-=/-\=- Space -=/-\=- "Do certa!" cursed the Marduk Seventh Od'pad. He pressed several buttons on his console and what he saw on the little display only confirmed his earlier data. Those stinky humans finally found a way how to detect their cloaked shuttles. Several probes were launched from the human ship which created a sensor network that was able to penetrate the shuttles cloak. Sure, it worked only on limited area around the human ship ... but it was enough to keep them either away from the Chimera or making them visible to the humans. Even now they've started three assault class runabouts and even the ship herself was targeting the Marduk. Lieutenant Pete Mitchell pressed down on the throttle of the small Warhammer fighter that he was ordered to pilot. He had very limited experience piloting these type of ships, and nearly clipped its wing against the hangar bay as it exited the ship. As it pushed into space he looked down at the sensors and saw the red blips on the radar indicating the enemy ships and two green blips indicating the two friendly fighter pilots who were also suckered into "volunteering" for this job. "Attack Formation Delta", he said over the comm system towards the other two fighters who were traveling not far behind him. Jill Hawkins was feeling ill. The small shuttle had dipped crazily in the last little while and she, never a good traveller, was now looking decidedly green. She sat on a side seat feeling sick but aware that something was happening that the pilot didn't like. As a part of his reeducation by the Intel humans that were in charge of the Einhoften facility ... Od'pad was trained to pilot a runabout and in the basics of space tactics. For a little while he watched the three fleet emblems on his monitor only to realise that whoever was piloting the humans fighters WASN'T very good at his job. The human fighters were more advanced than the Marduk Danube class runabouts, but the skill factor will most probably be on the Marduk side. Barking orders through the comm channel he made short orders to the other three runabouts. "Avoid fire from the Chimera and engage the human fighters. Attack pattern Omega Theta 3." Cause the cloak was now useless, Od'pad ordered all to decloak and fight with full shields. "uhhhh...Whats attack formation Delta", Ensign dexters voice sounded over the comm. "Just form up behind me in a wedge formation", Mitchell answered back and watched as the two Warhammers behind him managed to finally maneuver there ships into formation. "OK, whatever you guys do, do not fall out of formation, we'll be torn to pieces if we split up". He instructed over the comm. "Aye sir", came the responses from both Ensign Dexter and Ensign Lang. Suddenly the lights on the radar began bleeping and alarms started sounding as the enemy ships began forming up for an attack, "OK, this is it guys, Remember we want them to follow us". Jill was one of the scientists engaged in the Marduk programme. She knew that Od'pad was one of the group who had been 're-educated' but who had retained their warrior makeup. She watched him now and felt a cold fear run through her that over ran her fright at being in the hostage situation. Od'pad thought little about the four tight civilians in the back on the runabout. Every of the (originally) five runabouts carried four human crew members from the Einhoften facility as a living shield. Knowing how much the humans valued life ...especially life of fellow humans, the captives were a sort of fail-save ... their hoped that the human Commander wont shoot and destroy the Marduk for the costs of human lives. At least it was not too hard to avoid the occasionally fire from the distant Human ship ... the Chimera was too far away for clean shots and the shuttles were moving just too fast for a good tracking. For the moment ... the Chimera was no danger for them. The danger were the three human fighters that were engaging them in a (rather) closed formation. They have the tech advantage, so Od'pad had to use skills. Baring few words in the Comm Channel, he order his group to split and attack the humans from the opposite directions ... their six and twelve. "Perfect" Pete thought to himself as the Marduk shuttles moved in position. The radar showed two groups of enemy fighters, one forming up in front of the three Warhammers and the rest behind. "Hold your fire", Mitchel's voice cracked over the comm, "Wait till I give the signal then I want everyone to break off at a 90 degree angle" The other two men responded and the three Warhammers pressed the gas, allowing the the Marduk to get in position behind them. "Hold", Mitchell said over the comm as a few blaster shots flew past him. Opposite Jill a second scientist. John Radcliffe, caught her eye. "We can try to distract him." he whispered nodding his head in Od'pads direction. Try to free yourself." Jill looked at her wrist that was tied to the side of her seat. She nodded back to him feebly. Od'pad ordered the other shuttles to fire at will and even his copilot was firing phasers at the human shuttles. One or two beams hit the humans and most were not that well aimed. As expected, the humans did hold their formation. Still avoiding the long range fire from the Chimera, all four Marduk shuttles were closing in to the human shuttles ... two more seconds and only ionised dust will remain from the humans ... that was what Od'pad thought at least. But then ... surprisingly, the human shuttles broke the tight formation and they all flew in a separate direction. Two Marduk followed one of the human shuttles and kept firing on it, but the other two crews went confused and stopped the pursuit to regroup. Od'pad noticed something suspicious going on in the back of his shuttle ... but now it was not the time to care about the humble humans. "NOW!", Mitchel ordered over the comm signaling for the three warhammer pilots to split up. Because the four enemy fighters were flying towards each other two had to break off there pursuit so they wouldn't collide with each other. As expected two of marduk shuttles were caught completely off guard and as Mitchel's fighter broke away he pressed the throttle to the max and quickly circled around one of them and began unloading his cannons into it From the voices over the comm, It sounded like Dexter was taking heavy hits from the two marduk shuttles that had followed him. Jill pulled her hand free.The jem'hadar might be fearsome warriors but they certainly couldn't tie lasting knots. She looked across at John who had freed himself. "Make a distraction...I'll use this and strike him if i can" John picked up a small yest heavy extinguisher from its clip on the wall. Jill nodded and tried to think what to do. She half stood from her seat when the runabout lurched suddenly left and then right. Od'pad cursed some word, concentrating on flying the craft. Jill fell sideways and slid along the floor towards the pilots seat. "Supaci!" Od'pad cried out aloud in anger. He didn't expect such an maneuver from the Humans. It looked like that the humans wont be that easy prey as he expected. Trouble was that one of his shuttles was under heavy fire ... being hit several times. His co-pilot reported: "They have aft shields on 30%, front shields 40% and failing ...". Od'pad hit the comm panel button and cried: "Concentrate fire on the leading fighter, maximum energy!". He himself made a hard turn back and headed towards the shuttle that was leading the human group before. In Dexter's shuttle the all-too-known voice of LT. Foster from the Chimera announced some bad news: "Chimera to all shuttle crew. We have detected that the Marduk shuttles have human civilians on board. You are ordered not to destroy the shuttles only DISABLE. Foster out" "Dammit", Mitchel said as his fighter closed in on the Marduk shuttle. A few more seconds and it would be destroyed. Pulling up on the controls he aborted the attack and push the throttle all the way down and shot off towards the chimera with the other three marduk shuttles in hot pursuit. "Dexter stay behind and finish off that shuttle, disable its weapons and engines and then get back into the fight" he ordered. On his screen he could see Lang forming up with him, "Keep it tight", he said over the comm, "Lets see if we can trick them into getting within range of the Chimeras weapons." Jill thudded into the base of od'pads seat and saw that the distraction worked well enough even if it wasn't exactly what she had intended. She scrambled to her feet, attempting to block his view of John who was approaching behind them. "You great...bully!" she shouted and thumped her fist into Od'pads shoulder. "Stand clear Jill" Joyn shouted and next moment the cockpit filled with a cloud of white vapour. Od'pad was caught off guard by the fierce attack from the two humans. There was no time to think how did they manage to free themselves ... he had to defend himself. The human woman was of no danger for him ... one mighty punch and she was rolling on the floor but the human man just behind him managed to empty the contents of a fire extinguisher right into his face, then smack him over the head with the same object. With the Leading Marduk shuttle temporary out of action, the Rest of the Marduk formation took some payment. Dexter's shuttle managed to concentrate its fire on the damaged Madrduk shuttle long enough to make their shields collapsing. Yep ... tech advance was worth something! One more aimed shot at the Marduk ... and the shuttle was dead in space ... with no main power. The other two Marduk crew realised their mistake only too late. The tricky humans managed to lurk them somewhat closer to the Chimera (while taking several hits from the Marduk phasers) but a mighty phaser beam from the Chimera's main phaser array blew off shuttle's shields in an instant. This time the Chimera was clever. They did not attempt to beam the Marduk and civilians on board ... rather beamed a heavily armed group of 4 Marines on each disabled Marduk shuttle. Lights and warning sirens were going crazy on Mitchell's small Warhammer fighter. While luring the three Marduk shuttles towards the chimera both he and Lang had taken quite a bit of damage. But the Jem'Hadar, as expected were too aggressive and were easily lured into the Chimeras weapons range. As they were both quickly disabled the three Warhammer fighters immediately formed up and made one last attack run on the remaining marduk shuttle. Unfortunately it was too late, the remaining enemy fighter bugged out and was flying at top speed away into the distance. "Permission to pursue", Mitchell's voice cracked over the comm toward the Chimera, "Negative", Came the response from Lt. Foster, "Do not Pursue". "Are you alright?" John said bending to help Jill sit up."I think so." she replied. "At least the headaches stopped, worrying about feeling space sick. " A sudden blue beam lit the cabin and four marines in full battle armour materialised. Two stepped towards Od'pad another scanned the cockpit and the fourth turned to Jill. "Let me see your hands", the marine barked towards the woman as he pointed his rifle directly in her face. She quickly complied and both her, John and the Jem'Hadar were soon beamed from the shuttle back onto the Chimera. "OK, return to the ship", Mitchel said over the comm to the other Warhammer fighters, as the last marduk shuttle was cleared by the Marines and they had all beamed back onto the Chimera, "Good work lads", he said as they turned around and one by one flew back into the ships hangar bay. Once both Dexter and Lang had safely landed there ships, Pete circled back around and opened up a channel to the Chimeras bridge, "This is Warhammer One, requesting permission to do a flyby", his voice cracked over the comm. "Negative Warhammer One, the pattern is full", came the reply from the bridge. Lt. Pete Mitchell just grinned as his small fighter flew past the bridge of the ship showing its under side to whomever happened to be on duty at the moment. -=/-\=- End Log -=/-\=- Marduk Shuttle's and Od'pad Je'Hadar (The Bad Guys) Played by Commander Guzman Jill Hawkins and John Radcliffe Einhoften Scientists (Freindlys) Played by Commander Summers Ensign Dexter, Ensign Lang, Lt. Pete Mitchell Starfleet (The Good Guys) PLayed by 2nd Lt. Cortez