Ensign Jack Kessler The safety of the crew is my first priority

[Alora DeVeau]

Just like Ulasso, Kessler is newer to our group and doing a great job.  Same scene, different perspective.

IC:

 

((Bridge, Deck One, USS Thor))

 

Another explosion rocked the deck plating beneath his feet and fresh flames and sparks jettisoned from the back wall as another EPS conduit overloaded in a tremendous fashion. The lights overhead flickered as power flow was interrupted and as the Thor’s engines began to fail so did many other systems. The ship seemed to list and more explosions could be heard through the deck plating. It was in that moment Jack realized that this was not going to end well, fear started to grasp at him as the truth came out, the Thor was doomed. Jack’s breathing became shallower and quickened in pace, adrenaline pulsed and all in combination he realized they were most likely about to die.

 

Greaves: Kessler, start returning fire. I don't care if it's a random damn direction. We're not going down without swinging back! 

 

Kessler: ::Looking to the Major:: firing phasers, random spread. ::beat:: no hits.

 

Jack continued randomly firing and even targeted the object off their starboard quarter, but if it was hit there were no signs that they could tell was damage.

 

Greaves: Ensign Ulasso, how long can we remain aloft with our engines in this shape? 

 

Ulasso: We are losing power fast and the planet's gravity is starting to take hold, however I believe I can buy us some time by using impulse power to glide through the atmosphere. We are unable to maintain this position and cannot ascend any higher however. This would take us away from the anti-matter pods as well.

 

Kessler: Major, we’ve lost the phasers. Engineering is not responding either.

 

Brodie: If we’ve lost the antimatter pods…we may have lost a significant part of the engineering section when they were severed… 

Greaves: Ulasso, bring us into a spiraling dive and see if you can point us toward wherever those shots came from. (Turning) Kessler, I don't care if we have to fight with probes. Find me a way to strike back.  

His voice was harsh and unforgiving. His commands that of a battlefield officer, deep guttural tones cutting through the din of chaos. They carried with them a fighting spirit unblemished by the dire state of the ship.  

Ulasso: Lt. Greaves, we are being hailed. It's not a call signal I recognize, but it must be close as it is able to get through the atmospheric isotope interference. Shall I patch them through sir?

 

Pain shot up through the side of Jack’s head for the first time and he reached up to cup the backright side of his head. It was wet, Jack pulled his hand down quick and his hand was covered in a glossy crimson liquid. oOWell add one more thing to the listOo he thought reaching back up and making sure his scalp was at least still intact.

 

Kessler: Major, can we use the Valkyries to our advantage? ::beat:: If we can launch them they can provide cover for us or even be remotely used as guided torpedoes at the hostile.

Before Major Greaves could respond there the sound of clattering metal resounded across the room as a maintenance access hatch clambered to the ground and the figure of their chief engineer crawled out from a Jefferies Tube.  

 The man was wounded, a smear of blood working its way down his forehead. Unfortunately, the look fit in fine with the hellscape that was the Thor's bridge. Jack could not understand why the Chief Engineer had not headed for engineering but instead choose to head for the bridge. It took a few moments for Jack to realize the only reason Corelli would have done this was because, there was no engineering to head to. The dire realization put a nauseating knot is Jack’s stomach, this fight was over.

Corelli: I’m real tired of forcing doors today. Everybody ok? 

 Brodie: ::Turning to Corelli:: We are, but a lot of people aren’t. see if you can get any kind of internal sensors online – we can’t see the extent of the damage if we can’t measure the structural integrity field. 

 Alex turned to look between Wes and Jack. 

 Brodie: Would they even be flight-worthy after that impact…would we want to send out maidens out there? 

 Greaves: The shuttlebays are probably a wreck but it's not a bad idea. The Valkyries would have gone on alert 5 when we went to red alert. Kessler, get a hold of flight operations and see if we can launch. Ulasso, put the hail on screen. 

The view screen tried to come to life as the static field view brought an unknown species into their gaze. Jack felt anger shoot through him as the arrogant Captain began to address Major Greaves.

Pirate Captain Shok: =/\= Starfleet vessel. We are conducting a salvage operation. We have lost property on this planet. If you or your crew make any continued attempts, consider this your final warning. 

 

Greaves: =/\= (Shouting) You have engaged a Starfleet vessel. Stand down immediately or face the consequences of your actions. =/\= 

 

Pirate Captain Shok: =/\= Any perceived threat will be considered an act of aggression, and you will be destroyed. =/\= 

 

Slowly, Greaves stood and the Marine took several steps forward toward the viewer. Visibly shaking in fury, his voice was calm. Almost quiet, yet the hatred in his message shone brighter than the antimatter just detonated.  

Greaves: =/\= Whoever you are, I swear to you, I will find you, and make you pay for the lives you've taken from me. =/\= 

 

With a flourish, Wes reached forward and smashed his fist onto Ulasso's console, ending the transmission. In a flash, the viewscreen returned to the image of the Thor's aft camera looking out directly between the nacelles. Viscous black smoke poured from the engineering hull and the comforting blue glow from the nacelles was disturbingly absent.  

Ulasso let out a slight yelp as Major Greaves suddenly smashed the end transmission button on his console with the blunt of his first. He gave a quick embarrassed glance around to see if anyone had noticed, but all attention was on the commanding officer.

 

Greaves:  Kessler, weapons, now.  

 

Weapons? What weapons? The torpedo launchers were completely offline and the phasers, well the phasers if they even had power had no way of locking onto the hostile vessel with all the sensor platforms down.

 

Ulasso: I still can't get a read on their position to optimize defensive maneuvers, sir. As we continue to descend we are once again blind.

 

Blind again. There was that phrase Jack was becoming all too familiar with and really starting to hate. The Thor was slowly losing altitude and the enemy had the upper hand. Grabbing a tricorder from underneath the Tactical console Jack linked the unit to the main computer and began immediately downloading every piece of information their limited sensors had grabbed about the attack that seemed to be causing the death of the Thor. As he started the download an indicator lit up on Jack’s console. As the Thor was falling into the atmosphere, they were nearing some of the remaining probes that had been launched earlier. They were set on a pre-programed flight path and were in a circling pattern.

 

They were not torpedoes nor did they contain any warheads of any kind, but they could be useful. Jack leaned on his console, smoke still lingering in the air, his nostrils hurt a little but he hardly noticed it. The probes were on his mind, first there were nine signals, then eleven, moments passed by and then of the 72 probes there were a total of 27 still talking to the Thor.

 

Corelli: You’ve probably got power for a torpedo, phasers are useless.

 

Brodie: I don’t think we’re going to get any quarter here…and another hit like that and it’ll be academic anyway. 

 

Ulasso: I dread to see the foul academy that creature would have been trained in.

 

Corelli: Engineering’s a crater.  Whatever you do, make it fast.

 

Greaves: (Shouting) Someone, give me options. All ideas are on the table at this point! 

 

Brodie: ::Quietly:: Wes…we need to consider the crew. 

 

Brodie had said something in a low enough voice Jack could not make it out but the Major looked as if he were somewhere else for a brief couple of moments that felt like they lasted an eternity.

 

Greaves: (Quietly) ... the crew... 

 

“The crew”, Brodie was recommending Greaves remember the crew. Jack’s mind went racing backwards, he had been so focused on the attack that he had not thought about the crew in that context. The crew would have been doing their jobs, manning their stations and ensuring the best for the survival of the Thor as any Starfleet crew would. Now Jack’s thoughts turned to individual crew, V’Len for one. The medical officer and Jack had spent shore leave together and he had learned a lot about fungi and V’Len’s crazy theory about how these mushrooms could talk to one another. The two had also spent time in the holodeck playing detectives and Jack wished that at this moment this was just a really bad holodeck program. V’Len was no doubt is Sickbay in this chaos, probably holding it together better than Jack was. Then there was Nesre Salo, one of the ships councilors. The beauty of the Orion woman had captured Jack off guard during shore leave and the time she spent with her on Bajor was a cherished memory. Where was she is all this chaos and was she ok. Jack realized that he had friends in danger and this was something more new to him than he was ready for.

 

Brodie: You know what I’m suggesting. 

 

Kel: =/\= Kel to bridge. What's going on up there? I've got casualties down here. What's our status? =/\= 

 

Greaves: =/\= Major Greaves here. Ship's in rough shape Lieutenant, and we're getting sucked deeper into the atmosphere. =/\= 

 

Kel: =/\= Has Lt. Corelli reached you? He was injured but left without treatment. =/\= 

 

Corelli: =/\= You think a little explosion induced critical head trama could stop me? Engineers don’t leave their posts!  =/\=

 

Greaves: =/\= He's in good company up here doc. There's a lot of hurt people everywhere. (pause) If you had to, can you move all of the patients you've got in sickbay? =/\= 

 

Kel: =/\= Response 

 

Greaves: =/\= Understood. Stand by for follow-on guidance. Bridge out. =/\= 

 

V’Len was in sickbay and doing his job, Jack felt a light bit of relief knowing his friend was alive.

 

Kessler: Major ::beat:: as we have fallen into the atmosphere I have re-established contact with 27 of our original 72 probes.

 

Jack’s comment was cut off by shuttering in the deck plating at the Thor continued to fall into the planets atmosphere.

 

Greaves: Belay the Valkyrie launch. All power to maneuvering thrusters and structural integrity fields. Ensign Ulasso, how is that gliding going? 

 

Ulasso: We are entering the lower atmosphere sir, the planet's gravity is taking over making it hard to keep a lower angle of descent. Soon we will be pulled into a dive, and I don't have enough power to fight it.

 

Kessler: Aye sir, routing all power to the integrity fields.

 

Corelli: It’ll hold together, don’t worry!

Greaves moved back from his command chair to Ulasso’s station. Jack noticed a hand reach up from Greaves and land on Ulasso’s shoulder which immediately got Jack to glance up and see what was happening.

 

Greaves: Ensign, you stand relieved. Give me the conn.  

 

Greaves, taking the conn. Jack’s breath halted and he glanced to Brodie and then back to Ulasso who started moving from his chair so that Greaves could take over the station.

 

Ulasso: Yes sir, let me prepare to transfer conn control.

 

Greaves: The best we can do now is to buy time for the crew to evacuate, and that's something I can do from here... alone. The rest of you, get to an escape pod.  

 

Brodie: Response 

 

Greaves: The state the ship is in, the computer isn't going to be able to make the decisions that need to be made. I'll glide us the rest of the way in.  

 

The Thor was not going to make it out of this fight and Greaves seemed to know that. Jack was sure that the Marine was not giving up but taking the last possible options now to protect his crew and save as many as he could.

  

Greaves reached down and keyed in a command on the console. A piercing boatswain's whistle filled the entire vessel. Every compartment that had power and audio heard the same sound at the same moment as the ship-wide channel opened. 

 

Greaves: =/\= All hands, this is Major Greaves. (Pause) Abandon ship. I say again, abandon ship. (Pause) If you're trapped and can't get to an escape pod, brace for impact. I'm staying aboard and I'll try and put us down as softly as possible. After the crash I'll come find you... For everyone else, it's been a pleasure. (Long pause) Good luck. Greaves out. =/\= 

 

Ulasso: Godspeed and thank you sir.

 

Corelli: I’ll hold it together until the last 8 seconds, then dump all remaining power into the RCS.  At that point, we won’t need life support anyway!  If you prefer to oversee the evacuation, I’ve got it from here. Its not hard to fly a crashing ship.

 

Brodie: Response

 

Corelli: I wish these things had seat restraints.

 

Jack stood at his station starring at Greaves, his thoughts now trailing back to his parents. During all of time on starships and stations Jack had never heard the actual order to abandon ship. It was a gut-wrenching order to listen to and one that he had not thought he would have heard this early in his career. However, that was not what his thoughts focused on, Loyalty. The one thing his father had instilled in Jack’s upbringing was loyalty above all else. Jack was loyal to his family and to his oaths. He was loyal to his dogs and those he called friend. At this moment, a frozen moment in time loyalty was what he owed Greaves, Kel, Salo and the all the others onboard the Thor. Jack was going nowhere and if his life meant those he now called friend got a chance to live then he would live up to his loyalty to them.

 

Kessler: Sorry Major ::beat: I cannot my station until our crew is safe. ::beat:: Plus you’re going to need some help getting this beast down softly.

 

Jack had a plan growing in his head, last minute chaos or just a surge of whatever you want to call it, he had an idea.

 

Greaves: Response

 

Kessler: Sir, I am rerouting the Valkyries shields and inter-linking them all to one another. Much like they would do in combat flying. I am going to use there shields to envelope the engineering section and try to seal off the major hull breaches. It might now last long but it should provide enough time to get the crew off the ship and prevent a quick sinking.

 

Jack did not wait for a response, he was already trying the Valkyrie shields into one another and prepping his action for deployment.

 

Greaves/Brodie/Corelli: Response

 

TAGS

 

Ensign Jack Kessler

Tactical Officer

USS Thor

T239901JK1