Mission Log - Like A Stone

Posted on Tue Aug 11th, 2020 @ 5:00pm by Captain Brady Dering M.D., PhD & Commander Jacob Bannerman & Petty Officer 3rd Class Leo Carpenter
Edited on on Thu May 6th, 2021 @ 12:49am

Mission: To Tread Cautiously
Location: Campus Hangar Bay, somewhere over Sapientia
Timeline: 2388/09/01 0900.2 (Mon. Sept. 01 2388 9:00am)
Tags: Edited to change the mission

"Seriously you do!" Leo laughed as he skipped backwards in front of Jake, speeding up to avoid the long strides of the dark haired pilot. "You smell of chicks perfume!"

"Leo I swear...drop it." Jake growled, trying to pretend he wasn't floating on cloud nine. How in the hell did Leo know anyway? Did the man have some sort of top secret gossip scope buried away in his pants? "Is the shuttle ready?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"She was born ready." Leo quipped as he fell into step beside Jake. "So come on...who is she?" he prompted, "Who's the woman who made you look like you just broke the warp speed record? Was it Mack? Did the two of you finally..." he whistled then winked.

"Leo! Dering will be here any second." Jake barked, trying to fend the younger man off, "If he hears you speaking to me like this he'll..." he trailed off as he heard the footsteps following up behind them.

Walking their way, Brady had heard the tail end of their conversation. "I'll what?" he asked, casually. He was carrying two bags, one slung over his shoulders.

"Captain!" Jake stood to attention, wishing that he could kick Leo for getting him into this situation. "We were just uh...talking about how impressed you'd be with the shuttle." he managed to utter, deciding that he couldn't wait for this trip to be over.

Lines formed on Brady's forehead as he looked at Jake strangely. He didn't believe him but went along with it. "Okay. How about we get on board and get going, Commander," and gestured for Jake to follow him as he headed towards it.

"Sounds good." Jake nodded, punching Leo on the shoulder as he passed and mumbled "We'll talk when I get back."

"Sure thing." Leo beamed wickedly, stepping away from the shuttle to give them room to launch.

Moments later, Jake was at the helm and was busy with the preflight checks. "I'll just get this done and with your permission request departure?" he turned to Brady briefly before continuing.

Situating himself, Brady nodded, glancing back to him just as quickly. "Of course." He took a seat, reminding himself it was his idea to travel with the man.

Taking his time going through the motions, Jake was silent for a moment as his hands flew over the console until finally after requesting clearance to depart, he turned to Brady and stated "She's ready to go, Sir, just say the word."

"Go ahead and take her out," Brady said, sitting back comfortably in his seat. His mind was a little all over the place: the Solace, Connor, Kelly, Zoe...and Karyn. And the talk he was going to have with Bannerman while they were in flight.

"You're gonna love the view." Jake commented as he took off, "This planet is one of the most beautiful I've seen and trust me, I've been to a lot of places."

"Yeah, I've seen some of it," Brady replied. Realizing the man was trying to make pleasant conversation, he decided to put in his own effort. "Why don't we go ahead and take the scenic route before heading out of orbit?" he said.

"Sure thing boss." Jake grinned and swooped down over the ocean as they left the colony behind.


As they circled, Brady had to smile as he looked out over the view. He'd been fortunate to have seen many beautiful places and had to admit that Sapientia was breathtaking, and in his opinion, quite possibly outdid Risa.

And it’s beauty had him wondering, not for the first time, how it had been left uninhabited for so long. "I’m going to miss this place. I wish I’d done some exploring."

"Well, seeing it all from the air is the best way to see it if you ask me." Jake replied as he swooped down low enough to be able to make out the detail of the terrain below.

Not saying anything in return this time, Brady only smiled. He wasn't sure if it was the best way, but he could understand where Jake was coming from. He kept his eyes on a blanket of trees as they headed towards a mountain range, one beyond the range that could be seen behind the colony. "I can understand why you think so," he finally said.

"But you don't?" Jake turned to look at his passenger, "You're more of a 'get down there amongst it' kind of a guy?"

"Yeah..." Brady's smile had returned as he took notice of a small prefab building near what he understood to be one of the scientific study teams, "I guess I am."

"Well maybe after this flight, I'll convince you otherwise." Jake replied, banking sharply so that the view out of the port windows showed nothing but the ground underneath them. "Gives you a better view." he commented as he continued to fly the shuttle on its side.

"Ahh..yes.." Brady had gripped his armrest at the sudden change, his eyes going briefly to the other man. "Let's just...be on our way." He shook his head as the shuttle righting itself, starting to question why he had wanted Jake on this trip, and then everything changed.

As they flew, something had shifted in the environment. They did not have time to fully process it as a bright blue-green beam drove through the air, clipping the shuttle. To watch from the ground, one might have said that it barely clipped it. But it was enough.

As the beam hit, the shuttle shook. There was a bright discharge of energy, then all of the instruments went dead, and the shuttle began to spin and fall like a stone. A very large stone.

"What can I do?!," Brady shouted as he saw the other man was frantically busy.

Jake was frantically trying to restart the shuttle but everything was dead. "The whole thing's dead...no backups, nothing. Whatever hit us took out every single circuit in the whole goddamn shuttle." he glanced at Brady, thinking how weird it was to not be hearing and seeing all of the usual alerts that would normally be filling the cabin with shrieking noise and flashing lights at a time like this. Turning his eyes back to the viewscreen revealed a rapidly approaching and rapidly spinning landscape below, "I can't even glide her in." he shook his head in disbelief as he once more tried to go through the primary start up sequence, "You'd better brace for impact." he said as his mind caught a glimpse of the red-headed woman who had stolen his heart and realised that he might never see her again.

Bracing for impact was just what Brady did as the shuttle spun itself into a dive. It hit the ground on its belly, tearing up ground as it skidded to a stop just inside a cave entrance. When it came to a stop, silence reigned. None of the instruments were functioning, so there were none of the customary beeps, whirs, or chirps that they normally gave. From the look of them, it was very unlikely they would function again... at least not without a complete overhaul. For now, though, the two in the shuttle would get nothing from it.


to be continued...



OOC: Special thanks to Sharrina for writing for both the beam and the shuttle crashing.