Posted by Colonel Calvin Harris (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim: Shuttlecraft
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For the less than 15 seconds it lasted, it was by far the most intense 15 seconds of Molly’s life. The Jem’Hadar bearing down on them, Cal dropped his trooper… who was slightly behind Molly’s. At almost the same moment, Molly’s trooper blasted her CPR from her hand and charged… a large, sharp blade over a foot long tied to the barrel. It was happening so fast, Molly would find herself in a “flash before her eyes” moment when suddenly. CRACK!

Molly jumped when she felt the CPR blasting out of her hands. She saw the blade the Jem’Hadar charged towards her, her eyes widened in panic as she tried to move backwards and she realized there was nowhere to go. Her hands balled into fists as she prepared herself for impact…

With both hands firmly around the barrel of his discharged CPR, Calvin bashed the unobservant charging Jem’Hadar over the head with the rifle. It was clear from the way the trooper collapsed to the floor that he was very dead. With his energy exhausted, Cal collapsed to the deck clutching his left shoulder.

Condor/Harris

But the impact never came. Without warning, the soldier collapsed as Cal’s weapon violently came into contact with its head.

Running towards Cal, Molly kneeled beside him, her hands on his left shoulder, trying to help him. “Calvin…” She looked around. Two Jem’Hadar. They seemed to be the ones she had seen in the schematics. “Come on. We’re almost there. Just a little more and we’ll be in the shuttle on our way out of here.” Molly’s priority was in taking Cal back to the Dresden so that the doctor could see him. But they needed to find the rest of the away team. They couldn’t just leave them in the planet’s surface. All Wright could hope for was that they weren’t caught by the Jem’Hadar either. Her plan was to take the shuttle back down and look for the away team once Cal was back in safety. But that, she didn’t plan on telling him, or he would never allow her back down.

Capt. Wright, CIO

Cal clambered to his feet, pain wrenched across his face. “Move!” He said in a harsh tone. As they moved down the corridor, they passed a blast door behind which they could hear the other Jem’Hadar. Cal & Molly were about 20 meters past it and about five meters from the shuttle bay when they both heard the door behind them being manually jacked open. The angry voices filled the hall. Molly knew they were seconds away from being in the corridor with them when they reached the bay.

As the sound of the door opening reached Molly’s ears, Wright rushed her step and tried to hurry Cal with her. Not that she needed to.

The blast hit the door frame over their heads as they passed through, Cal immediately shoving Molly through and a second later the blast doors crashed shut… leaving the Jem’Hadar locked on the other side. With a violent strike of his one good hand, Calvin smashed the controls… disabling the door and shattering his fist in the same move.

Trying not to stumble in her own feet as Cal pushed her into the shuttle bay, Molly watched as the Marine smashed the door controls and locked the remaining Jem’Hadar outside. She breathed out. They were safe.

Through gritted teeth, he pointed his blood soaked and glass wounded hand toward the shuttle. “You… gotta… fly Babe.” With that, Harris stumbled into the small shuttle and settled in the back chair.

Condor/Harris

Not that she liked the idea, but Molly knew she had to pilot the shuttle all along. She hated piloting. She really really hated piloting. But right now it wasn’t about what she liked or didn’t like to do. It was about survival, and the fact that both Molly and Cal enjoyed being alive.

Walking into the shuttle behind Cal, Molly made sure he had his seatbelt on without placing pressure in the wounds he already had, and then she sat down on the pilot’s seat. The shuttle was a standard Intelligence one. Most likely the one Tomas had used to land on the planet. She tapped the console and inputed her Intelligence credentials, and the engine revved beneath them. Wright could only hope that the Jem’Hadar didn’t follow behind them.

Taking the shuttle out was not the easiest maneuver, nor flying it up the atmosphere for that matter. Not for Molly anyway… flying never came easy and the journey through the planet’s atmosphere was turbulent. Not because something was wrong, but mostly because of Wright’s quality as a pilot. Shuttles got on her nerves… she never seemed to do anything right with them. Her instructors both at the Academy and later during her Intelligence training had told her she lacked sensitivity, that she couldn’t feel the shuttle’s subtleties in order to fly it smoothly. But right now, getting away from the planet was all that mattered.

Looking at the planet’s surface as it got farther away from the shuttle, Molly felt bad for leaving the rest of the away team behind, but she was coming back for them.

Capt. Wright, CIO

As Wright piloted the small, sub-light Federation shuttle clear of the planet’s atmosphere, she would see the Dresden moving away from them… venting into space and half her lights off. Breaking the gravity well of the planet, Wright moved to full power and set in a pursuit course for the Dres’. It was at that very moment the first shots came from behind them as the same Warbird that had sent them crashing to the planet’s surface the last time, decloaked bore down on them from a little over 10,000 meters away. Immediately, the shuttle’s comm system lit up with a hail and the cabin of the shuttlecraft filled with an angry, booming voice.

=//= You are to stop immediately! We will destroy you! Stop now!=//=

Condor

As the shuttle made it’s turbulent way upwards, Molly could feel the gravity pull of the planet and the air resistance of the atmosphere subsiding. They were finally out. They were free. They had escaped. With a sigh of relief, Wright’s eyes teared up slightly as they caught sight of the Dresden. It was badly beaten and venting plasma into space, but if they made it there they would be safe and Cal could be looked over.

Looking over her shoulder to share the good news with Cal, Molly saw he had passed out. It didn’t came as a surprise to her. If she could, she would pass out too. Not to mention, Harris had been treated way worse than she had…

As she switched to full power and set a course towards the dreadnaught, the console beeped. Wright didn’t have to look at it to know why. The large Romulan vessel that had first caused their shuttle to crash was decloaking a few thousand meters behind them. Only now, Molly knew it had carried no Romulans. It carried Jem’Hadar.

The message that filled the shuttle’s cabin, made Molly’s blood freeze. Wright knew the shuttle didn’t hold enough power to fight off the Warbird. She also knew that stopping wasn’t an option. She’d rather blow their shuttle up than hand herself and Cal back into Jem’Hadar hands. There was also no way she would guide them back to the Dresden.

The shuttle was much more maneuverable than the Warbird, and Molly was well aware of this fact. Maybe if she tried to lure them back into the planet’s atmosphere, she would be able to let its the gravity pull do the rest. Sharply steering the shuttle out of the Dresden’s path, she dove back in the direction of the planet.

Capt. Wright, CIO