| Running to Stand Still |
| Summary: | After the Swarm attacks the Fleet at Audumbla, Cidra and Trask discuss their options. |
| Date: | 27 Feb 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | Enter the Swarm X: Swarm vs Auðumbla directly precedes |
| Players: |
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| Hangar Deck - Port - Midship - Battlestar Cerberus |
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| Post-Holocaust Day: #366 |
| The single largest rooms on the Cerberus are the hangar decks. Each flight pod consists of two stacked landing bays with adjoined decks and hangars, which along with computer-assisted landings results in a faster Viper recovery rate. Mirror images of each other, these two huge areas are located on the flight pods. The inboard sides of the deck, closest to the ship's main hull, are lined with parking and maintenance bays for Vipers and Raptors based aboard the battlestar. The outboard side of the deck contains the launch tubes used by the Vipers for standard deployment. Huge blast doors seal the deck into four sections, each one containing an elevator that leads up to the flight deck directly overhead. The fore-most section contains an elevator system that leads towards Aerospace Fabrication. |
| Condition Level: 2 - Danger Close |
Seconds after Poppy's canopy cracks open, before she's even done with her postflight and signing off on clipboards, she barks out, "I want a fresh CAP in the tubes and outside in ten minutes!" She then hauls herself out of her Viper's cockpit, attempting to negotiate the stairs, when she more or less collapses on her right side and is caught by two deckies attending to her bird. "Frak! Leg is all pins and needles," she spits. And, indeed, there's a small tuft of smoke coming from the inside of her cockpit, likely a secondary bus frying from the shot she took to the bird's underbelly.
[TAC3] (from "Toast" Cidra) Before she lands, Toast's voice sounds over the wireless, "Medical to hangar deck, we are incoming with some casualties. No KIA, thank all gods."
Cidra's Viper skids rather more than it should as she touches it down on the flight deck, but she gets it in without crashing. Not a particularly remarkable outing, but she didn't faceplant into a gas giant. There's that, then.
"Snake Eyes, get started on the post-flight," Bootstrap instructs, unstrapping himself from his seat. "I need to speak with the CAG."
"Can do," the pilot replies, like it ain't no thang.
With a nod of thanks, the SL is then off to find the bosslady. "Major Hahn?" he asks one of the deckhands, who eventually steers him in the proper direction. Along the way, he spots Khloe. "Poppy. Will you live?" is the good-natured cheek offered while he passes by.
Cidra has gotten straight on a Deck wireless, on which she's interfacing with CIC, one would assume. She nods to Trask when she sees him heading her way, holding up a hand and continuing to chatter.
Khloe is rested on her rump on the metal stairs down from her Viper's cockpit while deckies swarm over her bird, and Circe checks her leg. It's clear what happened - a high-voltage discharge likely struck the Captain in her leg from an overloaded bus. The suit sucked up most of the discharge, leaving Khloe with a nasty, but tolerable, shock. "I'll be fine, Boots. And I want to go over the tactical data of that engagement with you ASAP. I have ideas." Perhaps Trask and Khloe are of like-minds when it comes to the sudden bait-and-switch maneuvers of the Cylon fleet this evening.
The landing that Kaitlyn makes is a rough one, but still controlled. Certainly more skidding than usual. Once down and secure, she doesn't waste time in popping open her cockpit. The fresh air is welcome, the Ensign sitting there for several moments, wanting to take a moment before she climbs herself out, and puts her now burned arm into motion. For once, she's not in any hurry to keep moving, but once she does finally climb out, it's with a groan and clenched teeth.
Still en route to Cidra, the other SL replies, "It's a date." Beat. "Just not with dinner. Or drinks. Or any attempt at makin' out." And then Trask is nearing the CAG, coming to a respectful, if a bit restless halt, when she gives the indicator that she's currently engaged in a conversation with CIC. That being the case, he glances about, finally just up and telling her, "Find me when your finished, yeah? We need to talk. I'll be handling post-flight."
"CIC reports all ships in the Fleet confirm, no sign of Cylon contacts in our vicinity," Cidra says as she puts down the wireless. "And our Provider scout bus has returned, nothing outside the cloud now, either. If anything was out there at all, it is gone now. The Fleet is moving, farther from the anchorage, but still within the radiation cloud."
That stops Trask in his tracks. "Good." The decision to remain put is evidently just what he wanted to hear. Drawing closer to Cidra for some more quiet conversing, "I wanna review what, if anything, ExLORAD picked up. If they managed to cut through some of the interference, we should seriously consider trying to interface it with the Areion's networked ECM so our Raptors won't be flying so blind."
"They can likely ship you the DRADIS readouts," Cidra says. "Though the Corsair reports barely more functionality with its own DRADIS in this mess than the other capital ships. Still, no harm in asking. Any improvement to our present situation would be welcome." She takes a deep breath, releasing it slow. "I never flew Audumbla in a Viper when we were parked here before. It is… beautiful. Terrifying, to fly half-blind. But… beautiful in a way."
A nod regarding Corsair's success rate. "Well, maybe there's a way to create a reciprocity wherein its base power is amplified by the linked ECM and vice versa. That'd be somethin' Captain Belgoin would know a lot more about." The other idea Bootstrap has is, "I wanna retrieve one of the Raiders to use as a control unit, and then I'd like The Gun to be fired to determine whether or not the ones left in the drift suffer from the usual fritzing. Not a hundred-percent, I know, but it might give us /some/ idea whether or not we have that firepower in our arsenal. Failing that, we can perhaps determine how, if at all, Audumbla's radiation is affecting those Raiders." As for the beauty of said place, he's none too convinced. Then again, the last time the Fleet was here, his Raptor nearly drifted into a gas giant when he was suffering from CO2 poisoning and had a loaded gun aimed at his person. "What's beautiful is all that scrap, Cid." That much he'll concede.
"Many ghosts floating out their, Boots. Perhaps some are working in our favor." There's a faraway quality in Cidra's voice as she notes that. She clears her throat, nodding to the bit about scrap. "They have a better read on our position, but it does appear this area affects them to their detriment in a fashion we can use to buy some more time. We should grab what we can. As I do recall, The Gun's application would be of little use against dead Raiders, as it is designed to render them such, but I have no objection to inquiring for the experiment. With how fast the swarms appear and disappear, it is of little use to us at present, if the attacks continue in this fashion."
"Well, seeing how I'm not their most favorite person," the man smirks, "perhaps it'd be better if you proposed the idea. I can, at least, see about speaking with Belgoin… bring Damon along, see who maybe Engineering can spare for testing and outfitting. Poppy wants to go over the flight footage. Not sure what her angle is, but I don't doubt she's kickin' around some ideas of her own." Going back to the Raiders, he notes, "This is the first time /they/ retreated. If the Areion foregoes spooling the FTL and instead charges The Gun, might well be able to get a shot off." As for ghosts, Trask simply murmurs, "Perhaps." Not one wanting to revisit the murder of LTJG Mike "Wank" Orr, he concludes with, "We still make the bulk of our luck."
"It had taken far more than the spool-length of an FTL drive to charge the Gun before, but I can inquire," Cidra says. No more about ghosts, though it's an even bet the CAG will head to the chapel after she's entered in the final reports on this. "I pray we can make some more tomorrow," she says simply. "See to your post-flight, I need to get a full casualty assessment, though it looks like we took it lighter than we have in a time. Good hunting with the footage to you and Poppy both."
Another nod. "We can't keep runnin' like we were, Toast," Bootstrap asserts. "This is likely the best place to make our stand until we can make our strike against the foundry. I still have no idea how they managed to find us, but I'll get my people to comb through their transmission logs to see if something from somewhere might've slipped by since we've been here. Doubtful, but I'd rather err on the side of caution." That said, all he has left to add is, "Be sure to make an offer to Tyche." A small smile somewhere between wryness and rue, coupled with a salute, seeing as he's effectively been dismissed.
"Has not Flasher done some work with transmission in the past?" Cidra does not sound entirely sure, but Marko has been tasked to assignments for Command before which the CAG has only need-to-know knowledge of. "He has been as heavily tasked as our other Raptors of late, but I should see about loaning him to CIC again, to see if he can interface with their technicians and sift anything. I shall check with Lieutenant Colonel Baer as well, see if their searches on the Areion have turned up any sign of how they might have such ease hunting us." The salute is acknowledged and with that, Cidra is off to her reports. And later, her Lords and Ladies.
"He has," Kal confirms, "which is why he's the first person I'm gonna tap." With that, he's off to do all that he needs to do.