S2 M2: "Pursuit of Yesterday"

[Jada]

Bridge

'Yes, but they're starting to fly up the rift. They might try to race around the planet to escape us.' Jada reported urgently, focused on her tactical display rather than idle discussion. The long pause had given her time to build up detailed scans for targeting and locks, enough to pick out engines or weapons. She kept her auto-targeting reticules circling ahead the fighters, so she could try cutting them off or shooting them down if they started to move. She only needed the captain's word to act.

[James H. Hawk]

[Main Engineer]

Once the Torpedo Tube had been cleared and prepped to be fired if needed, James went back to Mortier. "The torpedo tube is cleared and it seems you have things under control. I'm going to head back to the bridge unless you need anything," the young Englishman said.

He then tapped his commbadge.

Commander Hawk to Captain Rellek. The torpedo tube is cleared and Mr. Mortier seems to have things under control. I'm on my way back to the bridge.

James then turned to exit engineering and headed for the bridge.

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

"I'm guessing they won't be very talkative, but we should try anyway. K'Lizh hail them." Julia said. While she waited she looked to Ian. "Let's prepare for atmospheric entry, Lieutenant. Contact engineering and make preparations. I'm sure they'll need a moment to prepare. Jada, where are they? Do we still have a lock on them?" Julia asked.

Bridge

'Yes, but they're starting to fly up the rift. They might try to race around the planet to escape us.' Jada reported urgently, focused on her tactical display rather than idle discussion. The long pause had given her time to build up detailed scans for targeting and locks, enough to pick out engines or weapons. She kept her auto-targeting reticules circling ahead the fighters, so she could try cutting them off or shooting them down if they started to move. She only needed the captain's word to act.

[Bridge]

Ian nodded as he replied.

"Aye Ma'am, ready on yer order here."

He tapped his commbadge to contact engineering.

"Galloway ta Engineerin'. We have orders ta enter an atmosphere, prepare the ship for gravimetric sheer and extensive turbulence."

Ian heard Jada's report as he was speaking and began to follow, maintaining current altitude as he matched speed with the Jem'hadar.

"Not today ya little boogits. Ye will nae be escapin' by sneakin' away."

[Solluk]

[Main Shuttlebay]

Although it had not been very long, it seemed like forever.  This misperception of time was a byproduct of emotion.  Anxiety or excitement could cause time to stretch or contract like a rubber-band being played with by mythical Fates.

Finally, something new happened.   But it was not what Solluk might have expected.

Condition Blue came across one of his monitors.

The Tempest was entering Condition Blue.

Unfortunately, all that told him was that something remarkable was occurring.   Condition Blue was used to alert crew about unusual situations, and was not part of the traditional Red, Yellow, Green Alert color scheme.

It could be used in the event of a system failure, to direct affected personnel away from dangerous areas.

That seemed possible.

It could be used during docking or separation maneuvers, to give the crew notice that sensitive operations were underway.

That seemed rather unlikely.

On ships that could perform planetfall, it could be used to tell the crew that atmospheric operations were imminent.

Of course, that last possibility was preposterous.

He pulled up a descriptor on his console that would tell him the reason for the Condition Blue.

Then he stared at the screen for a long time.

Someone had decided to take a Galaxy Class Starship into an atmospheric body.   Not an embarked craft.  Not the Saucer section.

The whole Tempest, stem to stern.

Outside the runabout, on the bay deck, Solluk watched as the ground crew hurriedly raced about, placing physical tie-downs on the various shuttles.   Soon, they would do the same for the Tigris.  Atmospheric entry was liable to provide a bumpy ride, and combat might interfere with the inertial dampeners.

He watched as they did their work, and he remembered an old piece of Terran poetry.

"Theirs is not to reason why..."

[Nicholas Mortier]

[Main Engineer]

Once the Torpedo Tube had been cleared and prepped to be fired if needed, James went back to Mortier. "The torpedo tube is cleared and it seems you have things under control. I'm going to head back to the bridge unless you need anything," the young Englishman said.

He then tapped his commbadge.

Commander Hawk to Captain Rellek. The torpedo tube is cleared and Mr. Mortier seems to have things under control. I'm on my way back to the bridge.

James then turned to exit engineering and headed for the bridge.

[Main Engineering]

With his crews all at work, Nicholas allowed himself to sink into the console. Absorbed in his work, his fingers zipping about, he completely forgot about Hawk until he left.
Even then, he only looked up for a brief second, before turning around and returning to work. The SI field needed all the power it could get, after all.

[Ngara V'kee]

[Main Engineering]

"Very good," James said. Before turning to Ensign Mikaelson to adress him. "Take your team and inspect the torpedo tube. Work with the engineers," James ordered emphasising with. As a form Tactical officer he knew that somtimes they could get a bit...overzealous at times. He then turned to Ensign V'kee, "Ensign, if you could accompany Mr. Mikaelson and his men to help from the Engineering side that would be good," he said, "Unless Leftenant Mortier has any objections?" James asked turning once more to the older engineer. "I want that torpedo tube cleared and ready to fire as soon as possible."

[Main Engineering]

Hearing the given orders, N'gara grabbed her tookit and set off towards the turbolift. As it accelerated towards the torpedo tubes, she realized that she should wait there until the rest of the team got there. Walking out of the doors, she got a look at the blockage before finding some way to fix the problem.

[Klizh]

[Bridge]

"I'm guessing they won't be very talkative, but we should try anyway. K'Lizh hail them." Julia said. While she waited she looked to Ian. "Let's prepare for atmospheric entry, Lieutenant. Contact engineering and make preparations. I'm sure they'll need a moment to prepare. Jada, where are they? Do we still have a lock on them?" Julia asked.

"Aye, Captain," K'lizh said, accessing the standard Dominion hailing protocols on file, including the older ones from the war. Fortunately, he had personally updated those files before the Tempest had departed through the wormhole. Now it was just a matter of seeing if they would respond.

[Julia Rellek]

Bridge

'Yes, but they're starting to fly up the rift. They might try to race around the planet to escape us.' Jada reported urgently, focused on her tactical display rather than idle discussion. The long pause had given her time to build up detailed scans for targeting and locks, enough to pick out engines or weapons. She kept her auto-targeting reticules circling ahead the fighters, so she could try cutting them off or shooting them down if they started to move. She only needed the captain's word to act.

[Bridge]

"Well, at least we can say we tried to talk. I don't think letting them lose on this sector would be a good idea. We'll try to disable them but we'll do what we need to do. We won't let them bolt. Lock targets chief. Lieutenant, take us in." Julia ordered as she ran her fingers accross the arm rests of hr chair. She knew this would be a bumpy and risky maneuver. Galaxy class ships weren't designed for these types of maneuvers and even worse, the Jem'Hadaar fighters were.

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

"Well, at least we can say we tried to talk. I don't think letting them lose on this sector would be a good idea. We'll try to disable them but we'll do what we need to do. We won't let them bolt. Lock targets chief. Lieutenant, take us in." Julia ordered as she ran her fingers accross the arm rests of hr chair. She knew this would be a bumpy and risky maneuver. Galaxy class ships weren't designed for these types of maneuvers and even worse, the Jem'Hadaar fighters were.

[Bridge]

Ian grinned as he applied full power to thrusters and took the Tempest into the atmosphere at a shallow angle.

"I'm on it Ma'am, what everyone sees with a Galaxy in an atmo is her size, but what they fail ta see is that the width of her saucer acts like an airfoil that actually provides lift givin' us more control than you would think fer her size. These Jem'hadar boogits have made their last mistake. I do however suggest that you take a seat or grab a hold ta summat Ma'am as it will get a tad more....interestin' than most people like."

Ian then steepened his dive to force the Jem'hadar to break and allow him to give Jada a shot at one of the fighters.

[Jada]

Bridge

'Ma'am.' Jada curtly acknowledged, while screaming madness inside her head. Galloway might be confident of atmospheric flight, but the phaser arrays were designed for vacuum, not the pressure and friction of atmosphere. Air could conduct heat away, but would conduct it in while in aerodynamic heating. 'Commander K'lizh, we need enhanced structural integrity and cooling of the phaser arrays.' she urged.

The other issue was how to disable, but not destroy, the fighters. Striking the engines was a standard. In space, a ship without engines would drift harmlessly. But in atmosphere, it would crash and burn. She needed a different tactic. She remembered hunting dragon wing-slugs with bow and arrow; if she pierced a wing, it couldn't fly.

Jada programmed a narrow-beam phaser attack, computer-automated to fire when they had clear shots at the fighters' wing-flaps. On the tactical display, she saw the Jem'Hadar fighters' formation break apart, going in different directions. 'They're scattering, probably afraid we'll fall on them.' she snorted. It was a daring attack, one that took serious flars, she had to admit. The automated phaser arrays lanced out of the air, raining fire down around the fighters, to pepper their wings and force them out of the sky.

[Ian Galloway]

Bridge

'Ma'am.' Jada curtly acknowledged, while screaming madness inside her head. Galloway might be confident of atmospheric flight, but the phaser arrays were designed for vacuum, not the pressure and friction of atmosphere. Air could conduct heat away, but would conduct it in while in aerodynamic heating. 'Commander K'lizh, we need enhanced structural integrity and cooling of the phaser arrays.' she urged.

The other issue was how to disable, but not destroy, the fighters. Striking the engines was a standard. In space, a ship without engines would drift harmlessly. But in atmosphere, it would crash and burn. She needed a different tactic. She remembered hunting dragon wing-slugs with bow and arrow; if she pierced a wing, it couldn't fly.

Jada programmed a narrow-beam phaser attack, computer-automated to fire when they had clear shots at the fighters' wing-flaps. On the tactical display, she saw the Jem'Hadar fighters' formation break apart, going in different directions. 'They're scattering, probably afraid we'll fall on them.' she snorted. It was a daring attack, one that took serious flars, she had to admit. The automated phaser arrays lanced out of the air, raining fire down around the fighters, to pepper their wings and force them out of the sky.

[Bridge]

As the Jem'hadar broke, Ian picked the center most fighter to pursue and smiled a feral smile. He fired the forward dorsal and aft ventral thrusters to bring the Tempest into a wildly steep 70 degree dive that closed on the fighter rapidly giving Jada as clear a shot at the weakest part of a Dominion War era attack fighter.

"I told ye they knew nothing of atmospheric combat, they are actin' no different than a gaggle of Japanese Nates facin' divin' P40s. General Chennault would be burstin' his buttons with pride ta see his tactics still workin' over 450 years later.

"They are fallin' into the same trap as a Nate would, because they ken they have the advantage in a turn, and they think that we'll be stupid enough ta try and turn with them. The trick is not ta play ta their advantage. A Galaxy in an atmosphere has the same advantages as a Tomahawk, the ability ta out dive and out climb a lighter opponent, so when they try ta fight in the horizontal, we will fight in the vertical. We'll make a divin' pass, then we'll zoom fer altitude and see who else wants ta dance this jitterbug!"

[Solluk]

[Main Shuttlebay]

Solluk gritted his teeth as vibrations transferred up from the deck, into the robust frame of the Tigris, and through the flight console to gently tickle his fingers.  The sensation was minor.  Someone less attentive might not even have noticed it.  But to the Vulcan in the cockpit, they might as well have been shockwaves from a Richter-Scale Earthquake.

It wasn't the vibrations themselves that gave him anxiety.

It was what the vibrations represented: A massive Galaxy class vessel swooping through the atmosphere like an Aeroshuttle dancing through a hurricane.  Only Lieutenant Galloway could be so brash as to attempt an aerial dogfight with Jem Hadar fighters while piloting one of the most massive ships the Federation had ever constructed.

Part of him was alarmed at such maneuvers, though Galloway was certainly the best qualified person in the sector to attempt such a stunt.

Part of him was... something else.

Jealous, perhaps?  He still wasn't fully familiar with some of the emotions that tended to plague him from time to time.

It bothered him that the Tempest was in the thick of exotic aerial maneuvers while the embarked craft- specifically designed for such things- were tied to the flight deck.  To his mind, the grand Tempest should remain in low orbit, dropping fire support via phaser barrages and torpedo salvos while the runabouts descended to engage the fighters in close combat.

He knew why that hadn't happened, of course.   Runabouts were powerful and versatile embarked craft... but they were not considered the equal of Jem Hadar attack ships.  There was probably concern that the Tigris and Euphrates might be destroyed if they went in against such odds.

And yet... that's what they were for.  To take those kinds of risks so that the mother ship wouldn't have to.  And with the proper fire support, he believed they'd have had a real chance to succeed.  Particularly with Jada manning the weapons console.  Her ability to direct the computer towards optimal target selection, ideal dwell times, and predictive fire patterns was uncanny.

Still, given Galloway's own skill, a positive outcome seemed likely for the Tempest.  That man could fly a brick through a singularity cluster and come out without even a planck's moment of time dilation.

Solluk sighed, reminding himself that a successful conclusion was the important thing.  Not his own illogical thrillseeking behavior.  If all he had to do was sit here and wait out his shift, that was a good thing.

[Kintiss]

Issy smiled warmly as she listened to the CMO. "Worse seems like fun." She laughed putting her own SIMS beacon on her wrist. "What else do you need from me?" The counselor wanted to help as much as she could without getting in anyone's way.

[Sickbay]

Kintiss thought for a moment. With the biobeds offline for the moment, they wouldn't have as much scanning power, unless they could pull more tricorders together. Getting things working again was their top priority, but they'd have to improvise in the meantime.

"Sssstart pulling the tricorderssss from the emergency medical kitsss," he said finally, moving over to examine the closest biobed. "We'll disssstribute assss needed when casssualtiesss come in." That was a moment he was dreading, since it would mean they'd been caught unprepared.

[Jada]

Bridge

As the Jem'hadar broke, Ian picked the center most fighter to pursue and smiled a feral smile. He fired the forward dorsal and aft ventral thrusters to bring the Tempest into a wildly steep 70 degree dive that closed on the fighter rapidly giving Jada as clear a shot at the weakest part of a Dominion War era attack fighter.

"I told ye they knew nothing of atmospheric combat, they are actin' no different than a gaggle of Japanese Nates facin' divin' P40s. General Chennault would be burstin' his buttons with pride ta see his tactics still workin' over 450 years later.

"They are fallin' into the same trap as a Nate would, because they ken they have the advantage in a turn, and they think that we'll be stupid enough ta try and turn with them. The trick is not ta play ta their advantage. A Galaxy in an atmosphere has the same advantages as a Tomahawk, the ability ta out dive and out climb a lighter opponent, so when they try ta fight in the horizontal, we will fight in the vertical. We'll make a divin' pass, then we'll zoom fer altitude and see who else wants ta dance this jitterbug!"

Jada pursed her lips, not as confident about this as Galloway seemed to be. Her firing routines were working, weakening the Jem'Hadar, but they couldn't get any closer and they weren't going to deliver neat knockout blows. 'The Tempest is still just a flying castle in high atmosphere,' she reminded. 'She can't descend any lower without being crushed by atmospheric pressure and being dragged down. We definitely can't land and apprehend the Jem'Hadar once they're grounded.' Jada addressed Captain Rellek directly, 'Captain, the fighters are damaged enough now. I recommend we send runabouts to finish them off. Security personnel on board can capture the Jem'Hadar once they're downed.'

[Klizh]

Bridge

Jada pursed her lips, not as confident about this as Galloway seemed to be. Her firing routines were working, weakening the Jem'Hadar, but they couldn't get any closer and they weren't going to deliver neat knockout blows. 'The Tempest is still just a flying castle in high atmosphere,' she reminded. 'She can't descend any lower without being crushed by atmospheric pressure and being dragged down. We definitely can't land and apprehend the Jem'Hadar once they're grounded.' Jada addressed Captain Rellek directly, 'Captain, the fighters are damaged enough now. I recommend we send runabouts to finish them off. Security personnel on board can capture the Jem'Hadar once they're downed.'

"Capture?" K'lizh spoke up. "That might not be an option. I'm not advocating murder here, but Jem'hadar desire death in battle even more so than the Klingons. If reasoning them down is not an option... taking them alive would be a fate worse than death, from their perspective."