The Crash of the Yamato
24 Jun 2020Aeryn Airstryder
The Crash of the YamatoThis log entry serves as background information of a key event for four RP character's lives as told from Ao's perspective.
Star date: 15.03.02
EHSF Yamato
-Bridge-
Ao leaned back in his chair on the bridge of the 'Yamato' a survey focused multi role anaconda and drank deeply from the tar black cup of coffee through the straw in the cup's cap before refitting the stopper and letting go of the cup.
It hung there, suspended in the zero gravity next to the chair as he looked around the room.
From his position, on the raised section of the bridge, he could see all three of the main control stations;
Tactical, Helm and Science.
Located behind him was the communications station and other assorted bridge stations.
"ETA?" He asked looking towards the tall, olive skinned man in blue formal military dress, hovering inverted above the crewman at the helm.
With the lightest of taps, the man pressed his foot against the handhold above the helm and turned to face Ao, who as always had to struggle to keep his composure at seeing this giant of a man, built like a tank with a bushy lumberjack beard bobbing upside down.
"We are on final approach to the 9th planet now captain, high metal content, low levels of volcanism but nothing to be concerned about, scans show it should be ideal for Jaques' mining operations and the closeness of it should easily facilitate repairs." His accent was thick, and similar to a Nepali accent.
"Very good" Ao un-clipped himself from his seat and pushed off, his long blue coat billowing about him as he glided towards the helm and placed his hand on the shoulder of the helmsman;
"Nigel you look knackered, you've been flying for nearly 18 hours straight, go get yourself some rest"
The crewman looked up at Ao and grinned before thanking his captain and quickly taking him up on the offer.
Ao slipped himself into the pilot's seat and settled in, vaguely aware of Tiberius bobbing above him just out of his field of vision.
"Number one, are you going to float around all day or take a seat and do some work?" Ao asked, grinning up at his first officer and best friend.
Tiberius gave a bellowing laugh and kicked off, settling himself into the now vacant captain's chair and clipped himself in.
Ao pressed the button on his hud for internal comms:
"All hands this is the Captain, we will shortly be transitioning to orbital glide, secure all stations and prepare for the onset of gravity, rating 1.3Gs"
He then buzzed engineering;
"Engineering, how is my baby doing today?"
The gruff voice of Mr. Yamamoto, the ship's chief engineer responded;
"Which one Cap'?"
"You know which one..."
"Well, Rose has gone to sickbay...again...what in the milky way is wrong with that girl I will never know, we've been out here weeks, surely she should have adjusted to zero - g by now!"
Ao sighed, and furrowed his brow, he himself had been concerned by this;
"And my other baby?"
"Purring like a kitten Cap', Port drive is still idling a little high for my liking but well within limits, when we get back to Jaques I'm going to give those amateurs a piece of my mind!"
"Very well, thanks Chief"
Ao cut the channel and began to manoeuvre the Yamato into a shallow glide
Musical Score Begins here - 'Saving Fischer - Trevor Rabin'
-Engineering-
Chief Yamamoto felt the effects of gravity begin to take effect as the Yamato began her glide, the port and starboard engines began to spool up as the fsd began to spool down, for the duration of the glide the two drive systems would run in unison until the ship decelerated from supercruise, where the main engines would take over.
He monitored the readouts from the console mounted on the railing overlooking the three massive drive cores in his engine room, all three readouts holding steady...
Wait no!
The Port engine was over revving, by a long way and building fast!
Immediately he swung into action;
"REDUCE THE LIMITER ON THE PORT DRIVE!"
The engineering crew startled by his alarm began to scurry about in a frenzy but still the port drive continued to rev up.
The din was earsplitting; the port engine rapidly climbed from a steady hearbeat like throb to a high pitched whirr, then from their to an scream of over stressed and over heated metal, sirens blared and the ship began to sway from its course.
Ao's voice came in over the intercom;
"CHIEF WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON DOWN THERE?! MY READOUTS ARE GOING INSANE!"
"CAP' PORT ENGINE IS RUNNING AWAY FROM US, WE CAN'T GET HER BACK UNDER CONTROL! I RECOMMEND..."
The rest of the Chief's sentance was drowned out by a sound like nails on a chalkboard, the Port Engine had overheated, warped, and jammed, there was a crack, the drive housing ruptured, and the port drive disintegrated into a shower of shrapnel with a boom like thunder.
Debris flew across the engine room and cut down engineers as they ran for cover and penetrated deep into every surface, including the FSD.
The last thing Chief Yamamoto saw was the spark from the damaged fsd that ignited the highly combustible fuel that was filling the engine room from the destroyed engine, before the entire compartment was engulfed in flames.
-External-
The blue and white anaconda soared across the sky, a huge jet of fire and smoke erupted from the rear portside of the ship, the fsd 'bubble' flickered and failed, with no time for the computer to compensate the now fully throttled up starboard engine, combined with the sudden failure of the fsd, threw the 141 meter long ship into a tumbling spin.
-Bridge-
Ao watched in horror as his readouts went haywire and the ship began to spin and roll as it was torn from supercruise.
The crewman at tactical to his left, who had just unbuckled his seat to enjoy the feeling of gravity again, was torn away and hit the bulkhead on the far side of the bridge with such force it could be heard over the emergency sirens.
Wrestling with the flight stick and the throttle to try and bring his ship under control Ao cursed and opened ship wide communications;
"ALL HANDS BRACE PROCEDURES! HELMETS ON! STRAP IN OR FIND AN ANCHOR POINT NOW! COMMS PUT OUT A MAYDAY!"
Ao tore off his hat and threw it aside before hitting the button on the flight suit under his uniform that would deploy his emergency helmet, the visor snapped shut and the hud came online.
seconds later, the Yamato lost all power to life support, shields and engines, as well as navigation and flight hud.
Emergency lift support came online and began the countdown...25:00...24:49....
"FUCK!"
Ao called the engine room, nothing, he had no idea why he had even tried, he'd heard the blast, even without the comms, the whole damn ship had heard it.
"Ok Ao think! gotta get thrusters back!"
Ao looked to his right and pulled up the modules screen, all the while fighting to keep from blacking out under the g-forces being imposed on his body.
He diverted power from every system to the remaining engine and life support before he brought the throttle to neutral, he would only get one chance...
Ao hit the reboot and repair sequence, he needed to time this just right, his hud would not come back online as he had diverted that power too.
His hud and the right panel blinked off
"2...1...NOW!"
Ao yelled as he slammed the throttle wide open and the starboard engine and manoeuvring thrusters roared into life with a thunderous growl that filled the ship.
As the ship rolled over on it's back he yanked the controls hard in the opposite direction to kill the roll, the starboard engine, now on the port side began to kill off the ship's rotation, Ao rolled the ship back upright and pitched up hard.
Alternating the throttle from ahead full and full reverse to keep the ship from spinning like a top again Ao attempted to kill their rate of descent...it was too late...
The crippled ship crashed into the surface of planetoid, porside rear first, then came the bow.
The force of the bow hitting the ground jerked Ao forwards causing him to open the throttle to maximum, the ship began to skew sideways as the slid across the ice.
-External-
Now travelling sideways at well over 600m/s the starboard engine flickered out and died as it succumbed to the fires in the engine room.
Splintering ice and shredding metal flew off in all directions in total silence, the soundwaves unable to carry in the vacuum.
A shower of snow erupted before the Yamato as the starboard side hit a snowdrift, the hulking ship began to roll;
tipping up on its side, and then over, the bridge only being spared from being crushed by the cosmetic spoiler, the curvature of the spoiler, combined with the ships momentum continued the roll, digging into the snow as it did so causing the bow to skim back around to the front as the Yamato righted itself and slammed down onto its flat belly.
The bow cut a deep furrow through the snow, the main door on the base of the ship and the observation deck in the nose imploded and decompressed under the pressure, more compartments ruptured and decompressed, systems across the ship shorted and sent arcs of electricity running along the walls, and into the poor crewment who had used their safety harnesses to anchor to anchor points on these walls.
Fuel and gas lines ruptured, explosions ran up and down the hull as one by one most of the ship ruptured and decompressed.
-Bridge-
When Ao came to, he was laid face down half way out the main canopy, it must have ruptured during the crash...his belt had snapped clean off the seat from the deceleration.
He took a huge lungful of canned air and looked to the top right of his hud....2:42
How long had he been out?! Immediately Ao began to check his suit for a breach, nothing, there was emergency resupplies of oxygen in the medical kit at the back of the bridge.
Sharp pains ran up and down Ao's right leg...he looked down to see that his leg below his knee was twisted at an odd angle...he yelled in pain and gripped the leg rolling onto his back, looking up at the black sky above him.
A face filled his vision....Tiberius!
His helmet was cracked but aside from that he seemed to have held up well.
Ao felt his first officer plug something into his suit and gave a gasp of relief as his oxygen timer returned to 25:00
Tiberius was saying something, but Ao couldn't hear him, his suit's comlink must have been damaged.
Tiberius lifted Ao to his feet and placed his captain's arm around his shoulder to keep the weight off the broken leg, and led the way off the bridge, and towards the medical unit
-Main Corridor-
The bridge airlock cycled the duo through and into the main corridor, it was still pressurised, but smoke was beginning to rise from some of the stairwells where fires raged below, the orange glow of these fires, and the occasional flicker of a light, and spark of electric, cast a hellish light about the long corridor, bodies carpeted the floor; most had been electrocuted, the rest killed by the impact having unhooked from the anchor points to avoid being electrocuted.
It took nearly 20 minutes to make the short distance to the medical bay located in the ships midsection by the fighter bay, blockages and hazzards made what should have taken a few moments take an age.
Tiberius left Ao propped against a wall, having first checked to ensure it wasn't live and forced open the unpowered door to the medical bay.
He helped Ao who collapsed gratefully onto the vacant bed and looked over at the occupied one as Tiberius checked on the ship's doctor...dead...Ao thanked every god he could think of,
Rose, strapped into the medical bed as protocol and fitted with an oxygen mask due to being sedated for her complaints of zero - g related sickness, had survived the crash.
A sharp pain ran up Ao's leg, he looked down to see the towering figured of Tiberius tossing away a needle; the pain faded fast, Ao lifted his head and tried to mumble
"Help he..." before his eyes rolled up into his head, and he passed out.
When Ao awoke, his head was resting in a familiar smelling lap...he opened his eyes and tried to focus on the the face before him.
The curves of her face, the complexion of her skin, her freckles..."Rose"
"Shhh, she cooed, you're ok...everything is going to be alright, Tiberius got us out"
"Did anyone else?...are we?" Asked Ao looking from Rose to Tiberius, who was sat propped against the wall at the far end of the inflatable emergency hab unit, gazing out the circle of clear material set in the white wall at the twisted, smouldering wreckage of their home...
Ao looked about and saw four shapes under blankets, still and unmoving, dead...
They must have succumbed to their wounds while he was out...
Three...out of one hundred and fifty crew...only three remained...