Incoming
Posted on Tue Oct 3rd, 2023 @ 1:59am by Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Dean House & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis & Lieutenant Thomas Haldeman & Lieutenant Alison Haldeman & Senior Chief Petty Officer Ronson Mitchell
Mission:
Repairs and Retribution
Location: USS Sunfire
Timeline: Current-ish
{ON}
Alison had watched as the away team members had departed the bridge, it wasn’t long after that the long range sensors alerted her to the fact that they had a problem.
“Commander, we have incoming!” She checked her readouts. “Cardassian ships.”
"It never rains but it pours.." Dean shook his head, "Are they just patrolling or heading right for us?"
Ronson pulled up the tactical display and groaned, cursing their rotten luck.
“According to these readings, they’re heading our way” Alison looked at Dean concernedly.
" 'Course they are" Ronson grumbled as he tracked the new threat's course and speed. " Weapons are available, as are shields, but we'll blow our cover"
"I've got an idea," Dean leaned forward a little in the chair. "Find something, anything even half the mass of the ship. We're going to tractor it. However, there's more. We're going to get the Sunfire just as damn close to the surface as we can by the interference field. Tractor whatever object you find and give it a nudge up in their direction. Hopefully, we'll disappear from their scopes at the same time they see that. They'll just shrug it off and leave."
Alison offered a wry smile. “That may just be a brilliant idea Sir.” She checked the readouts from the sensors, “There’s an asteroid close to our current position, reads as...approximately Three-quarters of our mass. It may just be what we need.”
"Setting course, three-quarter impulse." She maneuvered the mighty Sunfire towards the asteroid Alison had pointed out. "Are we certain we'll have enough power to push the asteroid away from the planet given its size and gravitational pull? I mean, it's a pretty big rock." The girl at the Conn asked.
"Not to worry about the power. If you need extra to push the asteroid just let me know. I can siphon off power from other systems without putting a strain on them." Tom replied from Ops.
Ronson watched on as the plan was put in motion, a good plan it was and one that would give them a damned good chance to pull this off. To hide behind an asteroid and slip into the atmosphere to beam their people out was brilliant.
"Tractor beam ready" He announced as they neared the asteroid.
"Let's keep it tight. As for the getting it out. The tractor beam would act just like the rubber sling pull on a sling shot. Moving enough once we let go, it'll add, or should add that momentum." Dean smiled a little bit. "Do it."
She piloted the mighty Sunfire, calculating manually for gravitational flux and stellar drift. She had to keep the Sunfire within a fixed distance in order to maintain a strong tractor lock otherwise they would catch the football and then promptly lose it. Fumbling the football was not an option. "10 killicams and holding." She smiled as her Klingon language classes came back out without effort. "Thirty seconds to catch."
Ronson watched carefully, monitoring the systems as the Sunfire tractored the asteroid and hooked in behind it on its new trajectory. It was a masterpiece of a plan.
Tom continued to monitor the power grid as the Sunfire got ready to catch and push an asteroid into the path of the approaching Cardassian ships. "Power grid is stable, no fluctuations." He turned to briefly look at the others. "So far, so good."
Kit was jolted out of her reminiscence in her personal log as suddenly the Thimmerand's red alert klaxon sounded. She jumped up from the seat in her personal quarters and made her way to the bridge, her cousin Tayshi, having assigned her to the "science" station on board. Kitiuas's job was to actually monitor and use the ship's sensors to assess for potential Cardassian targets and help the weapons officer find the weakest points of attack.
She arrived on the bridge just in time to overhear the report from the helm, in Orion, "Entering the Kunar system My Lady. We are detecting several Cardassian vessels as well as another vessel maneuvering towards an asteroid, a Cardassian Keldon class ship and a Hideki class ship have broken formation and are heading towards the Tokol and her two escorts." Kit crossed over the bridge to the station assigned to her.
She heard her cousin, in Orion, state "Very well, keep the cloak up and maneuver towards the ship going towards the asteroid. Kit, darling, eavesdrop on our Cardassian friends' communications. We will wait for the party to begin before we engage. Jaittu, send a communication tight beam to the others to await my command and follow the plan."
"As you command My Lady." replied the First Officer in Orion. She heard her cousin sit back in her command chair, and Kitiuas knew it was a waiting game.
Having hooked onto the rock, the mighty Sunfire suddenly jerked. Even in space with little friction, changing the course of a heavy gravitational object exerted forces in an equal and opposite direction. "Like pulling a trailer with a fat ass." The conn officer notated, mostly to herself as she compensated for the speed and angle of entry now that they were heading for the atmosphere at a higher rate of entry and at more than twice their normal weight. "I need calculations on when to let this turd slide." She jested.
"Working on it," Ronson set about using the computer to come up with the calculations as quickly and carefully as possible. "Sending them to you now" he replied a few moments later.
"Not too much... not too much. Feel some of it out if you need to, don't completely rely on the computer.." Dean leaned forward.
She ran her fingers over the controls, doing just that, feeling it out. When the time felt right, she turned the ship into the atmosphere, dragging the asteroid behind. The hull glowed a bright red, but there was no worry as they were just skimming in order to gain speed. "Vector locked, I think we're good. Releasing in 5, 4, 3, 2 ..." On one she cut the beam, and angled the ship over and away in order to give the rock an undisturbed flight path. "Now, where are we going to hide this bird?"
"In plain sight. Right over the opening in the shield. They're not going to be looking there, at least not above it. They're going to be scanning around the area."
"Fascinating and clever. Starfleet never ceases to amaze me, must be the sagaciousness of the Humans. Cousin, you must introduce me to the individual who came up with such an audacious plan, if they are this astute in combat imagine how sprightly they are in the bedroom." declared Tayshi as she sat forward in her command chair.
"Cousin how goes 'Captain' Ngekkom's 'talk' with the Cardassians." Kitiuas turned and replied, "The Tokol has been granted access to Kunar in order to avoid a 'misunderstanding' between Eau de Nil and the 'Mrs.', however, the escorts must not approach any closer."
Tayshi sat back and smiled "Prepare weapon systems and get me a good fix on the Hideki class ship. Tight beam the others to prepare to attack the Keldon class as soon as we come out of cloak and attack. Kit, tight beam a communication to your friends that we will engage when they are ready, after all, you know their comm codes. Also, tell them we have a barge landing on Kunar with Orion ground troops on board to assist with the rescue."
She smiled "The Mrs. and Cardassians are about to learn a lesson in Orion cluros."
"Behind the rock? Like right behind?" The Conn officer questioned before analyzing the situation. "Alright, you're the boss." She pushed the ship to within a hundred meters taking careful notation of the abnormal shape and spin of the rock to allow for a margin of error. "When this goes wrong, and it likely will, we won't be here long enough to question how."
In a grand ballet of skill and finesse, the mighty Sunfire, using the gravitational pull of the planet, managed to use the asteroid as one would a slingshot pellet. She skimmed the atmosphere, calculated and released at just the right angle and trajectory towards the three incoming Cardassian ships. By the time they realized what had happened, the Sunfire would be gone. And as the rock grew larger on their sensors, the Sunfire would once again be hiding in order to conceal their identity. So far no one knew the Federation was there and the crew had every intention of keeping it that way.
TBC
