The Ad Astra was moving slowly through the Siniestre cloud.
The gunship had an unexpected Nav officer, and the crew was rather on edge.Understandable, since you don't have the Rear Admiral of the 101st inspecting your ship too often, if ever, even though it was set to be commissioned for the Ghosts of Razgriz.
Felix Rommer was silently looking out of the cockpit's window. Although he seemed absent, the ship was holding a steady course. He would so rarely get such an occasion, to be away from the Da Garda's bridge, the paperwork and all the responsibilites that came with the rank. He knew what his life would be like the moment he walked through the gates of New Berlin Naval Academy, and he did not regret the choices that he made after, but some time off to recharge his batteries was always welcome.
That's why he enjoyed flying through the Siniestre. The nebula induced him a state of calm and relaxation, even though he was not known as a man that gives in to emotion.
With steady gestures, he turned the ship to aquire a high orbit over Carinea, carefully taking into account the planet's gravitational pull. Once the vector was set, he leaned back on the chair giving in to his thoughts.
The bridge was completely silent.
The collision alarm pulled him violently out of this state. Small metalic objects were pounding the Ad Astra's hull, and the sensors did not seem to pick them up in time.
'Either not properly calibrated or the radiation in the Siniestre caused a malfunction', he thought.
'Time for some good old fashioned manual evasive maneuvers'.
He avoided the first large parts rather easy, more flying by gut. He knew now that the sensors were unreliable. One managed to hit the hull though, and with it the antenna for long range communication. Nothing that could not be repaired once in drydock, and such a piece of equipment was not necessary at the moment.
'Why the hell is there debris around here?' he thought. Turning to the captain, he thought to himself that his little sabbatical was over.
'Have someone plot me the relative trajectory of the debris.' , he calmly ordered. 'I want to know what was the thing that hit us'.
'Aye aye, Sir'
He turned back to the command console, waiting for the answer.
'Sir?'
'Yes, captain Cellini?
'We have a vector'
'Good. Now let's solve our mistery', he said, while steering the Ad Astra towards the outer edge of the Siniestre.
' Wrote:You know that **** has hit the fan when notequinoxe makes a post in an oorp discussion forum.
Some twenty minutes later, the gunship was flying through open space on the plotted course.
A large object could be seen on the external gun cameras, though it was still too far to be distinguished.
'Tactical, I need intel on the class of the ship as soon as we get in range', Rommer ordered.
'Aye, Sir, ETA 2 minutes'
'We have confirmation of target. It is a .... DUNKIRK?'
The tactical officer looked stunned. Even Rommer had an expression of surprise on his face, and he was known of not showing emotion whatsoever. He was even nicknamed 'The Machine' , secretly, of course, by the men that served under him.
But he had a very good reason to let go of his astounding control. A distant memory surfaced in his mind.
'Could this be? Could this really be?', he obssesively thought.
He still needed conclusive and irrefutable proof.
'Tactical, I want detailed pictures of the starbord side once we get closer'
'Aye, Sir, sending now'
It was true. Although there was some extensive damage on the hull, on the pictures takem he could read
A N T S I A
'Spacesuits ready, I'll get us closer and we will board it. Everyone wait for me at the main airlock'
The first salvo wiped out the shields in an instant. Realizing that the automated defense grid was activated by the last member of the crew, right before he died, Rommer steered the Ad Astra trying to get out of the range of the main batteries. Another salvo hit, right before the gunship got out of the danger zone, hitting the cruise engine's power unit.
'Well, seems we're not in a hurry anywhere now' , he thought.
He rushed to the main airlock.
'Alright, change of plans, men! Cellini, Piastro, mount up in your suits. We're going to fly there in our suits and board the ship through the personnel evacuation airlock. Torino and the rest will stay with the ship. If we do not confirm boarding by radio, you make for Ibiza on impulse and report to captain D'Ortona ASAP!'
One hour later, the Ad Astra was next to the Dunkirk. The boarding party led by the Rear Admiral was successful in deactivating the automated defenses.
He had quite a handful. No long range communication, no cruise engines.His mind was racing to solve the current problems.
'Comms, set up a radio message burst. Have it bounce off Carinea's atmosphere towards Ibiza. Hopefully the diffraction and the interference from the sun and radiation won't alter it too much. Call for captain D'Ortona and have him inform the Administrator we've found the Fantasia. And tell him we need a tow truck out here pronto. Send it as soon as you have calculated the parameters'
'Aye aye, Sir'
' Wrote:You know that **** has hit the fan when notequinoxe makes a post in an oorp discussion forum.
Beneath the depths of the earth Jameson shuddered as he received the distress call from his Read Admiral, and he shuddered once more at the mention of the ancient warship known as the Fantasia.
"We will open up a channel to a salvaging outfit on Malta and instruct them to meet Subject Rommer at his current location. The resurrection of the Fantasia is the primary objective; All other concerns are secondary."
Yes, things were falling into order... and soon the might of the Outcast nation would be felt by all.
At that time, Captain Nero D'Ortona was overseeing the regular maintenance of the MNS Tramonto on Valetta. The ship wasn't even damaged, yet he was still arguing with the chief engineer.
'Man, that ship out there is one of the largest ships all over Sirius and you are telling me you can't get more power out of the core? Can't you just give it one of the Dreadnought-cores instead? We are fighting a bloody war out there and I would prefer my ship being able to shoot back in it even if the shields have to recharge.'
'But Captain, changing the core would require us to rework the whole electronics. We would end up with a cascade of changes which would need more time and money than building a brand new Ranseur. You really should think about taking command of one of those instead if you want command over an improved ship.', answered the engineer.
'That's not going to happen, so you'll try to get the best out of her.'
Before the discussion could continue, a Lieutenant showed up and saluted in front of D'Ortona, telling him that he had a transmission from Rear Admiral Rommer waiting in his office.
'Alright, Chief. See what you can do for her, I'll be back later. Dismissed, both of you.'
The engineer sighted once D'Ortona had left the room. He is a soldier, a damn good one but nonetheless a soldier and no engineer, which caused me lots of trouble each time the captain demands more performance out of that ship. It's just not capable of that much. The Tramonto was probably the ship of the primary fleet that had to visit Valetta most often thanks to D'Ortonas rather aggressive manoeuvres. At least he isn't as bad as most of those upstarts in the secondary fleet.
When Nero finally managed to restore all parts of the message, he was stunned. A whole minute passed and then another before he managed to get a clear thought again and open the station-wide communications:
'This is Captain D'Ortona to all crew-members of the Tramonto, report back to the ship ASAP, First Lieutenant Verardi, meet me in my office.'
After Nero showed the message to his second, both went back to the ship, discussing how to proceed further on their way.
'The Rear Admiral requested a "tow truck". If my memory serves me well, those old Dunkirks are rather small ships, so the Tramonto should be able to serve as one of those. Nonetheless we should take some assistance with us, see what we have available right now at Ibiza and Valetta. Also, we will need a temporary crew for the ship, even if we are towing it.'
'Sir, if I may suggest: we still have the reserve crew of the Tramonto with us. We can fly with two shifts and send the third one to the Fantasia. I wouldn't want to entrust such an important ship to secondary fleet personnel if we can keep it within the Ghosts.'
'Do it then. You'll instruct the crew while I'll try to transfer as much information as possible from the stations database to the ship'
' Wrote:Go play the game, within the given limitations. That is how role play games are played. Not by trying to work around those limitations or whining about them.
Rommer's comlink started buzzing. The Ad Astra was trying to get through to him.
With a quick and calm gesture, he hit the flashing red button on the left hand of his suit.
'Sir? The Tramonto is decelerating and taking position on the port side of the Fantasia.'
Rommer let loose a slight smile.
'Excellent, and almost perfect timing. Patch me through to captain D'Ortona on the double.'
He had the plan laid out, although is was a longshot. He reviewed it once more while waiting for the connection to be established.
' Ah, Nero, good to see you. I'm afraid the ship is in really bad shape. I'm gonna need every single Damage Control personnel you have onboard, as well as your engineering crews. We have several decks to close and certain locations where structural resistance has to be, well, improved. We'll also have to rig the Fantasia's tractor beam to fire continuously on the Tramonto so you guys can tow us. Now let's get this thing back into dry dock and make it the ship it once was. We'll meet in person once we're back on Valetta. Oh, and patch me through longrange to Buffalo. We might need some stuff delivered in order to make this happen. Rommer over and out.'
Putting his arms behind his back, he started slowly walking on the Engineering deck.
' Wrote:You know that **** has hit the fan when notequinoxe makes a post in an oorp discussion forum.