov 4th, 2021 @ 7:28pm by Captain Temperance Harding & Lieutenant Commander Andromeda Lightfeather & Lieutenant Commander Hope Ross MD & Lieutenant Duncan Heyward & Lieutenant Scott Mitchell "Ghost"

Mission: Mission 1: Distressed Cargo
Location: Various
Timeline: After locating the Freighter

ON

With the Search and Rescue efforts of the Fighter Squadron, combined with the ship's standard complement of shuttlecraft, the SS Liberté had been located. It's signature at the very edge of sensor range, the location had been plotted, and all craft ordered to return to the Endurance.

Once recovery operations had been completed, the ship had kicked into high warp, to arrive at the destination. Sensor sweeps had also picked up spikes of high energy discharge. Weapons fire. The freighter was under attack.

On the Bridge of the Endurance, Temperance Harding sat, every muscle in her body tense. The adrenaline coursed through her, as she felt the seconds ticking past. They were already beyond the Endurance's theoretical maximum speed. Warp 9.91. 9.92. 9.93...

"Engineering to Bridge. We're getting a back-pressure flow in the EPS manifolds. I'm already running the Core at 110 per cent. We need to back off."

"Engineering. We need to get to that freighter now. How bad is the back-pressure?"

"Estimate 15 - that's one-five minutes till we rupture a coolant tank. Once that goes, we start losing the whole system." Not to mention any and all organic matter once the plasma coolant vents.

Temperance's hand, resting on the arm of her chair could pick up the smallest of vibrations. She took a breath and closed her eyes. "Ops, ETA?"

"Eight minutes if we hold at current speed."

Making a decision, Temperance deliberately avoided looking at anyone. "Engineering, we need to save that freighter. Hold her together, Chief."

The lack of a curse was response enough.

"Bridge to all Departments. ETA to the Freighter is 8 minutes. I say again eight minutes to ETA. We do not know what we are warping into, but she is under attack. Make preparations." Temperance hailed the Flight-Deck specifically. "Pri-Fly. Prep Alpha Strike. I say again. Prep Alpha Strike. I want all birds launched the second we drop out of Warp."

The Captain's orders rang out over the flight deck immediately bring all activity to a screeching halt. Scott's eyes met those of the deck chief and an unspoken nod flew across the deck between them. The deck chief turned and began barking orders to get the fighters prepped and in the tubes as Scott began to order his pilot's to get themselves in order and find their birds.

Andi was on the bridge as all this was going on and looked over at the Captain "I will assemble and away team Captain and prepare to beam over there" Lightfeather said.

Emony made her way to one of the stations and pulled up a readout of the sensor readings along with any follow-ups to her earlier intelligence assessments. She would need to figure out on the fly who this was and put together an analysis. But that would be part of the job, and hopefully, she'd have someone to interview when the Away Team returned.

Harding nodded at her XO. "We'll find a window to beam you over. Keep sharp, it could get hairy." She tapped the controls on the arm of her chair. "Bridge to CAG. How we looking, Lieutenant?"

Looking at the Captain "what does a hairy ape have to do with a safe beam in point Captain?" She asked with humour, she rarely used such humour, but she was trying to lighten the mood.

"Everything, if you want to be in one piece," Harding replied her brain in work-mode, and not humour mode.

Andi tilted her head slightly to the left and thought to herself 'not in humour mode it would seem, how can anyone not keep a little levity in work life' mentally shrugging all she could do now was wait till they had a safe beam in point for her Away Team.

"Alpha Flight is in the tubes and ready to go with Beta lined up right behind them quickly followed by Delta." Scott was in the process of climbing into his own fighter that would be the first one out. "The Chief and I came up with an interesting idea Captain that I think could reduce the time to target for the fighters."

A wince crossed over Harding's face at that. Trying new, untested ideas smack in combat rarely ended well. "Let's think before we leap, Lieutenant. I want all of you back in one piece."

She tapped the comm again. "Bridge to Sickbay, how we looking, Doctor?" The seconds were slipping past, each moment bringing them closer to the target.

"Sickbay is ready" Doctor Ross responded over the comm system.

As the ship continued on it's course towards the Liberte, Harding tried to hold bac the doubts, the second-guesses. A flicker of worry crossed over her face as she wrestled with the choices made, the orders given. Each one had been the direct result of the situation at hand. Did that make them right? Did that make her right? With her XO having left the Bridge to prepare an Away Team, Temperance felt the empttiness in the chair beside her.

Pushing that aside, Temperance took a breath, let it out slowly. She had a job to do, a freighter to save, and would face the consequences later. For now, a job had to be done.

OFF