Hellhawk-001 Down

Location : SAR/RR Depot

The last several days had been intense. The storm had caused a number of problems, the least of which was that SAR had been operating on almost constant callouts. It had started with the hikers trapped in the mountain range, but had moved on quickly to other calls. Craft down, building damage, and various rescues were the calls of the day. Of course, it meant that the team was getting crash course in teamwork and procedures. Anything that didn't appear to work was quickly put aside for investigation later, anything that worked was used again and again. However, it finally seemed that everything was starting to calm down. The callouts had basically stopped, leaving the SAR/RR team to catch their collective breath As tempting as it would be to offer crew rest, Nico knew that couldn't happen and had the team re-supplying all the used stores in the rescue craft. For his part, Nico was performing a field replacement of his Bloodhound's power supply, wanting to have a fresh set of fully charge cells in before the next callout. As he slid the last cell in place, he heard the alarm go off.

Sighing, Nico slammed down the cell cover and brought the suit to hot standby. Despite the reservations the previous officer had about these suits, they had paid for themselves back several times over, as far as Nico was concerned.  Once the power cell cover was dogged down, Nico ran out to the assembly point as the briefing officer started.

"Crew, we've got a Marine fighter down nearby. The pilot's ELT is transmitting, but we need an immediate scramble out. We're asking for volunteers on this one, since we need coverage for any other calls that come up."

Nico stepped forward, along with several others including Johanssen, even before the briefing officer was finished. "Outstanding, Lt. Sidle, you have field command Take Rescue 1. Dismissed!" 

The volunteer crew turned and head immediately for Rescue 1. Once inside, the pilots immediately started pre-flighting the craft as Nico and Johanssen mounted up in their rescue hardsuits. "Hang on, folks. We in for some chop," Nico heard the pilot call as Rescue 1 lifted off.

Location: Crash site

Pieces of wreckage were strewn all over the place. Off to one side there is part of a wing and pieces of the tree it sliced through. Various other marks caused by the crash are easily visible.  What used to be the fighter's windshield has been severely shattered.

Aidan hadn't been truly conscious for any length of time once the plane hit the ground. Initially the impact was enough to jar her awake but that was quickly replaced by unconsciousness once again.

Caid Makan and Sara Sidle joined the Rescue teams.  Sara sat on the floor of the rescue and laid out her emergency medical gear. She and Marki Rashan worked quickly knowing that the injured pilot would soon suffer shock from injuries, and hypothermia, and blood loss.

"Chief Donovan," Sara said looking over at the other man in the compartment, "is there any possibility that we can use the transporter and beam her out of the wreckage?"

Nico thought for a second before responding. "Quite possibly, the only concern that I have is making sure that we can cleanly get her out of here It might be hard for the transport sensors to distinguish between the pilot and the fighter structure."

Caid struggled to keep from yelling at both of them to shut up, but made fists out of both hands and rested them down on the seat beside him, and asked, "What are the options?"

Again, Nico considered the possibilities before speaking up. "Sir, first option is that we can cut the cockpit structure free and simply move that enmass. Second option, we can work on cutting her out of the cockpit and transport directly to Paladin. Third option, we can perform the cut out and bring a crash team with us in order to stabilize on spot. My Bloodhound is capable of cutting her out onsite. Forth option, take the chance and beam directly to Paladin. I'd recommend a trauma team be ready in that case."   Looking back at Lt. Sidle, Nico continued.  "Ma'am, I'd recommend that we cut her out onsite and load her for transport back to Paladin."

"Captain. We will get her out and to the medical center as fast as we are capable. We are still receiving her ELT signal. Relax or I'll tranq you and you'll find yourself waking up at the medical center too." 

None of it sounded good to Caid. He found himself becoming more and more anxious as time passed even though he was doing his best to remain calm. Major Danar was a good friend as well as his CO.  Caid glanced from Donavan to Sidle and back again. Being totally honest with himself, he didn't want to believe Aidan wouldn't walk away from this one.

The rescue shuttle arrived onsite and CPO Donovan exited the shuttle and climbed up on the fuselage of the downed fighter and scanned for residual fuel and or radiation leakage. He could see inside the fighter the slumped over form of the Major.

Lt. Sidle watched from about three meters away as he assessed the shape of the craft and possible dangers. She watched as he charged up the Bloodhound's plasma cutting tool and started prying open the cockpit.  There was a hiss and a loud screech as the canopy popped open. Sara just wearing a standard rescue jumpsuit and gloves and crash helmet climbed up behind the CPO and started running her medical scans with her tricorder. "Chief, I'll stabilize her if you can work on getting her out of there." Sara said without looking at him.

"Roger that, LT." Nico paused for a second to refocus his plasma beam down to a smaller point and continued cutting. Stopping again, Nico examined how to make his next cuts in order to accomplish getting the pilot freed. The only problem was that the inside of the cockpit was a complete mess with wiring and shattered electronics.  Unfortunately, it appeared that he had done everything he could from the top of the craft and had to start cutting in from the side of the fighter. He looked over at Sidle as he moved to hop down, "Be careful, LT. I'm going to cut the side of the cockpit free." With that, Nico started working with a vengeance.

She heard his warning but ignored him as she concentrated on her patient. She pulled out a utility knife and slit up the arm of her flight suit and started working on getting a line placed. She had a punctured lung on the right, broken left wrist, and broken left femur, the face plate of her helmet was spidered and so was the dash and cockpit canopy where she'd impacted with her head. As soon as the line was in Sara administered a dose of trio to boost her oxygenation, then some pain medication, then placed the sensors and activated the spinal stabilizing collar and spine protection unit.

She placed another set of sensors around the wrist, and femur and had the femur unit apply twenty psi of pressure to tampenade the hemorrhaging that was occurring. "Chief, talk to me." Sara said glancing over her shoulder to see him disconnect the power system.

Nico had been working feverishly on the side panel and was almost through since he could use the plasma tool on a higher setting. Every so often he put a small lance into the cut that he just made so the panel wouldn't buckle. "Almost there, LT." As he worked to finish the final cut, he kept talking to Sidle. "One . . . last . . . cut, there it is. DONE!" Nico reached up and powered down his cutting tool, rerouting the power to the suit's micro-hydralic "muscles".  "Everyone get clear! Side panel coming free! Johannsen, a little help up here!" As he waited for Johannsen to arrive, he reached in and yanked out the cockpit power sub-relay.  *Don't need that discharging,* Nico thought as Johannsen arrived.

The CPO was ready to try and extricate the major from the ship but needed the space and wanted all non hard suited crew a safe distance...Sara started to balk but turned and jumped down off of the remaining wing into Caid Makan's arms. Both backed off.

Caid turned to face Lt. Sidle. It had initially surprised him when she jumped into his arms but he could figure that out later. "How is Major Danar?"

Sara smiled, and pulled back a few steps at the urging of two of the rescue team. "She's in rough shape but will make it especially if we can get her to the medical center in the next thirty minutes. There isn't anything we can do until they get her free of the wreckage."  He was getting more anxious by the minute but that wouldn't help the Hellhawks CO. "Anything I can do to help?" Staying busy would make it easier.

"Is there any 'next of kin' you need to contact, the shuttle should have all of the links you'd need to get a call through to Star Fleet HQ." She rested her hand on his arm and gave a reassuring squeeze as she turned to watch the extrication.

Caid's eyes briefly met Sara's At approximately 6'2" with brown hair and hazel gray eyes, the Marine Captain could be an imposing figure but not at the moment. He looked more anxious and uncertain than anything. A brief smile appeared as he responded to Sidle, "The Major will kill me when she finds out. Her mother is Head Trauma Surgeon on the marine ship USS Hades, while her father is the CO. If you excuse me for a minute I should go make that call."

Nico and Johannsen started in on the side panel, but it wasn't coming free at all. Nico's suit flashed up a structural warning as the two attempted to pull the panel free. The Corps had obviously made some improvements in the fighter hull since he last worked for the Corps. Nico stopped and stepped back from the fighter craft. Realizing that Nico had stopped, Johannsen stepped back also. "Damn, this plating is tougher than I expected."  He stopped, considering his options.  *Do I dare use explosives to get her out?  I don't think I have a choice,* he thought. "David, get some microlances. We're going to have blow the panel free."

"Rog-o, Chief." With that, Johannsen set off back to Rescue 1 to get the microlances. This was definitely risky, but Nico didn't know of any other way to get the pilot free. As Nico waited, he started marking the locations where the micro charges should be inserted. Johannsen returned backshortly, carrying six lance charges. Handing three over, the two immediately went to work.

After all six charges were inserted and properly placed, the two stepped back and made sure that the immediate area was clear. Nico turned on the Bloodhound's speakers and made sure that he got everyone's attention. "All personnel, stand clear!" Waiting ten seconds, Nico toggled his speaker again after nodding to Johannsen. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!"

With a loud **WHUMP** the panel shot free of the fighter, landing several feet away and leaving a hole in the side. The two immediately rushed up and started clearing away excess wiring and other debris. After scanning the pilot to determine that she was okay to move, Nico nodded to waiting medical team. "She's clear," Nico called out and Sidle moved up to take charge of the Marine.

Sara moved in and ran her tricorder over her patient and motioned for the team to bring in the grav stretcher and they loaded her keeping her C-spine protected. After injecting more stabilizing agents and pain meds they rushed for the shuttle. Once inside Sara and Marki worked feverishly in the hold of the compartment while Nico and his team flew to Paladin Medical Center. Sara inserted a chest tube and was hooking that up to the valve to help expand that lung.

Caid had been standing outside waiting for the extraction teams to finish. After a quick call to Aidan's family he'd returned to his previous spot. Now he was sitting in the back compartment watching the SAR team work on the Major. Worry prominent on his features. Danar really didn't look so hot. "How bad is it?" Caid wasn't looking for half truths when he asked that question.

Nico stepped outside of the medical ward on Rescue 1 and heard the observer speak to him.  Unable to help himself, Nico spoke in a detached tone, as if giving an after action report.  "Sir, she's in a bad way. The LT. said that she's got a punctured lung and probably has nasty knock on the head.  If she's lucky it's just a concussion, if not she'll have a skull fracture. The breaks in arm isn't anything to worry about, the LT. got them set immediately. The leg break on the other hand might be a problem.  If she's lucky, it's a clean break.  If not, let's just say she'll be in therapy for a while."  Nico shrugged and wiped his face off before continuing.  "She landed really hard, but she's got a good crew in there working on her and we've got an excellent trauma team waiting at Paladin for her." Nico reached back and handed Caid the pilot's flight helmet. "If she's anything like the others that I've rescued, she'll want that."

Caid nodded to Donvan as he accepted the helmet,  "Thanks,  I know for certain Storm will want that.  What's our ETA to Paladin from here?"

"About fifteen minutes."  He said when the intercom from the medbay clicked on and he heard Lt. Sidle, "Chief--I want you to vent this compartment.  I need this area unpressurized and freezing...its the only way we are going to make it to Paladin at this rate...Warn PMC that we are running a hypothermic code."

"Roger that, LT."  Nico ran forward to the control deck and sat down at the OPS station.  He quickly established an uplink from Rescue 1's medward to Paladin, giving them first look at the pilot's condition.  The waiting trauma team signaled back that they had verified the uplink, signaling that they were on standby to receive the Marine.  The next thing that he did was seal the medward behind a field and immediately depressurized it.  Suppressing the environmental warnings, Nico made sure that the area was unpressurized and vented, per the LT's request.

Sara wanted to throw Marki out of the treatment bay but she needed the hands to run the code. Her ears popped as the pressure dropped and she worked to clear here ears as she continued CPR.  Marki had intubated and was manually ventilating her.  Lt. Sidle and Corporal Rashan were sealed inside their cold weather gear but they still had area's of skin that exposed and the -10C temps in the chamber still made the sweat running down her back chill.  She watched the biobeds indicators drop and then stabilize.  The two women looked at each other and continued.  Neither would stop until relieved by the medical center staff.

After several minutes, Paladin was in sight.  "Hold on, people.  We're arriving!"  Nico's fingers danced across the OPS board, popping the rear and side hatches open, even before Rescue 1 had landed.  The next thing he did was drop the field and cut the depressurize command to the medward in the back.  After securing the OPS board, he ran back to help unload.  Blanching slightly at the sight of the two women suffering from the first stages of frostbite, he helped the Paladin crew get everyone off and into the medical center.

They landed and Nico and two of his other men rushed in and grabbed the grav stretcher and they rushed to the trauma bay of PMC.  Inside, the medical team led by Dr. Fletcher a trauma surgeon took over and rushed her into emergency surgery.  Nico turned and grabbed Marki's arm and yelled to a nurse as he escorted the young woman to a treatment room.  Major Makan had grabbed Sara's arms and followed the CPO's lead.  "These women are in danger of hypothermia..."

As Marki fought back slightly, Nico looked right into her eyes.  "Don't make me request that they sedate you.  You've got first stage frostbite and you're hypothermic."  Feeling her relax slightly, he looked up and saw the waiting trauma nurse directing him to a waiting bay.  Inside there was a team that took charge of Lt. Sidle and Marki, rushing them into treatment.  Nico sighed slightly and slumped against a nearby wall, head hanging down slightly.

"You okay, Chief ?"  He heard the Captain ask.  Nico straightened up, pushing down his emotions and locking them away.  "Fine, Captain.  Thanks for your help back there."  Hearing Makan reply back, but not really listening to the response, Nico walked back out to the landing pad where Rescue 1 was sitting.