Flight Of The Phoenix [Part 2]: Downed Pilots

Posted on Tue Oct 31st, 2023 @ 10:22am by Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini' & Ensign Hanna-Justina Marseille 'Desert Eagle' & Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake' & Lieutenant JG Masamune Busujima 'Lost Boy' & Ensign Saeko Busujima 'Crazy Horse' & Ensign Rin Kagamine 'Twin 2'
Edited on on Tue Oct 31st, 2023 @ 6:51pm

1,843 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Starship Graveyard
Location: Planet Surface

Previously on Star Trek: Tokyo:

=A=Come on... stick with me!=A= Nozomi shouted as she struggled to regain control of her craft.

"WARNING: Rate of descent is too fast!" the onboard systems warned her. "Pull up immediately!"

=A=I'M TRYING, DAMMIT!!!=A= Nozomi shouted exasperatedly as flames began licking at her craft's fuselage.

POP! POP! POP! She could hear the distinctive sound of rivets shearing under the intense G-Forces. Her limbs were beginning to feel heavy, and darkness was fast closing in. Knowing she only had a few seconds of consciousness left, she activated her craft's distress beacon and assumed a brace position.

=A=NOZOMIIIIIIIIII!!!!!=A= she could hear Lynette screaming before her radio lines snapped and the craft all but disintegrated around her...

And now... the continuation!

The sand dunes seemed to stretch on forever. It didn't help that Fubuki's boots kept sinking into the soft surface as she trekked back towards the last known location of the Tokyo. By now she had come to the conclusion that the ship had also crashed. However she had a better chance at survival there than she did out in the middle of this barren land.

The young pilot continued on, taking a sip from her canteen as she walked. She shook it and frowned, there wasn't much left and she still had several days to walk. She had seen some wreckage whilst she had walked though, mostly it seemed like debris from starships that had broken up in the atmosphere or had exploded after crashing; nothing worth checking out.

A bright flash from directly overhead suddenly got her attention; shifting her gaze heavenwards, she was startled to witness two large fireballs streaking across the sky, each bearing with it a trail of white-hot debris that proceeded to rain all around her. But in spite of the imminent danger she now found herself in, she couldn't help but watch as the two objects passed over her head before making landfall just a few miles away.

"Those look like starfighters!" She exclaimed as she set off towards where they had crashed now at a steady jog. The adrenaline had kicked in, she could feel it building inside her. There were others now, and they likely needed help. 'Don't worry guys, I'm on my way!' she thought as she spotted the downed starfighters now in the distance.

When she eventually reached the debris field, she was able to make out the wreckage of at least two starfighters; one of which was lying upside-down, its left wing jutting out from the sand like some abstract rock formation; with the other, the wings had sheared off completely, leaving what was barely recognizable as the main fuselage.

Rushing over to the nearest fighter, Fubuki made her way to the cockpit. Luckily it was still accessible, the other fighter had landed upside down like hers had. She pulled out her phaser and aimed it at the locking mechanism.

"Gemini..." she said as she identified Nozomi inside. She jumped down into the cockpit with Nozomi and began to unfastened the safety belts that held her in place, releasing her from the seat. Fubuki glanced at the main systems vomsole, luckily her fighter had completed the emergency shutdown a d there was no chance of her engines overloading.

Next Fubuki accessed the emergency locker and pulled out the medkit. She loaded a hypospray with a strong stimulant and injected Nozomi's neck. With a bit of luck it should make her come around.

A few tense seconds elapsed with no response; Fubuki was worried that Nozomi was a goner when she suddenly gasped and sat bolt upright, her eyes darting frantically about her unfamiliar environs.

"What's... where have I.... but where's..."

The haze of confusion gradually receded, and once Nozomi had time to get a hold of her bearings, one of the first things she was able to make out was (a rather concerned-looking) Fubuki sitting directly across from her.

"Y-you... you're..."

She reached up and clutched her head; after an impact like that, it would appear her brain was still a bit foggy; names weren't coming to her as they would under normal circumstances, so she had to considerably rack her brain for when and where she would've remembered Fubuki from.

"You... you were the one who was drinking with Silica..."

Yeah, that sounded about right...

"Thank god you're alive," Fubuki sighed with relief. She gave the other pilot a small smile as she pulled out her tricorder and gave her a quick medical scan. "Good news, no injuries. But whoever is your wingman needs help." She pointed to the other Starfighter that had landed upside down a few meters away.

Nozomi glanced over in the direction of the other downed fighter, and the urgency of the situation immediately dawned on her. Without having to be asked twice, she sprang up and darted over to the other craft, where she began digging frantically with her hands to try and reach the other pilot.

Fubuki joined her. "Shame we don't have a shovel." She said. "Wait... stand back." She pulled out her phaser. "Go get your phaser, set it on wide beam. With a low setting we can use them to blast away the sand."

Nozomi nodded and reached for her belt- only to realize that she didn't have a phaser on her, at which point she glanced back at Fubuki with a look not unlike that of a confused puppy.

Fubuki sighed as she aimed her phaser at the sand. She began to sweep using the wide beam setting, moving the sand out of the way. Eventually after fox or six 'sweeps' the cockpit became visible.

The two of them climbed into the hole they'd dug and tried to get a better look at the the pilot trapped inside. From what Fubuki could discern, it appeared to be a female humanoid, with long, bleach-blonde hair. Fubuki couldn't remember seeing her around anywhere, but Nozomi's face immediately lit up with recognition.

"I know this pilot!" she gasped. "She was just transferred over from the Armitage a couple of weeks ago!"

"Well," Fubuki said. "Let's get her out." She said as she carefully cut a hole through the cockpits glass with her phaser. "You pull her out and see if she's OK. I'll check the fighters systems. Mime overloaded, so we need to know if its safe near it," she explained.

Nodding, Nozomi proceeded to waste no time in extracting the blonde and dragging her to a safe distance.

Once the pilot had been pulled free, Fubuki crawled inside the upside down cockpit. She let out a sigh of relief upon spotting that the starfighters engines had also been shut down. There was power still to the computer, so she managed to access the main inventory menu. "Looks like she's in better shape than she looks," she muttered to herself.

The starfighter still had limited thrusters and could theoretically fly again with some repairs. Also the emergency storage locker had survived better than hers or Nozomi's. Fubuki wasted no time in emptying it and then crawled out of the fighter with the supplies.

"How is she?" She asked as she placed the emergency bag on the soft sand.

"A few minor cuts and bruises, but I think the sand dune pretty much cushioned her landing," Nozomi surmised. "It could've been a heck of a lot worse, that much is for certain."

"Thats good," Fubuki said as she rifled through the bag checking what was inside.

The pilot coughed and tried to pull herself into a sitting position.

"Scheisse..." she groaned, her inflections denoting a German ancestry. "What... what happened?"

"Easy Ensign. You crashed; well we all did. But right now take a moment, here, have some water," she said as she held out the water canteen to her.

The Ensign reached up and took the canteen, pressing it gently to her lips.

"Easy, now," Nozomi warned her. "Don't guzzle it all in one sitting; we need to ration that until we can find a way out of here."

Fubuki had started to gather all the survival gear together. "We've got a long way to get back to the Tokyo." She said to them both. "It looks like she also crashed. If anyone is left alive, we have a better chance of survival there than out here."

Nozomi glanced up. "About how far away is it?" she asked.

"Over three hundred klicks" Fubuki sighed. "And its all desert the way. I managed to get a lock on them with my tricorder after I crashed. I've only covered a few klicks before I came across you." She zipped up the bag and passed it to Nozomi. "I doubt we have enough water to last that long though..." she said grimly.

Nozomi frowned. "There's no way we'll make it on foot," she lamented. "Do you think there might be some way to send out a distress signal?"

Fubuki pondered for a brief moment. "We can, but there's no guarantee that anyone will pick it up." She told them all as she looked up and down the overturned Starfighter. "We don't know what the condition of the Tokyo is, not to mention if anyone is alive. We'd be sitting here waiting for a rescue that might never come."

"Damned if we do, damned if we don't..." Nozomi sighed.

Their conversation was interrupted by another bright flash and the sound of tearing metal; the three of them turned their attention to the skies to find not one, but three large fireballs bearing down on them.

"GET DOWN!" Nozomi shouted, diving on top of the blonde to shield her from falling debris.

Fubuki dived down into the sand for cover. The three objects slammed into the sand not far from them with a deafening crash. Sand was thrown high into the air and some caught on the breeze throwing up something like a sandstorm.

After a few moments it finally settled and Fubuki pulled herself up, sand was in her hair and in places she wished it wasn't. "I think those were more of our pilots. We should go help them!" she called over to Nozomi.

"Agreed," Nozomi nodded before turning her attention to the blonde. "Can you walk, Ensign?"

"Hardly my first choice, but I suppose so," the blonde grunted as Nozomi helped her to her feet.

Fubuki was already on foot and rushing over towards the downed fighter pilots. She knew that the quicker they were the more chance they had at pulling out any survivors. Plus she could utilise parts of their downed craft to boost their own survival supplies. If any of their fellow pilots were hurt they would need immediate help.

To be continued...

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