On The Assault - Part 2 - No Safe Harbor
Posted on Wed Jun 24th, 2026 @ 10:06pm by Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake' & Commander Thomas Johnson & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Zachary Addams & Lieutenant Markus "Hammerhead" Son of juB'CHU'koon & Lieutenant Soren Dillinger 'Speedy' & Lieutenant JG Connor Carey & Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini' & Lieutenant Srelar 'Wildkat'
Edited on on Wed Jun 24th, 2026 @ 10:11pm
2,019 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: Various
Timeline: March 18th, 2397
[Runabout Kiowa]
Inside the runabout, Markus had brought the craft around the worst of the swirling debris, when the comm panel came to life with the identification query. Glancing over at the Ensign next to him, he saw that the kid has his eyes screwed shut. Damn pilot wanna be, he thought himself, as he activated the comms to reply. "This is the Kiowa, Lieutenant Markus, call sign Hammerhead, currently in command. We are definitely friendly, how copy?"
"Copy, Hammerhead. This is Lieutenant Dillinger. Callsign: Speedy. At my six is Lieutenant Srelar. Callsign" Wildkat." Soren replied firmly, noticing a silent alert flash on his left console. "Stand-by, Hammerhead." He muted the com-channel and tapped the alert. "What is it, Bee?"
Bettie's voice came through console. "I pulled up his record in case you want to see it, Speedy. He's on our side, alright."
"Maybe later, Bettie. Let's get an idea of what's going on first." Soren replied before tapping his console to open the com-channel again. "Hammerhead, this is Speedy again. Can you relay your orders over to me? You got a Runabout full of passengers coming into a hot-zone without an escort. Kat thought you were an infiltrated boggy. Glad that's not the case, but it begs the question, why you're here wondering into an area you might get picked off in. You understand the concerns, right Hammerhead?"
Inside the cockpit of the runabout, Markus growled softly as he replied. Thankfully he was at least to speaking to a fellow starfighter pilot. Someone Intelligent. "Roger that, Speedy. Relaying orders now." He then pressed a control on his board, and the compressed file was sent over. "The former pilot of this craft has zero real stick experience. He's nothing but a glorified cab driver. If he was in my Squadron, I'd make sure he never flew anything bigger than an isolenear chip!" He glared at the Ensign to his left, who looked absolutely miserable.
He then turned his eyes back forward, and saw the approaching starfighters. "HQ sent me here to take over the top spot of Ducati Squadron."
"Give the guy a break, Lieutenant. What are the odds his delivery detail would have him running into this chaos." Soren replied, tapping his console. He muted the com-channel and said quickly. "Bettie, verify these orders as quick as you can."
"Got it, Soren. Give me a minute." Bettie replied.
He changed the com-channel over to the one he shared with Srelar. "Hey Wildkat... Turn's out the runabout is filled with new personnel for the Tokyo. This Lieutenant Markus, Hammerhead, is the new squad leader for Ducati."
"Why would they send a runabout with replacements out in the middle of this?" Srelar replied with a groan. The groan slowly shifted into a soft growl in his throat.
"Don't know." Soren replied as he saw the message about the order's authenticity come up on the screen. He tapped his console, removing the message, before switching over the com-channel again. "Authenticity confirmed, Hammerhead. Sorry about the hold up, it's not exactly the best time to get a runabout full of recruits. Sit tight, while I contact the Tokyo to see what to do with you."
"Roger that, Speedy. I'll go find a big rock to hide behind till we get the green light to make a run for the coop." He then threw the runabout into a tight barrel roll to starboard until he was inverted from his previous position, then pulled his nose up, relatively-speaking, and went full impulse towards a rather large asteroid located a few kilometers away from their current position.
"Are you kidding me!" Soren let out a frustrated shout as he tapped his consoles hit the rear thrusters. "Kat... I'm in pursuit."
"Affirmative, Speedy. I got your six." Srelar responded as he tighetned his harness and tapped his console, firing his own rear thrusters as he took up a position behind Soren's Valkyrie.
Soren followed the runabout, the modified speed of the starfighter allowing him to pull up quickly behind it, while still maintaining a safe distance. He checked the lock of his weapons, as he made sure they weren't hot, because this was still a fellow Starfleet Officer and pilot. "Bettie, Open a channel with the Kiowa."
"Channel opened, Speedy." Bettie replied softly.
"Kiowa, this is Speedy." Soren said firmly over the com, doing his best to maintain his cool. "You want to play hide and seek that's your business. In fact, that's telling for an alleged pilot, but until I have orders to disengage, Lieutenant, you are our responsibility. Meaning, me and Wildkat are at your wings to make sure their Iconian pricks don't get any ideas and decide to come this way. Now, I get you're eager to be in control and push the thrusters as best you can, but we have a job to do. So why don't you let us do it and don't give us a hard time about it." He eased his fingers over to his tactical control. "Because, I will have no issue, knocking out your nacelles and leaving you here to be someone else's problem because you can't play well with others. Can we at least agree we got to stick together and not run off like children trying to play tag."
Markus grinned slightly at the emotion he heard in Speedy's voice. Another sign that the man was a professional. "No harm, Speedy. Who's hiding? As I'm flying this tub full of noncombatants, in a hot combat zone, figured it would be best to put some solid material between us and the enemy. You wanna ride herd dog, you'll get no argument from me. Once we are in formation, I'll follow your lead."
[USS Tokyo Bridge]
"Commander, reading a ship dropping out of warp. Reading as a runabout, message states they are replacements and recruits and supplies." Connor replied as he read his sensors.
"Now, they decide to arrive now." Thomas replied, "Engineering we have a runabout heading straight for us, how you coming with the shields. We need to drop them or they will be easy pickings for the starbase's weapons."
“Sir, we’re working on them as fast as we can manage.” Alexis responded with Zach as busy as he was, “We still don’t have an ETA beyond ‘soonest possible’, we will update you when we have a better idea.”
Lieutenant Yuvek's eyes shot up from his console at Connor's report, his expression registering genuine shock. A runabout. Dropping out of warp. Right now. "A runabout?" he said, his tone carrying disbelief. "In this sector? During an active assault approach?"
He pulled up the sensor data on his display, confirming what Connor was reporting. The small vessel's trajectory showed it was heading directly toward them - a lightly-shielded runabout in the middle of what was about to become a combat zone with Herald weapons fire.
"Acknowledged, I'm tracking them inbound," Lieutenant Yuvek continued, refocusing on the immediate problem. "I can adjust our formation to provide some cover during their approach, but we're going to need engineering to drop those shields fast. The longer we're without shields this close to a heavily defended installation, the more vulnerable we are."
"Tokyo. This is Lieutenant Soren Dillinger. My coordinates, along with my fellow pilot Lieutenant Srelar, are right by the runabout with some of your new recruits. One Lieutenant Markus and others are on board with orders to proceed to your ship for Starfighter duty. Please advise how to proceed. I'm forwarding their orders to you... now." Soren said, muting the com-channel quickly. "Bettie, send the file to the Tokyo."
"Sending now." Bettie replied.
"Tokyo. Please confirm the packets arrival. I await your orders. Speedy Out."
Lieutenant Yuvek turned slightly toward Commander Johnson. "Sir, we're sixty seconds from firing range on a heavily defended Herald installation. If we drop shields to dock that runabout, we'll be vulnerable for a minimum of three to four minutes during the approach and docking sequence. Given the Herald Starbase's weapons capability, dropping our shields this close to the target is suicide." His expression reflected the cold reality he was contemplating.
"The runabout and its crew are expendable," The Cardassian continued flatly. "The Tokyo is not. If we take a direct hit while shields are down, we risk catastrophic damage to the ship."
"Lt Dillenger, this is Commander Johnson, in command of the USS Tokyo. We are unable to lower our shields at this time." He paused, nuted coms. "I totally agree with you on that one Lt Yuvek... contact the Armitage, inform them they have some visitors, and tell them to give us one of their fighters and send this Lt Markus to join our fighters. " He turned the com back on. "We have let the Armitage know to expect your arrival, and to have the Lt Markus report to the fighter bay for immediate deployment into the field."
[Starfighters Fighters]
"Snowflake, are you seeing this?" Nozomi radioed as she spotted the runabout out of the corner of her eye. "A runabout just dropped out of warp!"
"Yes, I see it." Fubuki said with a frown. "That wasn't in the plan. Stay on task, and continue the attack. We'll deal with them later."
[Deck 8]
"Power flow?" Zach said, watching his tricorder.
"Steady," his assistant said.
"Bleed?" Zach said.
"None that I can see," his assistant said.
"All right...disconnecting the bypass," Zach said. He reached out with gloved hands and carefully detached his slapdash workaround. Half the circuits were fried, but it had held together long enough. As he pulled it away, he watched the inside of the panel for problems. "All right....I think we have it..."
Zach tapped his combadge. "Addams to bridge: shield repairs are complete, we have full control again."
Lieutenant Yuvek's console chimed with the status change, shield readings snapping back to full integrity. The tension in his shoulders eased a fraction — not gone, just deferred.
=/\= "Acknowledged, Engineering." Lieutenant Yuvek said to Commander Johnson as he keyed the helm controls, feeling the marginal improvement in responsiveness as full power redistributed. "— that bypass held longer than it should have."
"Always be thankful for small miracles." Thomas replied, as he read the readout on his console. "Just hope this holds out... If this Lt Addams pulled it off this fast, he may just be in line for the La Forge award."
=/\= "Bridge to Engineering, what about regeneration rate — are we running at full spec, or reduced output for now? I need to know how much punishment we can actually absorb before I commit us to that approach vector." The Helmsman inquired.
Zach flipped open his tricorder and gave the grid controls a final scan. "Power is nominal, and regeneration is as good as we're going to get until I can get back to Engineering. Have Ops divert power from secondary sources as best they can until then. I'll squeeze a few more millicochranes of power out of the engines once I get my hands on them."
=/\= "Understood Engineering," Lieutenant Yuvek said as he closed out the link and updated the ship's vector approach.
As the channel closed, Zach packed up their things. "Stay here and monitor and be prepared for the next disaster," Zach said. "I'm heading back to Engineering."
"Aye Sir," the engineer said as Zach hefted his toolkit and ran back down the corridor.
Posting By:
Commander Thomas Johnson
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Zachary Addams
Chief Engineer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Connor Carey
Tactical Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake'
Commander Air Group
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Markus "Hammerhead" Son of juB'CHU'koon
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Soren Dillinger 'Speedy'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Srelar 'Wildkat'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini'
Squadron Leader
USS Tokyo
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