A Cloud of Darkness, Part I

Posted on Sat May 28th, 2022 @ 11:36am by Captain Temperance Harding & Lieutenant Commander Andromeda Lightfeather & Lieutenant Commander Nyx Valentine & Lieutenant Xavon Starkweather & Lieutenant Christine Childers & Lieutenant Rose Kersey & Lieutenant Sarok & Lieutenant Scott Mitchell "Ghost"
Edited on on Mon May 30th, 2022 @ 7:57pm

Mission: Mission 2: Chasing Shadows
Location: Lambetta Nebula

[ON]

The blue and red dust of Lambetta swirled on the viewscreen. They were here. Finally. After what felt like an eternity, they had arrived.

Harding sat in the centre seat, watching the dust float before them, a sea of murky debris that screwed long-range sensors. "Anything?” She asked Ops with a raised eyebrow.

"Getting some sensor echoes. It's just bouncing back, and we're getting ghost images of the Endurance."

Harding nodded but didn't let out a sigh. It had been expected. "Bridge to Flight Deck. CAG, are you set for launch?"

Sitting next to the Captain, Andi was checking her readings she was about to say something, but the Captain opened up a hailing channel to the CAG, so she decided to send the information to the Captain's screen on the chair arm and it was not much more than what Sensors could report on.

Scott looked over the status board one last time, "As ready as we will ever be Captain." He took several deep breaths preparing for the inevitable jolt that comes with being shot out of a launch tube. "Into the jaws of death rode the six hundred," someone said over the inter-squadron channel. Scott could not help but smirk at the remark, "If only we had six hundred."

Rose was sitting quietly in her seat simply watching the view on the viewscreen. Right now there wasn’t much for her to do but she was keeping her senses alert for anything out of the ordinary.

Having finished her daily reports, Christine had returned to the bridge and taken her spot at Security and said "Security is ready sir," as she knew that this Mission could go sideways at any time.

Harding let a moment pass, letting it pass to everyone. "All right people, let's keep ourselves alert. We don't know exactly what we're walking into." She rose from her chair, straightening her tunic as she did so. "Bridge to PriFly. Launch fighters."

On the viewscreen, she saw them catapulted from the flight deck atop the ship, entering the view from the top of the screen, taking up formation ahead of the Endurance. "Endurance to Ghost. Set Search formation, we'll follow you in." She gave a nod to the Helmsman. "Thrusters only, people." She announced to the Bridge and the fighter Squadron. "Engage,"

Scott felt the fighter lurch as he was catapulted into space. He had done this a thousand times before but his stomach churned for the first few seconds after leaving the Endurance's artificial gravity.

Andi felt uneasy and found that she was holding the arms of her chair a little bit tighter as the ship went in, she was well aware that for all her upgrades the Endurance was a Nebula Class and even they had their limits. Yes, they served well during the Dominion war with combat upgrades, but a Nebula Class was a Nebula Class, she had no doubt this ship would do well.

Sarok was riveted by the sensor readings that he had opened and organised on his console. It did not happen every day that a scientist was able to explore a nebula from within, although this time there was much more to it than just a scientific experiment.

"Captain, although we will get in the data from the fighters, our sensor range will be limited due to the composition of the nebula. There should also be some slight radiation, but I do not think it will be harmful to us given the readings of the radiant intensity here," he reported to the Captain, eventually looking up from the fascinating data on his screen.

Harding nodded, even as her eyes were on the viewscreen. "Understood, Lieutenant, thank you." She returned to her chair and accessed a comm channel to the fighters. "Endurance to Scout Flight. Let's begin our search."

Looking out at the Nebula "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you" Lightfeather said loud enough so only the Captain could hear the Nietzsche quote and wondered as to why it came to mind at this moment in time.

"Everyone form up on your flight leads," Scott called out over the comm, "Alpha follow me in. Beta, hang back as we discussed. I do not want to leave the Endurance without cover. Gamma, hold the position at this location," his fingers moved to send the data to Gamma Flight, "If Alpha runs into trouble, come in screaming." After giving out his orders, Scott rolled his craft into formation with Alpha flight and took up a position at the head of the formation. "Mitchell to Harding. I am going to take Alpha flight ahead, Beta will hand back and cover you."

The squadron of fighter craft proceeded forwards in formation, becoming enveloped in the clouds of the Nebula. The Endurance, under guidance. from the larger sensor sweep of the squadron followed after, collating all data, and relaying any pertinent data back to the pilots. Harding left the squadron comm channel open, to hear the cross talk from the pilots.

Ensign Toman Kell, the youngest and newest of the fighter pilots checked his readings. The screen, showed almost all black, with white dots to indicate his squadronmates and the Endurance behind them. He flexed his fingers as they tested on the controls, slowly letting his craft ease forwards, staying within the formation. A sound brought his focus to the edge of the screen. Something new had appeared. "CAG, Cub. I got something off my port side. Way too small to be our target, reading as... A satellite or something. He was heading in for a visual.

On the Bridge, Harding stopped her pacing. She hated doing it, it was a sign of her nervousness, her uncertainty. Yet it was a way to help deal. Something to do. She looked at the viewscreen, as though she could see what was going on. The distances made that impossible though, and her body twitched slightly, as though to take some action. She couldn't, though. This was Ghost's Squadron.

Rose was still watching Harding as she paused, but moved as though she was going to do something yet she didn’t. “Captain...” Rose offered a smile. “May I speak with you for a moment?”

Harding held a hand back to the counsellor, one finger raised in a 'hold' motion as she continued to watch the viewscreen, and the new situation developed over the comm channel.

Scott pulled up his sensor display and noted the object's course and speed, "Cub form upon my wing we will go take a look together." He easily rolled his fighter out of formation with his newly appointed wingman taking up position on his left. "Alpha Lead take over here," he called out to his second in command.

Looking at the Captain "be calm Captain, getting worked up in front of the crew does not put them at ease and it is putting me on edge too" Lightfeather quietly said to Harding.

Xavon was rushing down the halls of the endurance, he was late for his shift on the bridge he'd been busy doing backlogged medicals. Finding his way to the door of the bridge, he composed himself as he stepped through the blast door "Awfully sorry for lateness captain it won't happen again" He said walking over and taking a vacant seat by the science desk.

Cub saw his Squadron CO come up and started to breathe just a little easier. The... satellite... had been dancing about for the few seconds it took him to call it in, and he was starting to get a little on edge, his fighter moving in little twitches as he fought to keep his nerves under control.

That was when all hell broke loose. The object seemed to settle on a course, straight for his craft. Cub rolled along the long axis, the wings spiralling as he tried to shake a target lock. His display screen was starting to turn fuzzy the closer the object got, controls were getting sluggish. His craft wasn't responding quite as nimbly as it should. "Cub to CAG. This thing is putting out some sort of interference, I repeat-- Oh Shit!"

That was when it hit, a three-hooked projectile unfurled itself even as it was launched from the object. Cub saw it and had just enough response in the craft to tilt a wing.



To Be Continued ...