[Galaxy] [New-Darwin] 24 Sep, Mission log, Constitution/2XT

[Kate Nicholson]

-- ''A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.
The man who never reads lives only one.''
 
--  George R. R. Martin, "A Dance With Dragons"


------ Forwarded Message
From: DwarfPlanet <dwarfplanet at cox.net>
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 18:04:18 -0400
To: <new-darwin at lists.firstera.net>
Subject: [New-Darwin] 24 Sep, Mission log, Constitution/2XT

[ Constitution ]

The Starfleet battleship dove low under the ring of mines surrounding
it.  For the crew there was a momentary feeling of deja vu as the Battle
of Jupiter's Ghost tugged at their memory.

"Nice flyin', Coop," the tactical officer said to the helmsman.  "Just
like being back at the Ghost."

"Not quite," the helmsman replied.  "At least one of those should have
detonated."

"Scanning," called the Science Officer, taking the helmsman's hunch as a
cue.  "They're not all mines," she reported after a brief moment.  "Some
of it is /just/ debris."

"They're bluffing," the tactical officer replied.  "They don't have
enough mines to do the job, so they let us find /one/ then scare us with
the rest."

"And then we split up," Kurisawa said with some frustration at himself.
  "Divide and conquer."

"Now they go after the Aurora," the tactical officer followed.  "Take
out the smaller ship quickly so it can't support the fight with the
bigger ship."

"We've still got a payload to deliver," Kurisawa said, referring to the
two shuttlepods flying close to their belly, despite the evasive
maneuvers.  "Which for all we know the Romulans are waiting for us to
deploy and hurry over to support the Aurora, leaving /them/ defenseless."

"The /real/ problem is," the tactical officer said, "we don't know what
their target is -- where they're looking."

Kurisawa wasn't sure if his tactical officer meant to imply the gambit,
or if it was just a lucky phrase, but Captain Kurisawa put it together
quickly.  "Hubbard, find me an actual mine.  Three of them.  Close ones.
  Feed the coordinates to Richardson."

Sciences quickly located the floating pieces of proximity demolitions
and sent the locations to Tactical.  "I've got them," Richardson called.
  "Targets locked.  Waiting for your order, Sir."

"Helm," Kurisawa called.  "On my fire order I want you to bank
one-eight-zero, back through the ring of debris.  Full impulse.  Inform
the shuttlepods to pull away and head straight for the planet.  Let's
see if we can pull off a little magic trick."


[ Shuttlepod Two ]

"Specter to Constitution," said the Starfleet boatswain's mate.  "Wilco."

"Is he crazy?!" the private yelped.  "/Three/ close mine detonations?
I'm a ground pounder, not a crash test dummy!"

"Stow it, Paxton," the Sergeant Major scolded.  "You signed up for a
glorious death, not rainbows and cupcakes."  He swiveled his chair back
to the console next to the Starfleet pilot at the controls.

Paxton pushed himself back in the bench with the rest of the Bravo
fireteam detail.  "They have a name for this, you know," he said to the
soldier next to him as he pulled the harness tighter.  "'Express
Elevator to Hell'."

Wiggins smiled back at him.  "Going down."

"Ground floor," Jericho smiled across from them in a sing-song
announcement, "Klingons, explosions, ladies lingerie."

"Ladie's lingerie?" Paxton smirked.  "That's not hell."

"Maybe not for most men," Wiggins replied, eyes wide.  "But I've seen
that thing you call your 'girlfriend'."

"Ha.  Ha.  Jackass."

The Sergeant Major spun back around.  "Knock it off, Ladies.  We're on."


[ Constitution ]

"Fire."

The Constitution shuttered as the mines were destroyed in rapid
succession.  The hull had barely stopped vibrating when the Constitution
banked hard and shot off exactly the other way.  The two shuttlepods,
however -- small vehicles about as large as the debris now being
scattered by the shockwaves, and with power signatures momentarily
disguised by the released energy -- shot forward towards the planet.
With luck, the Romulans wouldn't even know the shuttlepods had launched
at all.

"Constitution to Aurora," Kurisawa called.  "Prepare for imminent
Romulan attack.  Shuttlepods are away, and we are moving back in to
support you.  We'll be riding shotgun momentarily."


[ Shuttlepod One ]

Accelerating through three shockwaves, and propelling straight into
atmospheric entry was quite a feat of piloting skill.  Naturally, there
were a few alarms, and the pilot had to compensate for the causes, but
the pods made it though intact and with no damage serious enough to
prevent them from doing their job as aerial support for the ground
forces.  Being attached to Starfleet had its perks.

"This is Wolf Niner," First Lieutenant Church said in open broadcast.
His message would be received by the Constitution, A-Team, and anyone
else with the right codes.  "Thunderbolt and Spectre have broken atmo
and are in-country.  Sorry for the wait, ladies and gentlemen.  Hope you
left us some crab-heads down there."

=This is Raven Niner,= replied Mason.  =Glad you could join the party.
Specter is to proceed to Safe Site One and deploy Snake team as planned.
  I want Thunderbolt and Wolf team to do some aerial reconnaissance and
scan for enemy concentrations.  Surgical strikes at your discretion.=

"Copy that," Church nodded.  "Thunderbolt commencing air-to-ground
operations."

=This is Snake Niner,= the Sergeant Major added.  =Specter proceeding to
Safe Site One to assess combat readiness of colonial personnel.  Will
report in one hour.=

The two shuttlepods banked away from each other as the Darwinian sun
broke over the horizon.  A new day was dawning over the colony, and with
it came a new feeling.  The game had changed.


-----
ESS Constitution
(NPCs apb Robert)

2nd Expeditionary Team, MACO
(NPCs apb Robert)
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