The  Music  plays through  the MAtterhorn's  Uppers..

  Joe Mac to Matterhorn>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    Garrat gets on the controls and looks up the positioning and direction of the hive ship.  Rather than activating the ship's scanners he data requests the information on it from the hermes so the hive ship is less likely to guess their intentions.

    Meanwhile he checks to see if he can overload the ship's primary battery calls from the bridge.

Roy nodded to McCloud to acknowledge the wait period.  "Flix, can you tag the Darts and push them out into space?  Finding four pilots that can get them off the ship in one piece could take time, and I'm sure the Delta Fleet can find room for four more fighters."

He scowled in thought for a moment.  "Az-El, disable the elevators...bring them to your floor and wedge the doors open, that will block the elevator shafts.  If you've got claymore mines, set them up to blast the interior of the elevator when triggered...if not, just wire in as much C-10 as you can spare...blow them when you withdraw to the shuttle.  Take the wounded with you...even the one who's questionable.  We can give him a proper send-off, as proxy for all those who never got the chance and ended up being sent off down some bug gullet."

He looked over at Supe.  "Hodden, leave Minnet covering that door for now, go join up with Supe.  We need to clear that passage, as well, and trap it so any Creshians who might think of it can't get to the bridge to try and undo what we're setting up."

   "I'll cut the control wires to the panels when we are done to aid that."  Garrat sets a course to colide with the nest ship just foreward of the engine compartment.  The engines are likely to be sheilded from the outside not the inside.  If there is an explosion on the inside adjacent to the engine compartment then it is more likely to set off the secondary explosions Garrat is hoping for.  He continues to check to see if the power cells can be overloaded at the right time to make that internal explosion.

   Garrat was a captian, a mchanic, and a soldier with explossives training.  It was time to bring these experiences together and maybe save some lives.

    Gia  Voice is on the COMs,..LC?..  May I have    some flying Music?

  Frans  speaks up.. Let her pop something in Shadow?

  ..Alright Gia... let's hear it...

  ..I  have heard this  in some Vids of your Fleet's  battles.. I play it sometimes  when i am  fighting....

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUhtTA_3Et4

 Shadow Grins  as he hears it,..One of My favoirtes!

....................

 .. while you folks  are Jamming to your  tunes?>. make sure those  Big  Uglies get to the Ewald and Back.... Hack  said with a  rueful smile...


..........................

 Harry and Justin  turned on the two remaining aircraft...   Marry took fire  from the other one... one round hit her  Metaglass... she could  see the 'frost' of the crushed glass.. but so  far , no red Lights...The enemy she  targeted Blossomed into a  short bits of  Fire.. and  was  reduced to  bits of metal...

  Justin came in, right after the rounds  walked up the side  of  Harry's  BEE, with the last round hitting her Cockpit Glass... The   creshain  never got to see anymore  as Justin waxed him.

................

   the Hermes , Achilles, and Harvester   pilots  hand  had to more or less  wait... for   unlucky targets... meanwhile  the  work on the Ewald continued.

 20 Minutes  the  Med Tech was   emptied of   wounded  and supplies... One Med tech  stayed  behind to  help in case  any of the troopers  were  hurt

 The  Big Ugly from the hanger deck Pulled out and pivoted to head towards the Med Tech ship...

 ..LT Flix.. Med tech  emptied.. we have secured  the   entry ways... SEC is  empty, we have removed  the   Sniper  rifles and one grenade Launcher.. with a belt of rounds  for it...  we have loaded  some  spare aircraft Power Cells and  2 cases of   weapons  cells.. the rest are  in a rather.... daunting pile..  on the HAnger dec.... My  COMs  troopers  is   tagging the LAst  fighter... we have  Hover Lacks  and  cranes to push them out.. we'll leave the canopy loose...

  there is a slight pause.. a dry laugh as Flix says,..Captain Forthe is alseep.. it seems  he may have....um... hit his  head, tripping on..um..something he tripped on...

.............................

   Felrites    and Angels  worked Like  Fiends.. every now and again a UE would   crawl out  from some where, and a flash of  Angel steel or the  rapid  cough of a supressed  Felrite   SMG  would  finish it..

 ...Another  5 minutes the Enlisted  section will be a death trap... Az-EL

 .. what do you  wish  us to do?.... we could liberate some of the AA powercells.. unless..you  need them where they are for right now?  LT Hirr Purred...

...............

 Bridge:

 Lyri  looks at the side of the terminal and Holds up a  plug that  hand been  yanked from its  port. she LOoks back at GArrat and  Roy,..oh...9 hells?.... Do we tell her she was right?

   Pouring into the  WAr  room,  Hemsly moved to the  door with Karson and the 'hero'. the opened the  door a  bit..

 Supe  and  Hodden  held the   weapons ready while  Lirg, Bloosstar  and Waggles stepped out into the HAll..

 Both sides showed Blood, a mix of  greenish pus  color  blood of   Creshians  and the  red of  Humans... one  patch of  purplish Blood.. and the Occui it  came from  was   dead, in the middle.

  as both side closed  in on the corner of the   Captain's   quarters  and His XO, they peered  down the passage  and  saw at lest 10 Humaniods  with  some UEs.. they were feeding the UEs like puppies.. the elevator  doors  were open straight theough to the stern half of the Offcier's quarters..

  Supe  Poitned at  Hemsly.. who talked softly into the COMs....Bloody 'all way is clear.... we got  some   human lookin'  bugs   feeding some UEs... down by the elevator.. can't  bleedin' see, but it looks like there's a buncha   troops  in the stern  side of the 'all.. wadda ya want us ta do?

..

   crackiing  COMs  come  up from the Engine  room,  This is   Cief  Franken ..Ok?.. Sgt MAj?.. I go 25 people left here...  we  welded  plates to the  engine room doors on the first three Decs..... The  Foundry people  Cut  a Hole and have made they way to the Civie  section.... they can't open the PArk..... they are   trying to cut  away through?... it  will take a while... from what we can  understand.. there are some  30 Civies  on the park.. most of them kids... the rest.. never made it.. I have  a Cutting  crew on the   hold   dec  cutting a  loading Point... but.... what do we do?...we can't leave them in the park?
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:22, Fri 17 Nov 2017.

In reply to Fighters (msg # 42):

Justin saw the rounds from the bogy walked up the side of the Bee What's your status Harry can you visual concern that the Kite may be out for the remainder of the battle.

Roy snorted at Lyri's question.  "You honestly think she doesn't know that she's right?" he asked.  With a shrug, he added, "Just hook it up, Beth doesn't need a play-by-play."

He chuckled grimly at Flix's report.  "Probably the best use for him, right now.  Get everything in place, clear the Darts, and standby."  He nodded at Hirr's report, and replied, "Leave the power cells.  The benefits are limited, compared to the effort involved, and I think they'll make more of a difference where they are."

He glanced over at Supe and Hemsly.  "Roll some bug bombs in there.  Anyone who's still alive would be sealed behind doors, they'll be safe, and it's not worth waiting for the bugs to realize we're here and swing back this direction.  Gas 'em out."

Harry hardly noticed her latest kill as she was suddenly hit by incoming fire with her likening the sensation to somebody hitting the side of her fighter with a large sledgehammer with the attack culminating with the glass of her canopy starring beside her head causing the novice pilot to give a startled yelp.

Despite the complete lack of warning lights showing on her HUD Harry still checked the seals about her helmet to make sure they were airtight as Justin's voice came over her comms "I'm ok...I've got a bit of a blind spot on my port side but the canopy seems to be holding up" Harry reported, feeling kind of surprised that she was able to remain so calm about it all. Truth be told she was more worried about being sent home than being shot down at this point in time

 Justin  and Harry saw the Transport approach.. its  lights were out as well, save for the Hold.. where the  awaited the Big Ugly with the  people evacted from the Ewald.

  Another such shuttle  was close to the  Engine sections, near the Bottom of the stern. tiny lights  told of  someone cutting there.

 Meanwhile  then circles Under thier ships as they watched, in the distance  as creshain fighters going  down..and sadly, a few  ESN aircraft of the Judy Resnik,, The Resnik showed  a lot of signs of  battle, which may have been why she 'sank' velow the  main Battle field. she only had.. at best count..7 fighters  still circling around, keeping  off the  Bugs  and a  few LArgrans.


 Fitzsimmons's  Voice came on the COMs,..Urns Take your Bird BAck... my screens show you'er leaking Hydro Fluid..and you must have taken  a hit near your engine feeds as well? Tell me  you'er not showing Red?

 ..Look?  Chief?.. I'm fine.. for what we have to do?..Shadow?.. Tell her!

 There was a gasp of  'what?" from Fitzsimmons..Shadow  didn't say anything for a second, then slowly spoke..in concise  cut  words......Your flight leader is  your god..... I...am yor flight leader's  god...I pulled up   E Flight's screens.. has you been showing red anywhere but your powerplant.. I'd thinhk about letting you stay...but.... because you have a red  powerplant light...AND.. you went over  your Flight leader's head.. you'r  Going back to the HAnger... and ..yes.. Rivets and Morris  has heard all of this.. so?.. expect a sit-down.. Now?.. get out of  my space...


 ..Look?.. LC?  I can settle on the  Hermes.. be there incase ?

 ...you'er  done..go... one lucky shot  were you have  been hit..and you'er gone...go in.. see if Rivets  can fix it... you'er  still getting the  'sit-down' though.

 ..Look?..LC...

 ..This isn't a debate.....

 ..Look?..Mate?  get yer  Ass in there. If they can fix the bloody thin' then ya can come back out ta play...

 ..Aye...Sir.... already done....

 Urns    flicked around and over  The Hermes to  line up for landing.

 ..Thanks   LC....

 ..no thanks needed.. you were  right..he was  wrong... Now..everyone get you head in the GAme....   Once the Fleet hid  Midway point of  The Field.. we'll likely see alot mo e .freelancing' lizards and such come this way.

     Supe   nodded to   Hemsly as he tossed hi one of his  Bug Bombs, Karson got the other

     with a running throws, Hemsly like a cricket bowler and KArson like a javlin thrower.. set the   bombs down range.. Hemsly's hit  low and Bounded..  Karson's hit   High, then  the wall on  the left.. then the right..  ad Bounced  almost  right in front of the Bugs, when they turned.. the crew could see they had , what was left, of a lady officer and were  cutting off  bits to snack on and feed thier UE's that seemed.. somewhat trained Then the Bombs  went off   as  Karson and  Hemsly scrambled back

 as the  UEs   begin to squeal , the Humanoids  try to  get through the doors of the elevator , to the other  side...One  fell twitsing and   Turning the other  stumbled through, Helped By some others, who began to hold they arms and faces as  the residue  ate through thier   suits... the Door closed.

   KArson Grinned,..now is a good time for  the Hero!

 Hemsly nodded  rapidly with a grin..The 'terrorist' looked at them in question. Hemsy pulled  a block of C-10 out of his back pack.

 ..alright, sport? How much  did you'er  leader's teach ya about  blowing thing up?

 The Guy shook his ehad  and shrugged,..yeah..thought so..that's why yer bitch got blown up...

 The Guy looked angry.

 Right?  Now?  This is a detonator.. I'm arming it and slippin' it in.... see?.. Now this  Block is a bomb..real easy?  Right?  'cep it  don't go off unless you press this here button... he holds up the trigger, the red light  was blinking on it.

  He  Takes the guys hand  and  gives him the  10 lb block of C-10... and the  detonator ..Now?.. Ya  run down as  fast as yer  wobbly legs will carry  you.. you  slam that on the wall of the elevator door.. then run back... about  HAlf way back.. hit the  red Button..k?

 ...what...what... if they open the door?...

 Then   dive on the  floor.. and  those   big folks with the heavy weapons  will cut them down...

 the   guy looked across the HAll to supe,  him and Hodden both Nodded to him..Hodden racked her weapon to show purpose.

 .. You get through this..  ye'll be  browing  tomatoes or something on Delta Prime... you don't  make it?.. well.. YOu'll die in battle.. right?.. now?.. Off ya go Laddie...


 The guy took a few steps looking   back... Hemsly made a showing  Motion with his HAnd ..Go On.. that's a god  Bugger.. go on...

 the   Guy took off   running   fairly fast.. when he got to the Elevator.. he looked at the dead Officer ( what was left of her.. and the  half Melted  Bugs... in the elevator a humanoid creshain, had now  face left, or...chest plate and tendrils of greenish brown smoke rose  from  its chest.

  Looking back down the long Passageway he could see Hemsly waving Him and pounding the wall.. The fellow  slammed the C-10 to the wall..it was sticking.. but  very slowly sliding  down the doors..Then he felt pain for a breif second...

 Hemsly  Hit  the  two triggers.. the C-10 went off and so did the 'suit' the man was wearing.. Blowing  him into shreaded bit and blowing a Gaping  Hole where the elevator sued to be..  UEs  rushed  for the hole, some fleet  into the  shaft, the blasted created  a  gap of 10 yards or more.. Jagged bits of  metal stuck out all around, wired  frizzled and snapped    as they swung back and forth Supe and Hodden added  thier weapons fire  down range chewing up the front creatures.. but the rest were barely in range.. the humanoids  ducked into   doors on either side of the Opening.

 what  a bloody shame...;ere.. the  triggers got mixed up?.. i had  the trigger for the C-10 and his Suit... bloody damn shame , that.. oh well Best go report it... you lads and Lasses   keep watch...

    Garrat is a little shocked.  "You guys leave actual hard wire equipment wherever an enemy can use it?" He says snagging the cord and plugging it into his com, "Sorry Lyri, The Cressains must be absolute idiots to not use or sabotage them but we don't have much time to lose."

    Garrat forwards the target point to Beth with a message: "The main body of the hive ship is likely heavy armored over the engine and the main living space like the body design of the bugs themselves.   There should be a gap between the two.  Sensor reports seem to support this. If we punch through there then overload the main batteries the resulting explosion will be beyond the armor for both spaces inflicting maximum damage.  I've trained to fly this ship, not sabotage it so I'm going to need some serious help getting that overload to happen.  Can you take that over?"

    As Garrat finishes plotting the coarse he mentions to Spencer, "I converted that heavy rifle you gave me to fully auto.  On semi auto it still haves sniper accuracy if you need something to clear the hallway and supersonic bullets the size of breakfast sausages should cut through any other targets in that hallway like they aren't there.  The B clip is rubberized so it can act as a bi-pod."  Garrat goes over the engines to make sure they are all working at full capacity and radios to engineering. "Okay guys, if we are not worrying about keeping the engines in one piece for more than five minutes, can we make 200% thrust?"

 Bridge.

  Lyri sighed  as she pugged the  cord in.. she has to tape it to the console to make it stay.

  ...Beth?>. THis is Lyri.... tell the  Ambassador's  aid she was  right.... the Plug was ripped out, by  whomever tried to diable the COMs... its  gonna come on line...Now...

 the Lights around the COM console flicked on.. Feeds  from all over.. the   Fleet..the fighters.. all loud  and clear...

 there was a  strong Virbrations  that followed   two loud  explosions..a nd the  sounds  of Heavy weapons.

 Hemsly came up through the war room. He  put his hand over his heart and Bent his head,..alas... our  resident  bomb expert, died in the lie of duty... we have..um... mixed reasults though?.. there's a Gap across the  shaft.. a wee bit too big fer Jumpin'... but  it shouldn't  take long  fer them to want to  use  something to  bridge the gap.... we can see..way at the bloddy end  some tiny lights, looks like they'er  tryin' ta cut into the  engine room.. the lads and Lasses   are shootign at anyhtin' that moves that way.. but the range is  just barely there for them..Bloody long ships we have...

 Mc Cloud   pulls down his helmet,..I'll go keep an eye on them... McNeil has  some idea of  COM Tech work.. she kin 'elp  with wirin' and such..

 The CAptain leaves  through the door that goes through the war room.

...........................

 From the Engine room  Chief Franken calls up, the sound is better, they can her some crying and shouts.....here  what we got?.... we broke though the park.. we can only get one person out, at a time... we..at this  Point. have  have the  Kids  in the  las dec where the Cutting them  settign up a static  field.. another  few Minutes...  the  hole will be made... I...I don't know how many of the people we can get out of the park.... there are UEs all over the damn place.. we think they are massed on the rec dec, where the food is?... any other  people?.. we flat out..cut off from... we have Re rounted the  Engine  controls to the  spot  at the base of the  Power Cells... we cut off  all Helm control from the Aux  Bridge..so?.. UInlee you can steer her from there? she's  just going to go in a straight line, Until she hits something..... we have  enough power in the Cells to go from here to Etna if you want?.. I can red Line the   engines.. but we''ll be ok, for..maybe an hour  before  we have to cut  them back..or they will blow..

Roy got on the comm.  "Get as many out as you can, Franken...the Ewald isn't going to survive this battle.  We don't have the resources to commit to flushing out the whole ship, so get everyone you can off.  We've got teams at the hangar deck, the bridge, and the observation deck...our sweeps have found only a very few survivors in sections the Creshians penetrated, and we've rounded them all up.  Let me know when you've got the park cleared, there's another Big Ugly docking with your section so you can get them all out.  But we can't save the ship, and we can't let the Creshians have her...you know what that means."

He thought for a moment, then added, "There's a Creshian team trying to burn through to Engineering...we can see their lights, barely, but they're so far away that we can't reliably shoot them from here and there's too many obstructions for us to move up on them.  Can you vent atmo right outside Engineering, on the command level, for about three seconds, on my mark?  We can give them a nasty surprise..."

As he waited for the response, he looked over in McCloud's direction. "If they can vent atmo, send some more bug bombs down that hall, as far as you can...the venting air will suck it down the hall.  Toss ten of them, as fast as you can, on my mark."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:41, Sat 18 Nov 2017.

Bridge:

  The Chief's Voice  came back.....ok SM.. but this  is how it will work.... I can vent the Dec?.. You understand?... so  close  any doors you don't want amto sucked out of... I have to return it in 2 minutes.. or there is no more atmo on that dec?.. we rerouted stuff to try and suvive  down by the negine  controls?... So?... we'll do what we can..but.. you have to have that Amto pump back on...no longer the 1:30 minutes?...

 ..the  cutting team hs finsihed and set up a Temp static  field... the  Big Ugly is  sending out its  tunnel... how long we got?..and?..say the word on the atmo...thing...

..............................

  Mc Cloud  called Up,..right.. we got Hill, Brooks  and Tucker ready with 4 Bombs each...... just let us know...

 they tree  shucked off thier packs   and   weapons  , save for  their weapon's  belts.. they clutched  the Bombs aas they looked at each o9ther through their  facemasks.. some of the masks   steaming...

 Lirg and  Bloostar stoo by with thier  weapons ready to offer support fire...

 Karson looked   a little  worried,..you guys.. watch yourselves... if you can get back..   hit the dec slose to the  doorways and  grab the  sills. It should   let you hold on, until Atmo comes back..

"Someone go grab the safety tethers off the shuttles...we can anchor the throwers, the rest of us can strap into seats here on the bridge..."

He keyed his comm.  "We'll give you as much time as we can, Chief, but work fast on getting those people out.  And I don't want to blow atmo on the whole deck, just to be clear.  I need it vented at your end, sucking air from our end down there..."

He stopped transmitting, and added, "Close up the shuttles, too...no sense sucking their atmo out and risking structural compromise by decompressing them"

With the fighters they'd been sent to dispatch now little more than floating debris, Harry was able to watch as the shuttles moved in to land so as to evacuate any survivors from the Ewald. It also gave her the chance to watch the twinkling lights of the dogfight taking place around the Judy Resnik "those guys are taking a battering, should...should we reinforce?" she quietly asked over her comms, knowing that it wasn't her place to give orders or make tactical suggestions but finding the sight of the beleaguered ESN fighters circling the crippled ship just a little upsetting. Especially considering that they were in a position to help them out, but then again she was only an Ensign and she wasn't seeing the bigger picture so she would do whatever she was ordered to do.

   Shadow's answer Comes quickly and sternly,..The Resnik is on her own... If  Matterhor  can help they will, if not.. The   Resnick will have to deal with the Mess  that was made before we came here... right now? We have bigger  fish to fry... protecting the Hermes, Achilies and the HArvester  as well as getting  the Ewald where the Admiral wants it to go.


Keep you  eyes  open for stray fighters  or  parasites..

 in truth.. the  wave of Delta ships... lit and unlit were crusing over the field.. some were taking hits, but parasite impact was  way, way down, because of the splits of the flights.. with  fighters  assigned to teh Hull and others to intercept.

  Penilli asked,..how long do  we have to wait around.. i am getting restless..

 ..Go ahead  Penilli.. Go catch up to the rest of the fleet... the rest of us have to protect our home...

 ..no..i shall stay with you...

  Yeah... i'm surprised....


  the COM chatter died  down as  they heard the cross talk of  other fighters scoring, or dying..

 The Shadow added,..get ready.. the   Big Ugly is hooking up its  boarding  tunnel.. shouldn't be  much longer...

Ewald

 Bridge  folks   readied themselves  as the  ramps  closed on the shuttles.. the  runners  were hooked up.


  The Chief was  quiet but the  crying and shouts from the   Engine room could be heard...I say again.. the vent  will draw the Atmo  from the bow to the stern....  its a fire protection thing....again?>. if left off  for longer the  2...zero..zero minutes.. there will no longer be a way to pump Atmo into the Uperdec,  unless it goes to a docking arm.


  .. The men say there are  14  left in the park that they are trying ot get out.. we have  17 here?.. they are startig to board the Big Ugly as i speak.

Roy nodded at the chief's report.  "On my mark, I want you to vent atmo for ten seconds.  Gas bombs go down the hall, starting on my mark, I want one to go each second, so we can flood the whole hall.  Bridge team, strap in, and grenade team, tether up..."

He waited until everyone was reporting in as set...either strapped into one of the bridge crew chairs or tethered to some solid section of the bulkheads.  "On three...two...one...GO."  He braced himself, knowing the wind from the venting atmo would pull at him, restraints or no.  "Grenades, go!" he called, as the air started moving.

  the air gets  sucked out  with a  Loud  Whoosed.. the   Draft   push the   runners even further  down the P-way.. Grandes  went  flying..... zipopign along  witht eh force of the trhows  and the  gust of the  wind..

 UEs  and  Humaniod s were  scattered  down  the passage  as  well..

 Then there was  a loud  Roar as the   the Pumps send  Air from Vents  BAck into the  Decs.

..........

 The grandes  went Off,,   the  Mist  turning the BAck end of the Passage way  into a Fog Bowl.. while  Creatures   squealed and shrieked ..

 the runners   slammed to the dec, But Got  up running. laughing like kids who tic tac  during Halloween..

 Supe says on All COMs,..Cutting team is done on this Dec....at elast for a while.. don't  think any will live.. might be some hiding in officer's quarters..

Roy nodded.  "Good work, Franken...anyone trying to cut through on this level is done, no threat.  We don't have eyes on anyone on lower levels to know if you're in good shape there...but if you're not seeing cutters starting to come through the metal yet, you should have enough time to get everyone out of the park.  Keep working on that..."

He looked over at Garrat.  "Do we have a course to the Hive ship yet?"  Timing would be critical on this...especially the timing to get everyone off before the Ewald got too close to the Hive.

The reply to her query came quickly, and sounded very much like a reprimand to her "Yes sir...it just feels really crappy to leave them hanging is all" came the rather sullen reply as Harry manoeuvred her fighter back into formation whilst trying to keep Justin on her port side, knowing that she'd struggle to see anything coming from that side with her canopy all starred up.

Once in position she'd continue to scan both the black and her sensor suite for any signs of the enemy; trying her best to ignore the poor sods tasked with defending the Judy Resnik.

   they  stood watch over the ships with the Ewald... if they looked ahrd enough they could  pick out  Morgan and Clark as thier  Mechs  walked across the top of The Hermes, looking  for  anything to try to make a boarding attempt.

  ..YOu'er   Right, Ensign Lynch.. it's  Crappy as   the 9 hells... but They sorta  earned that....when this day..or couple days  are over?... we  may have to scuttle the Whole Matterhorn... that doesn't seem to make  one ship , look all that bad...'cause..there is no way, we can get all the people off  a Carrier station

  ..you live long  enough, you'll see alot worse....

"No sir, one officer cocked up and another seems to want to say I told you so...and those poor sods are dying because of it!" Harry tersely replied, obviously trying her best to remain calm and keep a reign on her temper so she didn't say anything she'd really regret "...They're just doing their job like the rest of us!" and they're being screwed over! she finished, narrowly avoiding saying the final words to enter her mind knowing that they would land her into a whole heap of trouble.

Silently sitting within her cockpit Harry would take several deep breaths before calmly speaking again, though it was clear that she was still not happy "...But you're right, worse is on the horizon and I apologise if I stepped out of line, and I'll follow your orders...but this feels wrong"