New Enemy (pt 1)

Posted on Sun Mar 3rd, 2024 @ 2:23am by Captain Johnathan Reece

586 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: First Deployment
Location: SS Farragut, unnamed L Class planetoid
Timeline: 31 November, 2155

Thrown from his bunk when the ship was rocked by weapon's fire, Johnathan quickly rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he struggled to his feet...how long had he been asleep??

The alarm klaxons were blaring, causing him to forget about how much or little sleep he had gotten.

"MOVE YOUR ASSES, DEVIL DOGS!" The unit's Master Sergeant barked as she started to pull on her battledress uniform. The MACO detachment came alive, like a group of army ants that had just had their hill kicked over.

Johnathan finally got to his feet and started to get dressed, echoing the orders. "YOU HEARD TOP! LET'S MOVE IT, PEOPLE!"

As the unit finished getting ready for combat, the Farragut continued to buck and shake all around them. It was clear that a major battle was taking place...and they were losing.

Suddenly, the deck shifted steeply to port, and Johnathan knew that they were entering an atmosphere. "EVERYONE! BRACE FOR IMPACT!!"

======

The Farragut, one of Starfleet's proud NX Warp Five vessels screamed through the atmosphere of the dark, unnamed world, her port warp nacelle gone and her starboard one venting drive plasma as the ship fell on its dying glide slope, as the bridge crew did everything in their power to make the inevitable crash landing as survivable as possible.

The powerful vessel broke through the cloud cover, fire and smoke trailing in its wake as it screamed towards the rocky terrain below.

======

Inside, Johnathan was holding on to the hand rails of his bunk as the entire ship rattled, groaned and shook violently around him. Looking around at his fellow MACOs, he could seea mixture of gritty determination and total fear. Before he could consider these differences any further, the ship made contact with the planetoid's surface.

======

The Farragut careened through a massive forest, slicing through the mighty trees as if they were matchsticks. As she continued, the damaged forest started to catch fire, from the superheated hull and plasma that spilled out as she continued her descent.

After nearly two hundred meters of slicing through the forest, she broke our into a clearing and made contact with the ground, churning up an enormous trench as it continued to slow down.

======

Inside, control surfaces were overloading and exploding, and the ship started to cone apart from the vibrations caused by contact with the surface. At the point of impact, a structural support bean broke free and decapitated the MACO CO and three lower enlisted, them broke free and cruss3d the XO as well, killing her instantly. Johnathan was now the second highest ranked. MACO aboard, just behind his platoon leader, 2nd Lieutenant Davidson.

======

As the Farragut continued her movement along the surface, her forward momentum had started to slow. However, she was quickly approaching a canyon, without any way of halting her forward motion. Withing seconds, she had slid over the edge and started to fall again, severing the support strut and losing her starboard nacelle when she scraped the side of the canyon.

The contact caused her to begin to both spin and tumble, before finally striking the canyon floor. She slid for another three hundred meters, before finally coming to a halt.

======

Inside, as soon as thr ship stopped sliding, everything no bolted down was thrown forward, the crew included. Johnathan himself was thrown into the bulkhead next to the door leading to the showers. The noise of the final moments of the crash landing were horrific.

Then, there was silence.

~TBC~

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