"Hard Impact"

[Kansas_Jones 0]

09.20.07

USS Agincourt NCC-81762

“Hard Impact”

 

Cluster Frag: meaning of:

1.) A military operation gone wrong or with far reaching consequences.

2.) The current situation of the USS Agincourt and the Agincourt Away Team. Oh dear. Incoming.

 

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Lieutenant Commander Kansas JoNs picked herself up from the second meeting with Mister Bulkhead, and tried to quickly find some sort of bracing position. The shuttle Tiderium was coming in fast and hot, with hostile Selshan weapons fire peppering it the whole way, and the Selshan warships were starting to move in on the Agincourt as well.

 

The missing Umbara general was in custody, but the price for acquiring said Birdie was high – the anesthetized gas pods beamed onto the target ship by the away team had completely wiped out the Selshan crew. Noleph – turncoat, traitor, double agent, whatever you wanted to call the bastard – had apparently fed the Agincourt prep teams false information about the type of gas that would be non lethal to the Selshan crew. His own people were now dead due to his deceit and the unknowing collaboration of the away team.

 

So many of those Selshan where dead. Was there any chance that one or two of them had survived the lethal gas? She felt a pang of sadness so overwhelming that it hurt, and then viciously pushed the emotion down so she could continue to function and do her job.

 

A veneer of smoke and the smell of burnt plastics and computer wires filled the interior of the shuttle; the Umbara general was squawking (literally) and ruffling her feathers regarding the conditions of the pell mell ride.

 

It was complete chaos that the team and the ‘Court now found themselves in…and this bird had the nerve to complain. The feline security officer’s temper flared, and she whirled around to inform the bird what she and her beak could go do with themselves. “You listen to me you - ”

 

“Brace for impact! We’re going in way too fast!” Master Chief Keltex’s booming voice filled the interior from his position at the Helm, followed by Lieutenant Colonel Days strong voice a moment later, reiterating the order to brace.

 

Kansas had enough time to glimpse (an action she deeply regretted. Ignorance as bliss would be very useful in this current situation) the ventral opening of the ‘Court coming toward them as the shuttle whooshed over the threshold into the shuttle bay landing strip.

 

Time for some fireworks, said Murphy as he lit that cherry bomb up.

 

The Tiderium impacted with the decking, and hit hard.

 

JoNs flew backwards past the Big Birdie, and was vaguely aware of Day flying the other way. The female officers were the only two team members not buckled in, and she briefly hoped that everyone else’s restraints held.

 

The feline’s EV helmet impacted with the rear bulkhead, shattering the clear protective visor into a spider web pattern. A second jolt rammed her mouth into the helmets small internal comm panel. It was a freak occurrence of the perfect angle - the helmet was supposed to protect her head, but as her mouth impacted with the device, a left molar fang was dislodged. She choked on the resulting gush of blood, sending the red spray onto her cracked face plate. The feline officer fell to the decking and lay there in a daze, staring at one of the control panels as the flickering overhead lighting highlighted the blood trickling through the visor’s spider web cracks.

 

The shuttle took another jolt, and a second panel blew out somewhere near the cockpit. JoNs finally blacked out.

 

It was probably just as well that she didn’t consciously experience the remainder of the Tiderium hard impact landing….

 

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