Docking

Posted on Tue 4th Jul, 2017 @ 2:41pm by Colonel Horatio Drake & Commander Zachary Hunt & Lieutenant Colonel Brooklyn Wellington

908 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: For The Uniform
Location: Shuttlecraft 2
Timeline: MD-01: 1730 Hours

Drake handed his backpack and rifle to Sergeant Ryan with a nod, he had been volunteered for this mission by Winchester who, surprisingly, hadn't protested Drake going. He knew better than to argue with him when he suggested someone come along, though. Besides, it made sense to have someone else.

He sat in the left seat of the incredibly cramped craft and tapped on the console to bring the thing to life, lights and consoles turned on and the hum of power filled the cabin.

The Defiant Class was equipped with only two types of shuttle, one Type-10 Shuttlecraft and two Type-18 Shuttlepods - Drake had opted to take the shuttlecraft. The Type-10 class marked one of those rare instances in Starfleet history that a ship had been designed primarily for military purposes. It was true that Starfleet shuttles come equipped with limited defensive systems; but their primary mission profile does not typically involve combat, but rather short-range personnel transfers, planetary ops, and limited deep space scouting, and emergency starship escape.

The Type-10 class, whilst sharing these capabilities, came equipped with more powerful weapons and a larger warp coil assemblies for increased speed, not to mention heavier shielding with pleased Drake no end. It could also act in a tactical assistance role during combat, and provide a stronger defense for escape pods in the event a starship is damaged or destroyed.

Building on the lessons learned from successful modifications to the Defiant-class, it shares many similar systems with its "big sister" starship - most notably in its recessed, armoured engine pods. No longer situated away from the hull on potentially vulnerable support pylons, the protected engines eliminate a tactical weakness. Based on a Type-6 shuttle space frame design, the insides of the Type-10 more closely resemble those of a starship. Subscale versions of starship warp and impulse propulsion systems give it an impressive capacity for speed. Weapons systems include standard phaser arrays, but also feature the capability to launch modified quantum torpedoes through micro-torpedo launchers. Onboard computer systems are based on a scaled-down version of the computer core utilized by the Danube-class runabout. All of these things reassured Drake much more than a shuttlepod. Despite their flight time being less than four minutes, this was potentially their only lifeline and something that might have to carry them back to Vanguard if the Bretagne was in a bad way.

With a few more taps of the console he cleared pre-flight checks and opened a channel to the Bridge of the Warspite. "Shuttlecraft One to Bridge"

"Bridge here, sir" Leland replied, with the crispness Drake had quickly come to expect.

"We're ready for launch, requesting final clearance" He replied.

"Clearance granted, good luck sir"

"I hope we won't need it, but thanks all the same" He said, cutting the channel. He powered up the impulse engines a seconds later the vessel had cleared the small shuttle bay and was away.

Hunt had a new found sense of calmness he had never had around Drake before. He felt better about the whole situation he had been involved in and was kinda glad to go on this away mission with Drake, even with the cramped Shuttlecraft they were on. They were getting closer to the Bretagne with every passing second, "60 seconds until docking," Hunt stated, without even glancing towards Drake.

Hunt pressed the comms, "Hunt to Wellington, any issues?" It wasn't often the fighters got to come out, even if it was effectively them being chauffeurs, but it was good to keep in constant contact.

Wellington kept a good distance from the two ships as she checked her sensor display. "None, sir. It's all clear out here."

"I want to take us to docking port five" Drake said as he piloted the shuttle towards the floating hulk. "It'll give us good access to both the Bridge and Engineering. Scan the port for micro fractures or buckling". A ship of this age, without any maintenance, could have had all sorts of problems, the least of which being unstable docking ports. If docking port five was a no go then they would try the others. If all of the ports were unsafe then they would have to beam on. This was something that he wasn't too keen on doing.

"Port 5 isn't recommended Sir," Hunt paused. "Port 4 seems good for us."

"Port four it is" He said, pulling the craft round to come back on itself and approach the ship from the other side. Now that they were closer he could better make out the black scorch marks on the hull.

"Those scorch marks seem consistent with pulse weapons" Drake nodded towards the secondary hull section that they were currently under. When a phaser beam hits a hull it leaves a burning residue and scorch marks surrounding the impact area. Pulse weapons leave a similar mark, but smaller and more spread out.

Hunt observed what Drake had pointed out, "Hmm, they do look like that." A slight dread of fear coming over Hunt.

*****

Wellington watched the shuttle change course towards another airlock. The ship had taken a beating for sure. She was wondering as to why not just have the ship towed back to the Starbase. She also wondered why such an old vessel was doing out so far. The Miranda Class was rapidly becoming outdated despite near constant upgrades...but you could only upgrade a vessel so much.

 

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