driftfleet | [ voice

Who: Keith
Broadcast: Voice (shipside)
Action: Huntress (though the event mingle thread is another option for shipboard threads!)
When: During and just after the attack

[action]

They had started their decent, despite Keith's reservations after his visit to the surface with Shiro the other day. Everything about this whole thing felt wrong on so many levels, and Keith had those damn feelings of dread back again that had come with the dreams. Don't land. Run away. Help. And it was making him super agitated. His reluctance to go back to the surface ended up with the Huntress towards the back of the group that was heading down... which ended up being to their advantage when the weapons fire started. He gave a started yell, and immediately pushed the ship to max. The Fleet scattered in an attempt to get cover and/or escape. On the nav sensors, Keith could see other ships going down, but he was focused on getting his own out of the atmosphere first.

It was a bumpy ride. Sorry. But, he was doing his best. The incoming attacks were strong and hard to dodge, each volley stronger than the last. They took some fire, but it wasn't crippling damage, thankfully, and the ship managed to dodge and climb its way back into orbit.

It had been another run for their lives... and Keith leaned heavily on the console for a moment before remembering seeing those other ships going down.

"Quiznak," he growled, hitting the comm to open a channel. It was bad. Really bad. He wasn't even sure if this was going to get through, but he sure as heck was going to try.

=====

[voice]

Hello? Is anyone there? Everyone, check in. What ships are still up? Who's on the sur-? AAUGH!

[He was working hard to keep the panic from his tone, but the screech cut him off mid-broadcast, and then everything went dark, the ship dropping to only emergency functions. He listened hard for a response before finally saying something again.]

Anyone?

=====

[action]

He looked over at the comm to see if there was anything coming through. His own console was completely unresponsive. Did he look worried? Because he was worried.

"I got nothing... we're drifting."

And not in the good 'moving to another planet' way...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Me, neither...

[Keith echoed that sentiment.]

I'm getting some responses, but we lost a few ships. Can you tell who's in orbit and who crashed?

[He looked over, having seen Mikleo watching the sensors and radar.]

Hang on, it's still- okay, coming back now.

[Mikleo scans over the screen, counting off, getting more and more worried by what he sees - or doesn't see - by the second.]

Seven ships... I can't find seven of the ships anymore. We lost that many!?

Seven?

[Keith's voice might have cracked a little.]

I've only heard from a few so far, and they've all been in orbit.

[This was bad... really bad. And then something clicked.]

This was the hunting dream. Lyuku was the explosion. This is the one where people felt hunted.

[His hands clenched on the console.]

The ships on the surface are sitting ducks!

[Mikleo hadn't had the dream, but the contents had been discussed and publicized enough that he can see the parallels, now. they'd been so focused on Lyuku that he'd lost track of the fact that there was another one coming.]

...Try to stay calm. There's nothing we can do to help them until we've gotten ourselves back up and running and have a way to get down there without ending up in the same situation.

[It was the 'unable to help' part that really irked Keith. He focused on the console in front of him for a moment, his hands tense on the controls.]

I know that.

[It didn't make him feel better, but he wasn't going to be diving the ship down into that mess until he was sure they wouldn't get shot down in the process. The Huntress was not the Red Lion. It handled differently and wasn't as durable when it came to weapons fire. Then again, the Lions were pretty much almost indestructible, so it was hard to compete with that.]

They shot down shuttles, too, so they can definitely pick up those on scanners. I've got contact with the ships in orbit, but nothing from anyone on the surface.

So they have tech that not only can knock out our systems here, but the ability to communicate with the planet. These attackers are unexpectedly dangerous.

[They'll definitely need to be cautious with whatever strategies they follow through with next. ...Urgently cautious, that is. They can't just ignore the people on the ground, after all.]

You've got more experience with battling in space than the rest of us, right? Did you notice anything about the enemy while we were flying?

There are definitely multiple installations of those weapons. There didn't seem to be one particular place the artillery was coming from. If there isn't a central control system for the different guns, then they'll need to be disabled one by one.

When Shiro and I went down there the other day, the locals said they're really skilled hunters, but I think, up here, we're safe once we get all our systems working again. No one said anything about them being able to take out ships. I don't think they can get anything in orbit.

Which is good for us, but not good for anyone stuck down below. If we can't get past their weapons, we can't reach the planet to help.

[The ships aren't the most well-armed, and for them to take down so many ships, those attacks hit hard.]

If we can get communications back up, we can try to coordinate an attack, maybe- those below could disable the weapon and we could destroy it from above...

[Keith nodded.]

Hopefully, enough of them are okay down there to do that. But, yeah... we need to figure this out.

Kaname said she thinks our comms are being jammed from the surface to cut us off from everyone. If we can figure out how to work through the interference, we might be able to contact everyone.

[He decided to leave out the part where she said she was going down there to contact some of the crews in person.]

[yeahhhh probably for the best. not that Mikleo can do anything but huff about it...]

I'll talk to Zaveid about it, see what we're able to do from here. Since I switched my augment I can't make much sense of the communications equipment- it's all a bit foggy, and I was never much good at it.

You switched?

[Ah, but that was something for another time. He nodded about Zaveid.]

Okay.

[There were a few shared things between pilots and communications officers, but not many, and repairing comms was definitely something that was between engineers and communications officers, not pilots...]

A long time ago, yeah.

[He shrugs. He's still not comfortable with the augment overall, but he can't do anything about it, so... not worth fussing.]

We'll keep everyone updated, either way. Just do what you can from here and call if you need help.

[He'd ask more about the switching thing later. But, for now...

He nodded.]

Right.

[He'd be ready for when the engines came back online, that was for sure. He just hoped that happened before that chance of them drifting into the planet's atmosphere and crashing down with everyone else potentially happened.]

[ voice | action ]

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