As Zogoyah struggled to regain control, Harada blew past Vex's outstretched hand and she reached the rear engineering console and keyed open the panel.  T'Lara moved back towards them as well, making 3 unsecured persons in the plummeting shuttle.

At her touch on the blinking control panel, another panel popped open on the floor, revealing the magnetic drive coupler, yellow and red lights flashing.  Harada's fingers danced on the controls despite being almost upside down during the fall.

"Watashi wa jiki shōji o atooshi shite imasu," she said in rapid-fire Japanese. "Raito ga midoriiro ni kawattara, jointo de kapurā o hantai hōkō ni hinerimasu!"


Glancing to T'Lara, she said, "Brace me!" Since the woman was already up, her Vulcan strength would be of great help...

The lights along the coupler flashed green.

OOC: Amami can make a Daring + Engineering check with a Difficulty of 1 to boost the magnetic degaussing.  T'Lara can make a Fitness + Command check, Difficulty of 1, to brace Harada.

Zogoyah followed Kezik's direction as quickly as his Gorn reflexes would allow... which was actually pretty darn fast, for a Gorn.  The shuttle began raising its nose from a steep dive and banked to port to avoid another magnetic anomaly. The shuttle bucked like a bronco, but it was now under some modicum of control.

Kezik's sensor panel was flashing like a kaleidoscope, but through the front viewports, Vex spotted something angling up through the sky towards them from below.  It was like nothing she'd ever seen before... and certainly nothing that fit into her expectations of what should be here.

The arrival - somewhat awkwardly, with T'Lara taking up the rear, to Azami's surprise - puts all three of them in jeopardy.  The moreso when Harada, working with sure fingers despite the chaotic situation, nominates the medtech for finely timed boost of the magnetic degaussing.

...whatever that is.

"Nan da?" Azami queries incredulously, her equanimity failing for an instant before falling back into her professional veneer.  You are not your brother, she reminds herself, irritated with her lapse.  "Hai, wakarimasu," she returns with a swift nod.

T'Lara moves up to assist, and Azami spares her a quick grimace as Harada raps out instructions.  I did mention I'm not...terribly apt with this sort of thing? she wonders.  Yes, she did; Harada nonetheless places her faith in the medtech, and Azami narrows her eyes.

Shikata ga nai...

She settles in place, breathing out, body relaxing despite the flare and crackle of the lights around her. Focus.  Her eyes find the lights, flicking back and forth between them and the lieutenant.  Harada performs her arcane, engineering magic.

The lights flare green.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Haaaa...I'm stealing from the momentum pool.  One dice, thank you.  That might give me a decent chance to NOT screw up, unless Rpol's dice roller belatedly decides that I deserve a bunch of natural 20's.

I swear it has been hoarding them for this specific circumstance...

Also, I'm making the request to switch to Insight from Daring - Azami is watching Harada carefully, judging her timing, and will move the instant the lights start to change.

Edit: Freakishly happy I chose to spend momentum, either way.  A 14 would have (barely) failed no matter the stat, and that was the first die up.  As it is, the 9 gets me a success! :D

---

This message was last edited by the player at 00:52, Thu 28 Oct 2021.

Doing something, even if it wouldn't make much of a difference, would at least serve to distract T'Lara's mind. She moved closer to Harada, again failing to decipher what she was saying until she swapped to a language she was more familiar with.

Bracing.  She could do that.   Or could she?

Vulcan strength would be of no use unless she herself had something to hold on to, and the closet handrail was still out of her reach.  She settled for leaning against Harda's back and extending her own leg forward, pushing against the frame of the shuttle for support.  It wasn't ideal, but hopefully it would be enough, or better yet - not needed at all.

LCDR T'Lara rolled 24 using 2d20 with rolls of 5,19.  Bracing Lt Harada (fitness+ command). one success.

D'rala is only confused by Harada moving past her for a moment, understanding dawning a the engineer reached the panel at the back. She watched raptly. As the shuttle began to tilt into a more natural position, relief rushed through her body like a physical sensation.

D'rala was mid sigh of relief when she saw the creature, whatever it was, out the view screen. She gasped. The gargantuan thing, lit in blues and purples, was like nothing she had ever seen.

"Zogoyah, Kezik" she began, regaining her voice, "there's something coming to meet us. Prepare to take evasive action."

OOC: To be clear, does Kezik see any of this or am I right in interpreting that the sensor readout is useless?

Amamiya turns the coupler and there's a noticeable HUMMM as power shifts within the shuttle.  It bucks and pitches, but T'Lara braces herself and hangs on to Harada with her Vulcan strength; otherwise the CHENG would have been thrown clear across the cabin, possibly fatally.

At first, Kezik's attention is on his lava-lamp-like sensor panel, but at Vex's orders, the Denobulan glances up to see... something spectacular angling up towards them through the atmospheric soup.

Kezik may make a Reason + Science roll, Difficulty 3, with his focus of Xenobiology applying, to get SOME idea of what this critter is.

Zogoyah may make a Daring + Conn, Difficulty 1, assisted by the shuttle's Structure + Conn. If successful, until the flight controller’s next Turn, all attacks against the shuttle, and all attacks made by the shuttle, increase their Difficulty by 1. This has a Power requirement of 1.  The shuttle's assist is a single, separate die, and her Structure is 7 while her Conn is 2. 

Struggling to control the shuttle, Daniel finds himself overwhelmed by the amount of data rushing at him.


19:34, Today: PO Daniel Zogoyah rolled 23 using 2d20 with rolls of 5,18.  Structure + Conn (9) for an assist.

19:34, Today: PO Daniel Zogoyah rolled 36 using 2d20 with rolls of 19,17.  Daring + Conn (13) Difficulty 1.

Pretty sure I failed.

Remind me never to play a character whose rolls can get so many peopled killed again.

LT Kezik squeaks out an exclamation in Denobulan and starts punching at the sensor panel with staccato tapping. "Well THAT'S unexpected..."

20:17, Today: LT Kezik rolled 35 using 3d20 with rolls of 19,14,2.  Scan of unexpected flying life form - Reason(11)+Science(4) w/ 1 momentum die.
With Exobiology, that's three successes!

Zogoyah's Gorn reflexes were again dazzling... for a Gorn... but the shuttle bobbed and weaved a bit too slowly to be of much defensive help.

Kezik, his scanners next to useless, managed to get SOME info, and based on that and visual observation, he deduced that the creature - and it WAS alive - was generating powerful magnetic fields.  It seemed to use those to assist in its flight.  And the number of magnetic anomalies down here...

There might be a LOT of these things.

Further, he was convinced it had a common root to the massive hive ship they'd encountered outside the Oort cloud.

A conviction that was born up when it spat a hot plasma sphere upstream at the Sacajawea!

Despite everything, the first shot missed, barely.  The next one?

OOC: A PC may perform an action now!
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 02:34, Mon 08 Nov 2021.

Daniel wished for an order, any order! He didn't want to be the one to decide what to do here!!!
This message was last updated by the player at 03:32, Mon 08 Nov 2021.

The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
Sacajawea would be lost ...
Sacajawea would be lost.

                - rolled 26 using 2d20 with rolls of 13,13.  Control(8)+Command(1).
As the tiny ship was tossed, PO Trainor began to panic.   Then, the flaming spitball of hell crossed the bow, and before his Starfleet training could kick in, PO Trainor lost his proverbial shit throughout the entire inner cabin.

Releasing his safety harness, Trainor threw himself on the floor between the seat and the console he was at:  his hands covering his head, he began screaming, "Game Over, man.  GAME OVER".

T'Lara's spirits were uplifted once Harada managed to restore power to the Sacajawea.  They might live through this just yet!  But as if navigating through the magnetic anomaly of the planet wasn't precarious in its own right, they now had to contend with a hostile alien lifeform on top.

It wasn't surprising to see panic set in the cabin under such circumstances.  T'Lara was the ship's counselor.  It was her duty to tend to the mental well-being of the crew, but she knew well enough that words alone were not going to sooth anyone while they were in mortal danger, and even if they could, the shuttle will spin out of control by the time the Gorn regains his composure.

"I'm going to take the helm!"

She didn't wait for approval, and once she made it to the front, strapped herself in and took a look at the controls.  It has been a long time since the academy, and even back then, she never piloted a shuttle under anything but a controlled environment. She was going to need a whole lot of luck to land the shuttle down before it disintegrates mid-air

First comes power.  With the energies of the shuttle shifting (hopefully in the direction Harada wished), Azami staggers away from both the engineer and T'Lara, struggling to reach some kind of safe handhold.  There's little enough around; she's turning back toward her seat when (another) commotion begins.

But this one is punctuated by a flare of bloody light from the cockpit.

That wasn't lightning!  Still struggling for her balance, the medtech reaches her seat...just as PO Trainor falls into a panic attack.  Lips thinning, Azami studies the man for a long second before one hand snags her carry-all, still strapped down.  She should be terrified, but with Trainor's need for assistance comes crystal clarity and focus.  Fingers dive into a side pouch, coming out with a compact hypo-spray; pressing herself against the seat, she fishes out a cartridge from another pocket.

A brief check reveals it's the one she's looking for, rather than, for example, something for PO Zogoyah which could produce a lethal allergic reaction in a human.

Then she turns back toward the panicked petty officer, hypo-spray behind her leg.  Pushing off, she stumbles to where he crouches.  "Trainor!" The medtech grips his shoulder, partly for human contact, partly to anchor herself.  "Please control yourself - we need you!"

Not the most inspiring attempt, but Azami is well-aware of her lack of personal magnetism; hence, the hypo.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
OOC - Hopefully Trainor will get ahold of himself - do I need to make a dice roll to assist him? - but if not, 'Pfft'.  Azami will tranq him.  She can always 'untranq' him later. 

---

"Commander! Given the correlation between that creature and the magnetic fields, I believe there are quite a few of them nearby. And given the power of their attack and the wreckage on the surface, I don't think there will be any refuge for us there. I recommend we return to Independence immediately!"

Kezik was attempting to stay calm, but his voice was becoming more strident as he realized the magnitude of the danger.

D'rala braced herself against the panel in front of her as the shuttle dodged the projection from the creature.

"Get us out of range of this thing," she said as T'Lara dropped in at the controls.

She nodded, face grim, at Lt. Kezik. He was right. They couldn't brush past this entity into a swarm of countless more below. They needed to find another landing zone or head back.

"Once the Sacajawea hits a safer altitude, take us further out from the intended landing zone and see if we can find a less crowded sector on the sensors. If there's no way down, we return to the Independence."

(sorry for my posting lapse, been kind of a rough ride this month w work/life)

Having received orders, Daniel tries to steer the ship up and away from the life forms. They may have shot at the ship, but it might easily have been in self defense, and he didn't want to go down in the history books as the one who started an interstellar war.

Kezik glued himself to the sensor readouts, using the magnetic anomalies to track the locations of the creatures in order to warn PO Zogoyah away from them.

If one of those plasma bolts hit the shuttle, at least the end would be quick...

My usual apologies for pacing and tardiness, gang.

Going to parse these posts into a semblance of order...

Zogoyah clung to his board, the young Gorn uncertain what to do.  This was way over his pay grade!

Trainor panicked and threw himself to the floor, crying 'game over!' as the shuttle was buffetted.

Struggling up from aft, Counselor T'Lara slid into Trainor's seat and took the helm.  The young Vulcan set her jaw and quickly brought the shuttle down, a notch faster than the inertial dampeners could compensate. The clouds rushed past the viewport and the hull howled with the wind as it descended, seemingly leaving the creature in the dust.

Meanwhile, Azami made her way to Trainor and readied a hypospray, calling on the hysterical petty officer to calm himself.

Kezik recommended for them to return to the ship, but T'Lara didn't wait for orders.  The shuttle was in a steep but controlled descent.  He could see that the magnetic anomalies were getting thinner the lower they got to the surface.

Vex ordered for them to move further afield.  The outpost ruins - for ruins they were - were clearly visible, along with a rubble-strewn landing field.

OOC: Does Zogoyah wish to land on the field or head further from the sky squid?
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:43, Sun 21 Nov 2021.

Chaos reigned, and for some reason nearly everyone has undone their straps, something that really concerned the Gorn.

That said, he found it reasonable to avoid the lifeforms. It seemed quite possible all of their attacks have been in self-defense from the view point of the squid.

He wasn't sure it was even possible, but they needed to try and find a way to make contact, and find out what was going on here.

As such, he tried to land further away from the sky squid. If they fight or if they talk, he will be happier doing it on the ground.
This message was last updated by the player at 12:10, Mon 22 Nov 2021.

A shadow passes her; Azami glances up to see T'Lara taking Trainor's place in the cockpit.  Despite the chaos of the situation, the medtech offers only a small moue of consideration and an approving nod, before returning her attention to the panicked crewman.

There's no real point keeping him here, now; time for plan B.

"Crewman Trainor," she begins - it's all Azami has, with no idea she's traveling with two very different Daniels - "we need to get somewhere safe."  Putting a palm against his cheek, she gently turns his head slightly to orient his panicked gaze on the crew seats.  "Strap in.  Can you do that?"  It would help if he scrambled for a place on his own; Azami isn't looking forward to lugging the deadweight of a tranqed man and attempting to strap him in, flopping limbs and all.

She will if it's necessary, mind, but....

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
OOC - Hoping now to get Trainor to a seat.  Again, should this prove impossible, 'pfft.'  Can't have a hysterical person flailing around the cabin.

---

With deft maneuvering, Zogoyah brought the shuttle down low and then flew, nape-of-the-earth, away from the settlement, gaining some distance.

With all the magnetic distortions, it was impossible to tell if the sky squid was hot on their heels.  But no blazing plasma bolts came after them.

And while sensors were unreliable, Kezik could make out faint energy signatures up ahead, towards the mountain range ahead.  And they were Federation.

"Commander! I'm reading what appears to be signs of Federation technology ahead, away from the settlement. I'll see if I can lock-in on them..." His fingers began tapping furiously at the small console.

11:49, Today: LT Kezik rolled 26 using 3d20 with rolls of 15,3,8.  Lock on to Federation energy signatures - Reason(11)+Science(4) w/ 1 momentum die.
That should be three successes.
Don't I get a (weak) assist from the shuttle itself? Sensors 07 + Science 00? If so...
11:53, Today: LT Kezik rolled 8 using 1d20 with rolls of 8.  Assist from crappy shuttle sensors - Sensor(7) + Science(0).
Starfleet needs to stop sourcing knockoff discount electronics from the Orions for its disposable shuttles.
Uh....no offense intended, Commander.

"Survivors!" It was as much a devout hope as it was an assumption. Shifting in that direction, he attempted to find a safe place to land, not too close unless contact was made. No sense getting away from the flying Squids to be shot out of the sky by wary Federation gunners.

"Can we get them on communicator?" he called out to anyone with a free hand.

"Let me see what I can do"

The situation seemed to have stabilized, at least for now.  No sign of the space squid, which didn't mean it wasn't still following them from behind, but at least it far enough away that they were in no immediate danger.  Traces of Federation energy signatures at the mountain range were likewise encouraging.

"This is Lieutenant Command T'Lara from the Federation vessel Sacajawea" she called into the comms "We've been sent to relieve Coriolanus IV.  Please respond with your current location"