AT/E01 - Klingon Base

[Tyra Crawford]

== Thread for Away Team ==

[GM-02]

In what can only be described as a minor miracle, the landing went off without a hitch. Approaching from the night side, the shuttle was able to avoid the notice of the Klingon ship in orbit as it made planetfall. A line-of-sight transmission let the shuttlecraft duplicate the IFF signal and avoid the planetary defense grid. Maxas-Darl was more than up to the task of utilizing what ground cover there was to approach from over the horizon and minimize whatever warning the Klingons received.

Unfortunately, there's only so much you could do for the final approach. The shuttle landed in a rush on the far side of the half-finished building, keeping her nose pointed toward the compound, and the rear door opened to let the assault teams exit. For a moment the sound of the repulsors whining down and the sounds of the wild desert were all that could be heard, but only for a moment.

It was replaced by the yell of a Klingon voice, which was taken up by more voices shortly after. No weapons yet, and no sirens, but the element of surprise was gone.

==Maxas-Darl, feel free to elaborate on anything you wish for the descent; flourishes are allowed, just try not to make anyone space sick.==

==Everyone else, time to look alive!==

[Hallowette Maxas-Darl]

Oops. double post! Please delete this little fella!

[Hallowette Maxas-Darl]

“Acknowledged, bridge. Shuttlecraft Aura departing the bay. See you after.”

The comm clicked, and the deck beneath her feet gave that familiar, feather-light tremor as the Aura’s thrusters gently fired. Its systems responded with eager precision — the subtle whine of the inertial dampers adjusting, and the butterfly feeling in her stomach as the shuttle's grav generators replaced that of the mothership. In moments, the shuttle slipped free of the Artemis’s womb and glided into the star-washed dark.

Outside, the vast hull of the Vesta-class ship filled her canopy like a silent titan. Hallowette let herself drift along its curve, then rolled the shuttle neatly onto its side, riding the distortion of the Artemis’s EM field to mask her own signature. Ion scatter danced like blue fireflies along the Aura’s skin, briefly outlining her sleek silhouette before dissolving into the cold void.
For a heartbeat, Hally looked back — the Artemis turning away, her engines flaring gold as she arced toward the orbital defenses. Hallowette touched her fingers lightly to the console, murmuring a quiet prayer to the Prophets - not for herself, but for the ship and those aboard it — that their courage hold, that the stars remember them kindly. Then she pivoted her course towards the world below and the Aura disappeared as lingering light from the day side of the planet turned to night.

Hallowette's Tactical training had given her plentiful experience with electronic warfare, and when the time came to submit the confiscated IFF signal it was accepted without protest. Without challenge from the defense grid, the flight to the planets surface was deceptively easy. The Aura's advanced systems accounted for most, if not all, atmospheric anomalies, which granted the Trill/Bajoran hybrid ample time to plot out an approach vector. 

Diving for a nearby canyon network, the type 14 shuttle was little more than a blur - the ships holo display arcing out the flightpath before her in blue and yellow lines, the terrain bathed in a topographical luminescence that gave away all its secrets kilometers in advance. She noticed the shuttle's airspeed creeping over 1000 kph once, then again, and each time she suppressed a grin as the thrill of piloting the vessel at such speeds over unfamiliar terrain filled her with adrenaline. She wasn't sure what was to come once she left the Aura, but she knew that as long as she was here - in control of this fantastic arrow -  she was in her element.

The distance fell more quickly than the time did, and within a quarter of an hour she announced that they were approaching their target. The canyon network had dwindled and flattened some moments ago, and Hallowette had accounted for the lack of cover as best she could by flying low, subsonic and deliberate - but that could only allow for so much.

"Mara - Lieutenant..." she said, her eyes never leaving the heads up display before her, "I have the compound on my scope. There is an area on the far side that looks like it is unchanged from our orbital scans. I'll set us down there. I'll angle the Aura's shields to give us partial cover, but the terrain is pretty bare. The closest structure is a half finished building about 200 feet from the LZ." She paused, banking the shuttle hard to port. The horizon tilted, lights from the sleeping compound flashing subtlety over the console as she gained a few meters of altitude to skirt the perimeter. “Best I can tell, we haven’t been made,” she added, a faint edge of tension in her voice. “But they’ll see us soon enough. They’ll definitely see us arrive.”

The Aura came in fast and low, its hull shuddering briefly as momentum met the planets crosswinds. Then—with an errant whisper of displaced sand—it settled, graceful as a bird settling on a twig. Hallowette exhaled, turned in her seat, and shot Mara and Aeryn a quick thumbs-up before initiating the ships standby. Her fingers danced across the console, sending a compressed burst to the Artemis:

AURA INTACT. APPROACH UNSEEN. WITHIN OPERATION AREA. TEAMS DISEMBARKING. PHASE TWO IS GO.

==TAGS!==