Flight Of The Phoenix [Part 3]
Posted on Fri Nov 10th, 2023 @ 2:10am 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 Mon Nov 13th, 2023 @ 12:14am
2,379 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Starship Graveyard
Location: Planet Surface
Previously on Star Trek Tokyo:
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.
And now the continuation...
The scene when they arrived was one of utter devastation; mangled, unrecognizable debris lay strewn everywhere, a few small plasma fires burned freely, and for a good solid minute or so, it was impossible to discern whether or not anyone could've survived the impact.
It didn't take long for Fubuki to reach the downed craft. She quickly rushed over, just like she had before. Luckily the Starfighter had crashed but remained relatively intact.
The intense heat stopped her for a brief moment as she approached, but then she saw a young looking pilot in the cockpit, she appeared to be unconscious, her blonde hair visible from under her helmet. It looked like she was preparing to eject, but hadn't managed to do so.
"Gemini! I need help over here!" She called back. She eecognized the woman, it was Rin, one of the new pilots. From what she remembered this was her first assignment out of the Academy and she had signed on together with her twin brother.
"On it," Nozomi replied as she picked up a large metal strut that was sticking out of the stand. "Stand back!"
With a few well-placed swings, the canopy shattered, allowing for the three of them to pull the unconscious pilot from her craft and lay her flat on the sand.
"Go get the survival kit," Fubuki said as she began to check Rin over.
The blonde nodded and got up to go and inspect the craft.
Checking her breathing, Fubuki was relieved to discover that she was still alive. She unstrapped her helmet and removed it, luckily the helmet had done its job in protecting her head.
"Let's see... we have a Phaser, tricorder, first aid kit, canteen and MRE rations for approximately three days, an emergency blanket, signal flare, chemical light sticks, and a compass," the blonde reported as she returned with the survival kit in hand.
Fubuki scratched her head. "Our first priority should be finding some sort of shelter for the night." She looked around over the dunes, there seemed to be no visible landmarks, mountains or hills. Just endless rolling sand dunes that stretched far into the distance. "I did spot several shipwrecks on myu way down. We should probably go investigate one, it may also have supplies or equipment we could use."
"What would you say is the nearest one from our current location?" Nozomi inquired. "Depending on the extent of this woman's injuries, she may be in no shape to travel. And that doesn't even begin to factor in the other two pilots- presuming they're still alive, that is.”
"I saw what looked like an old Starfleet looking ship to the east. It was on the way to the Tokyo's last known location. I was thinking we could see what its got?" Fubuki suggested. "It looked like its been here a long time, I didn't recognise its class..." She added.
The blonde was quick to interject, “About how many clicks is it from here?"
"About two klicks from here," Fubuki said. She pulled out her tricorder again and made a quick scan. "Confirmed, two point one Klicks east. It registers as a Starfleet ship, but its well over two hundred years old."
"Well, looks as if it's going to be as good a place as any to start," Nozomi remarked, before shifting her attention to the blonde. "Pass us the med kit, will you?"
The blonde pulled the first aid kit out of the survival gear and handed it off to Fubuki.
"Thanks," Fubuki said as she loaded the hypospray and then injected Rin in the neck.
Rin instantly jumped awake like waking up from a bad nightmare. She seemed a little startled and confused.
"Woah there Ensign..." Fubuki said as she held Rin's shoulder.
"What... Where... Sand?" Rin asked.
"You crashed. We all did. Right now we're heading for somewhere we can find shelter. Can you walk?" Fubuki asked the young pilot. She held out an arm for Rin to take. Luckily she was able to help her to her feet. Rin gave her a nod as she stood up, although her legs were shook a little.
Placing one of Rin's arms around her shoulders to support her, Fubuki looked over at Nozomi. "Ok then. We should make for that ship. We need to get out of this sun!"
"Aren't you forgetting something...?" the Blonde replied, motioning to the debris field.
It was at that moment that Fubuki realised there were two other Starfighters that had crashed nearby. She swore as she remembered, and realised she had been stupid. "It must be the heat getting to me..." she muttered. "Quickly, check then other craft..." she said to them both.
Nozomi glanced over at the blonde. "Split up?"
"Split up," the other nodded, before the two of them broke off and headed for separate ends of the debris field.
It only took Nozomi a few minutes to come across the smoldering debris of the second fighter, laying upright with it's nose jammed into a sandbank. Cautiously approaching the downed craft, she was half-dreading to find the charred remains of someone she knew laying inside- Iowa, Lynette, possibly even Mika- but as she drew closer, she was elated to find that the fire was mostly confined to the back of the craft. Of course, that didn't mean that the pilot was in the clear, as smoke inhalation would undoubtedly get to them if she didn't hurry. Taking the strut she had lugged over from Rin's fighter, she sprinted over to the canopy and began swinging away, knowing that time was of the essence. Within just a few swings, the canopy finally shattered, and Nozomi immediately recognized the mop of long blue hair seated at the controls.
"Busujima!" she called out as she got down on her knees and began unfastening Saeko's restraints. "Come on, let's get you out of here..."
It was at that moment that Nozomi happened to glance over at the main systems console and realized that the engines were about to go critical. Nozomi instinctively switched the ignition circuits to off in an attempt to shut down the overload but it was useless. The energy build up was past the point of no return.
Realizing she had no time to lose, Nozomi opened the safety harness straps, grabbed Saeko by the arms and proceeded to hoist her out of her seat. There was no time for her to retrieve the crafts survival kit, so Nozomi instead focused her efforts on getting Saeko to safety.
"Come on... come on!"
A loud, high-pitched whine filled the air as the engines entered the final stage of criticality.
"Shit... shit-shit-shit!"
There was only one chance: there was a slight depression parallel to the main wreckage. Nozomi dragged Saeko in it and dove on top of her for added protection.
The craft that she had been sitting in not more than 30 seconds earlier exploded with a deafening bang; the detonation vaporized the fighter, leaving nothing but carbon scoring and duranium fragments scattered across the blast zone.
Elsewhere, the blonde had managed to locate the remaining fighter- or, for that matter, what was left of it- laying upside down at the foot of a dune. A few small fires could be seen burning nearby, though nowhere near close enough to endanger the pilot contained within.
The frame was badly mangled during impact from several obvious rolls across the desert floor. Retrieving her phaser pistol, the blonde proceeded to set the device on wide-beam and aimed it at the foot of the wreckage. With a few short bursts, she managed to clear away just enough wreckage to reveal the cockpit, as well as the pilot contained within. Getting down on her hands and knees, she leaned over to take a look inside, make sure that the pilot of this craft hadn't been turned to jelly and therefore wouldn't be worth the effort in retrieving. Fortunately, that turned out not to be the case, as the pilot in question- a black-haired male, from the look of things- was still fastened into his seat. Standing back up, she adjusted the phaser to narrow beam, aimed the phaser at the canopy and cut out a neat hole that would be just big enough to pull him through.
No small feat in and of itself, as upon reaching in and unfastening the pilot's restraints, he landed on the canopy in such a way that would make it very difficult for the blonde to pull him out. Sighing, the blonde reached through the open hole and- grabbing the male by his legs- started to rotate him around in such a way that would allow him to fit through the hole. After what felt like a good ten minutes of struggling- she wasn't one too sure, as she was honestly more focused on getting him out- she managed to get his feet through the hole, and the rest was fairly easy.
After dragging the pilot to a safe distance, she went back into the cockpit to retrieve the survival kit see what if anything was salvageable. Fortunately, the warp core hadn't been compromised, so she could breathe easy in that this turkey wasn't going to blow up anytime soon. Retrieving the survival kit, she proceeded to crawl back out of the craft and make her way over to the male, whom she had laid flat just a few yards away. As with Rin, she proceeded grabbed the Hypospray and a Cordazine Ampulet from the medkit, which she then proceeded to inject into the male's neck.
After a few tense moments, the male's eyelids fluttered open.
"What's going on?" He muttered weakly. "How long have I been out...?"
"30 minutes, give or take," the blonde surmised. "Probably closer to an hour, if I had to wager a guess."
With a groan, the male sat up and gazed curiously about his surroundings. "What is this place? Where are we, exactly?"
"That I could hardly answer," the blonde shrugged. "I haven't been up much longer than you."
It was at that moment they heard a loud bang off in the distance. The blonde quickly scrambled to her feet, phaser in hand, to find a large, black plume of smoke rising off in the distance.
"What the hell?" the male remarked.
The blonde turned back towards the other pilot.
"Come on, Lieutenant, it doesn't look like we have much time," she ordered, observing the one-and-a-half pips adorning his collar. "Can you walk?"
"Well, you ask me this right after I awaken from a crash, but..."
With a grunt, the pilot slowly pulled himself into a full standing position.
"Ah!"
Wincing, he glanced down at his right foot.
"Damn; I think I twisted my ankle..." he grumbled. "Could I get some help, here?"
Nodding, the blonde slung his right arm over her shoulder. "Do you have a name, Lieutenant?" she inquired as they began making their way back to Fubuki and Rin.
"Lieutenant Junior Grade Masamune Busujima, Harley Squadron," the male answered. "Yourself?"
"Ensign Hanna-Justina Marseille, Triumph Squadron," The blonde replied.
Masamune blinked in surprise. "You're one of the recent transfers from the Armitage?" he remarked.
"Ah, it would appear as though someone's been combing through the pilot manifests..." Hanna observed wryly.
"Hey, it's not like I was reading through someone's diary or anything like that," Masamune insisted. "I just happened to be going through the manifests last week and observed that we had received a shipment of officers from the Armitage. Your name just happened to catch my eye, because it sounded..."
He shrugged. "exotic? I'm not sure how to put it..."
"The flattering type, I see?" Hanna remarked. "And it's French, for your information; my Great-Grandfather moved to Germany to take up a job at a furniture warehouse."
"That sounds like quite a move for a warehouse job..."
Fubuki had been watching from up on one of the dunes overlooking the crash site. She had sat Rin down and both were sat together. She thought it best to stay with the young pilot as she still seemed kind of dazed.
"How you feeling Rin?" Fubuki asked.
"I'm getting there..." Rin said as she held her head and swayed a little. "Its a bit hot on this planet.."
"Well yeah, it is a dese..." There was a sudden boom as one of the starfighters suddenly exploded in a ball of flames and smoke.
"Valkyrie go boom..." Rins aid lazily.
Fubuki shot to her feet. "Nozomi! Hanna!" She shouted almost instantly. "Oh god I hope they got out of there..." she began to worry. "Please... Have got out of there!"
To Be Continued...
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