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Post by Michael Clarke on Jan 28, 2011 16:04:54 GMT -5
Michael looked from the front viewport out into space, noting the bright colors of the star clusters that were visible. They had floated their way into the Andronicus system, which was renown for the cosmic beauty it held. Stars were host to chemical reactions that produced massive amounts of beautifully colored light, filling the whole system up with it at times. Michael's admiration quickly faded when he turned his head back towards the main part of the flight deck, where he could see...no one. That was the problem.
R4 really had stepped up their game, bringing onboard their meanest guys to subdue the crew here, including the Senator(how they knew he was going to be onboard was something else Michael would have to look into). Communications had been severed(there was an interference signal running somewhere) and each of the crew onboard was sectioned off from each other, guards posted outside each area. At least the punks had given Michael some privacy and left the flight deck uninhabited, guards posted at the entrance. It would be fantastic to be able to steer the ship towards the nearest planet, but the flight controls were locked and being controlled by someone from the outside(pretty good hacker...or someone knew the codes). So in essence, they were sitting ducks.
Or were they?
Michael strode into his quarters and sifted through his things before he found his plasma pistol at the bottom of one of the many drawers he had. Checking the charge(adequate), the Captain walked out onto the flight deck, taking a right turn to the exit.
Here goes nothing.
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Post by Hollie Clarke on Feb 3, 2011 15:15:05 GMT -5
Apparently, R4 wasn't as clever as they thought. Or, they hadn't done the prudent research before they'd decided to take the ship hostage. Because, if you had any brains, you would not leave the ship's computer specialist in her room with a computer. She couldn't transmit anything off the ship, that much they had taken care of, and no one could get any information in either. But Hollie didn't need to interact with anybody outside the ship to help get them out of this mess. Even without comms, she could work from the inside.
With her earphones jammed into her ears, she finally had everything she wanted on her screen and in place to try and do something about this situation. And the only person she trusted to help her with this was on the flight deck, according to the life signs detector.
A screen lit up to left of the Captain, flashing in order to get his attention.
Dad. Count to ten. I'll lend a helping hand.
Counting to ten herself, she shut all of the lights in the outside corridor off and unlocked the flight deck door. The computer gave her a spoken stream of feedback about what was happening, hopefully now he would have the advantage.
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Post by Michael Clarke on Feb 3, 2011 17:41:54 GMT -5
Michael had been thinking about to break out of his makeshift prison before he saw a message flash on the A.I. comm panel next to the door. Upon reading it, Michael smiled, muttering under his breathe:
"That's my girl." Almost immediately the doors slid open, revealing a darkened hallway and the outline of two mystified guards.Michael worked quickly, grabbing one from behind, bringing the guard into a tight vice lock as he aimed the pistol in his other hand, nailing the terrorist thug in the shoulder twice. The guard in his possession was able to shake the Captain off, elbowing him in the solar plexus and whipping around to deliver a nasty head butt(with that helmet on, it sure hurt a whole lot more). Michael reeled back, his head throbbing as he tried to evaluate his next move. He felt the guard take hold of his arm, twisting it back and driving Michael to the ground, the captain gritting his teeth at the pain.
"Dumb old man."
"Who you callin old, kid?" Michael still had a fantastic grip on the pistol, which he discharged four times, hopefully hitting the guard's foot. A howl of pain shot out of the guard's mouth as he fell backward. Michael smiled, shaking his head slightly to clear the disorientation he felt(this was going to be a problem) as he got up. The Captain leveled his pistol and delivered two shots to the guard's chest, grimacing as he did so. Wasn't his preference to kill, but these animals...they were different.
Starting down the hallway, Michael was attempting to formulate some kind of plan. He knew that Hollie was out there somewhere and he wanted(needed really) to secure her before anyone else. But what about the others? The Captain turned right, facing the elevator doors, which now slid open.
Michael leveled his gun at...
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Post by Hollie Clarke on Feb 3, 2011 18:08:04 GMT -5
That first tangle had been nastier than Hollie had hoped by the sounds of it. But the plan wasn't over yet. She had plans for her Dad, and she only hoped that he followed them. When the lift doors rolled open, the Captain was met with two men lying unconscious on the floor - a quick tampering with the life support had sucked the oxygen out of the room long enough for them to fall unconscious. The screen at the back of the elevator flashed again, a small panel popping open to reveal a small hand held computer.
Life signs detector. The leader is hauled up in Engineering. Cut the head off the snake and all that.
She was fine where she was for now, or at least, she thought she was. Word was starting to get round that something was up. She heard doors beginning to bang open, she needed more time. Shoving her hand held into the back of her jeans, she clambered up onto her bed, and reached around, touching the ceiling until she found the ventilation shaft. It took a fair amount of effort to clamber into it, but she managed to do so and slide the grate back in place before her own door slammed open, and the guards found that she'd pulled a Houdini and disappeared.
"Where the hell did she get to?"
"She's blind, she can't have got far."
Blind, but not stupid fellas. Shuffling a bit further along the shaft, she lay on her front, listening to the feedback from the computer. What was her Dad up to?
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Post by Michael Clarke on Feb 3, 2011 18:41:46 GMT -5
Michael sifted through the gear that the unconscious terrorists had given to him(such generous folks) and found a few things he would carry. For starters, he sprayed a canister of medi-gel on the wound at the top of his forehead, grunting slightly at the burning sensation the gel caused. For all the advances in technology, the scientists couldn't take the alcohol OUT of the solution? The Captain also found a medium sized plasma rifle, which he gratefully took. Having got what he needed, Michael rolled the bodies out into the corridor before retreating into the elevator, shutting the doors before he grabbed the computer jutting out of one of the panels. He had no idea the elevator even had something this neat.
Came in handy, didn't it?
Michael scowled at the on-screen mumbo-jumbo he saw, grumbling about how complex machines had gotten before he sifted through and found what he was looking for: a keyboard. He typed:
"I won't charge in there, not with all the guard traffic. I need more bodies. Do you know where the other crew members are?"
Knowing Hollie, she was probably working on a way to free them. Or better yet, they were already free and trying to regroup. Michael leaned up against the rear wall of the elevator, realizing that there were probably at least twenty, thirty guards. They would need that much security to cover the whole ship, let alone secure the top flight crew. He would have to find a way around them. Michael tilted his head up as he felt a light brush of cold air coming from a crack in the elevator's ceiling.
If cold air was coming from there...
Michael smiled.
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Post by Hollie Clarke on Feb 4, 2011 5:45:24 GMT -5
Back up. Right. It was time to get some of the other people out and about to help. That meant somehow knocking out the guards in the common room. All right, she could do this.
Locking the door to the common room, she also made sure that the doors to the crew member's rooms were definitely air tight before tripping an overload in the coolant system. Gas started pouring into the room, and she could hear the men beginning to choke. Grimacing, she waited until it all went silent. Then she had the air extraction system suck away the gas before popping open the crew members doors. Hopefully that would give the Captain more of an advantage.
They're heading to the armory.
Hollie had the holo in the common room flash up for those with tactical training to head to the armory, she could help deal with the guards there, no problem. Hopefully then they'd be able to take out everyone else.
Shuffling a bit further along the ventilation shaft, she found another grate. Judging by the temperature, it was one that led into one of the corridors. Good, if she needed a quick escape, then she had one. Hopefully no one would find her though. Fingers crossed.
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Post by Michael Clarke on Feb 4, 2011 12:52:58 GMT -5
Michael was about to take advantage of a ventilation opening in the elevator shaft when he received the message from Hollie. He had no idea how she got into the mainframe(as if the thugs wouldn't secure the mainframe. They were stupid, but he knew that their commanding officer must have given them THAT order at least), but he sure wasn't complaining. Jumping back down into the elevator, he resolved to go down and meet the rest of the crew at the armory to try and plan their method of attack. They would come up with something...he was sure of it.
Michael walked off the elevator onto level B3(lovingly referred to as the level of Blood due to the armory) and was greeted by two guards who weren't paying very much attention to their post at the doors.
Their mistake.
Two plasma-scorched bodies later, Michael was on his way to the end of the hallway, the armory just in sight. Apparently no one had made it to the...
The lights went out.
Michael whipped right around, plasma rifle at the ready, staring into the darkness that encompassed him. The auxiliary power hadn't kicked in yet, which probably meant that the generator which kicked in when the main power supply went out was trashed. Which also meant that they had no flight control and would drift into the nearest sun if he didn't act fast enough. The Captain knew that the terrorists wouldn't purposely cut power, not if they were intending to keep them as hostages. It couldn't have been them.
But what if that was the intent all along? To string the Alliance along and tell them they were hostages, only to send them crashing into the planet's surface? R4 was crazy...and desperate. They knew their options were running low. Could it be that the power was cut on purpose?
Michael quickly withdrew the handheld from his pocket and sent a message to Hollie:
See if you can get a location on where the power disruption came from. I've got a hunch.
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Post by Hollie Clarke on Feb 5, 2011 7:52:04 GMT -5
Hollie listened to the sets of feet going marching underneath her, definitely a corridor vent. That was when a loud beeping sound went off in her ear, alerting her that the power had been tampered with -- someone knew she was playing with them. Luckily, Will had them construct the ship so that different generators ran different things, they'd only taken out flight control and the engines. The computers were still up, which was a blessing, otherwise she would have been completely blind.
Tapping away at the screen, she heard the feedback message from her Dad instructing her to do what she was already doing -- find out where the power supply had gone down from. Scrolling back and forth across the decks, she finally located an unexpected cluster of bodies in the control room at the aft of the ship. Relaying the message to her Dad, a loud siren started blaring across the ship; she recognised the siren, they had been caught in the gravitational field of a planet or sun, and were on a collision course. Wonderful.
And, if that wasn't enough, she could just about hear a voice coming from somewhere down the vent.
"She must be up here somewhere."
God dammit.
"There she is!"
Hollie ditched the computer, desperately trying to scramble away from whoever it was, looking for a corner to skirt round. But, whoever this moron was, decided to open fire in the enclosed space. She gasped as her body shot with pain, just about heaving herself around a corner.
Her earphones still in her ears had dragged the computer round the corner with her, she mashed at the keyboard, trying to send a message for help.
ASDJDJFveSKDntSJGFHDJFhelpIEHFSZZsE DMSDSNDNFDhot
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Post by Michael Clarke on Feb 6, 2011 13:55:47 GMT -5
Michael heard a high pitched siren wailing start up as Hollie's message came across, the Captain putting two and two together rather quickly. They were going to try and bring the Venia down.
Not on his watch.
Michael held the miniature computer out in front of him as a makeshift flashlight, walking back down to the elevator, which was still running. They must have only cut power to flight control(there was no other way to get around the ship than the elevators. Evidently the designers didn't think that the ship would ever be threatened from the inside. He would have a talk with the Alliance when he got back on shore), a lucky break. The Captain didn't know where the rest of the crew was, but he couldn't wait on them. He would have to act now. A moment after he shut the elevator doors, the handheld vibrated.
Michael's blood went cold.
They had her.
Michael breathed deeply, knowing that they would probably take her back to their command post in engineering. Which meant that he had to make a choice. Either he went to the control room at the back of the ship to deal with flight control and risk his daughter's life...or try to save his daughter, but risk the rest of the crew. Michael knew that a Captain had to make hard choices, but this..he wasn't prepared for this. He could hear the words of his mentor, Jason Korver, resounding in his head
You're a Captain now, son. Make your choices based on head, not heart. You'll know what I mean when you get there.
He knew what he had to do.
Getting to the back of the ship wasn't easy, especially with the light of a miniature computer as the guide, but Michael was now standing outside the control room, able to hear voices:
"Yeah, I cut flight power."
"You do know we're not coming back from this, right?"
"Nah, the boss knows what she's doing."
"You sure about that? She didn't tell us about an escape plan."
"She don't need to tell us everything, just what we need to know."
"You're sick, you know that?"
"Why, cause I follow orders?"
As their banter continued, Michael estimated that there were four of them, so charging in would be suicide. Thankfully, there was enough space between the doorway and the wall next to him to create cover he could use. Good enough. Michael pressed down on the control panel and popped out of cover, delivering four quick shots, managing to take down one of them before he had to get back.
Now the real fun started.
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Post by Hollie Clarke on Feb 6, 2011 14:32:24 GMT -5
Hollie could feel her eyelids blinking furiously as she tried to stay conscious, not that it made any difference to her vision. The men were dragging her somewhere, she'd lost her bearings a couple of turns back so she wasn't quite sure where. And every time her leg touched the floor, it spiked with pain, so she assumed that was at least one of the places she'd been shot. What had mildly amused her through the delirium was that the bullets had richoted back through the vent, hiting two of the men as well. Guess they were all braun, rather than brains.
She had no idea if anyone was coming for her. Yes, she'd sent the rather garbled 'help' message, but with the rest of the ship and crew in danger of being blown to pieces, she didn't expect the cavalry to be coming right away. She just had to hold on for a while longer.
"What's taking so long? She looks like she weighs about the same as a cupcake."
"I'm a lot heavier than I look," Hollie piped up, "heart of stone, legs made of lead."
"Got a mouth on her, this one."
"I think you'll find most people do." She smirked to herself.
She felt a fist dig itself into her side, and her mouth opened in a silent scream. She screwed up her face in order to hold a proper cry back, and the tears. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction.
Her body hit the floor and she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering a little. A female voice came from somewhere above her head.
"Who is this?"
"We found her in the air vent, she was the one messing with the ship's systems."
"A computer specialist?"
A gap. Presumably someone nodded.
"Then why did you leave her with a computer in the first place?"
There was a resounding bang and a large body dropped dead beside her. She shuddered.
"Find the Captain. Or you'll meet the same fate."
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Post by Michael Clarke on Feb 6, 2011 14:58:57 GMT -5
"Oh come on, hit him!"
"He's got cover!"
"It's only one man!"
"With a plasma rifle!"
"He's running out of charges! Flank him now!"
The firefight was brief and didn't accomplish much except scorched surfaces and a shirt sleeve ripped(Michael's) from a plasma burst that clipped the side of his arm. Michael's rifle was down to two charges and wasn't about to engage in another senseless exchange. He did have an ace up his sleeve, but it would require the thugs to get closer. Time to draw them in. Michael hit the wall with his right hand and said loud enough:
"You gotta be kidding me."
"Hey, you hear that? Think he's out of ammo. Come on, lets go smoke this rat." Perfect. Michael could hear their footsteps coming closer to his location, so he had to act fast, He took the plasma pistol he had secured back on the flight deck out of his right pocket(safety triggers were neat) and waited until they were close enough...
Now!
Michael popped out of cover and delivered six quick shots, gritting his teeth in anticipation of a sh...
Fire.
Michael could feel an inferno creeping up his shoulder, the Captain looking to see some of his tricep blown off , the flesh hanging loosely off the arm. He then glanced at the three bodies on the ground.
Job well done.
The pain was now increasing, but he couldn't stop, not now. He had a job to do. Stumbling over to the generators, he looked at the handiwork of the thugs. They had managed to fry most of the navigation circuitry on the surface. But what they didn't know about was the auxiliary circuits that fed into a console back at Alliance command, where they would be linked up to a complex A.I. system that would act as a remote power source. It wouldn't be enough to get them out of the system, but there would be just enough power to get them to Orion, the only civilized planet in this system. However, there was a problem:
The communication relay had been shot.
How were they going to get past that one?
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Post by Hollie Clarke on Feb 6, 2011 16:07:30 GMT -5
They were screwed.
Hollie didn't say this lightly. After all, she was blind, shot in the leg, and without her computer. And no one was coming for her. What the hell was she supposed to do?
Lying there quietly, she pretended to be unconscious while she thought up a plan. It was somewhat ridiculous that the blind computer specialist was having to think of a way out of this horrendous mess. Her brain ignored the pain as much as it could, mustering up the threads of an idea. She needed to make a diversion, and try and make a break for it. It wasn't like she would get far, and it was likely they'd just shoot her down. But what the hell, she might bleed out anyway, might as well try.
The dummy who had got himself shot had dropped his gun on the way down. Slowly, Hollie pulled the plasma gun towards her, fiddling with the settings so it was set to overload. Then, in one quick movement, she lobbed it over the groups' heads and make a break for the doorway - they'd led her in a straight line from it, so all she had to do was run in the opposite direction. The gun exploded and she was knocked off her feet into the corridor, hitting the wall with a loud thud.
Scrabbling onto her feet, she dashed off down the corridor, trying desperately to find a door to duck through. She needed a computer, and quickly. "Oof!" she collided headlong with someone, and was about to attack them when she recognised the voice as being Luke's - the pilot.
"Hey, hey, whoa, Hollie, it's me."
There were some other footsteps too, probably the people she sent to the armory.
Then there was the stampede of footsteps following her. This was going to be a blood bath.
"Get me to a computer," she ordered Luke, needing to know where he Dad had got to.
"Yes ma'am," he scooped her off her feet, noticing her leg, and all she could do was hold on tightly as they left the others behind to deal with the goons of R4.
Luke deposited her into a computer chair, handing her some headphones.
"You're a star." Hollie couldn't be more grateful.
"At least someone thinks so."
Dad, where are you?
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Post by Michael Clarke on Feb 6, 2011 16:26:24 GMT -5
Michael leaned up against the generator, groaning slightly at the white-hot pain that was now flowing through his entire body. He could see some of the bone that had been clipped(some of it was missing) through the gaping hole that had been created by the plasma burst, the Captain fully aware that he now had the use of only one arm, seeing as the nerves in the tricep had been obliterated. Just. Great.
Dad. where are you?
Michael smiled at the message, turning on voice recognition and speaking:
"I'm in the rear control room. Our comm unit has been shot and we need it up and running before we can activate the auxiliary flight control. I need someone with a brain wired for this kind of thing down here so we can get out of this mess." As he finished his message, he looked up to find two crew members standing at the entrance of the control room, plasma rifles in hand.
"Captain, good to see you sir!" One of the ensigns saluted(Ricky?), Michael waving the salute away with his working hand, responding:
"Cut the formalities, son. You boys have a job to do." Michael spoke into the handheld:
"I'm sending two crew members to come get you. Give me your location and they'll find you." The ship then lurched forward, almost throwing Michael off balance. Most likely, they were getting close to planetary atmosphere.
Wonderful.
Good kids. He hoped they would survive.
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Post by Hollie Clarke on Feb 6, 2011 16:38:16 GMT -5
Hollie heaved a sigh of relief when she received the response.
"Luke?"
"Still here."
"We need to..."
"Rear control room, I saw. Come on, let's save the boys the trouble."
If he had seen the 'Dad' too, Luke certainly hadn't said anything about it. And he probably wouldn't either, he was a good guy.
It was a little strange being carried everywhere, she would much rather have walked, but without the use of one leg, it made it so much easier if she was transported like a damsel in distress. Besides, Luke was a big, strong boy, he could take it. He certainly made no complaints about her weight.
She felt them come to a halt outside the room, and Luke set her down, guiding her into the room. There were a couple of voices, two other crew members, then another that she was ecstatic to hear, even if it was pained. She couldn't help the smile that fell across her face.
"I see my shenanigans didn't get you killed," she said, reaching out for her father.
The ship lurched again, and Luke steadied her from behind.
"Don't think we have much time left," Luke piped up, "give me some sort of flight control and I can get us out of anything."
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Post by Michael Clarke on Feb 6, 2011 16:56:46 GMT -5
Michael's heart warmed instantly when he saw Hollie(and Luke!) come into the room, the ensigns stepping out of the way, one of them asking:
"Sir? Orders?"
"Get to engineering and help the others out. We'll do what we can from here. Be careful, men. Those boys are ruthless."
"Sir!" A moment later, Michael was all smiles as he embraced his daughter with his working arm, telling her:
"Saved my life twice. I think you accomplished a whole lot with your shenanigans." He glanced down and saw the wound in her leg, grimacing. She was taking the pain well; he couldn't see much strain on her face, although she was sweating quite a bit.
"I hope you can get us out of this." Michael guided her towards the control panel, putting her fingers on the communication relay.
"And trust me, Luke, I know you can. Getting you to the flight deck is going to be the next matter." He put his working arm around Hollie's waist so she would at least have some kind of balance as she worked.
"You got this, baby girl." He hoped she did.
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