"Captain, we are losing power to weapons", reported lieutenant Alex Bara at the weapons control console.
Acting captain quickly walked over to the weapons control console. Looking at the instrument panel the shocking hit her in the face like an invisible blow. The rate of firing was rapidly decreasing as weapons systems lost power.
Acting captain Lucinda knew she had to act fast. This was not the right time to be without weapons. When the Sandawana was engaged in a fierce fire fight with Drachalian ships attacking. The situation called for urgent correction.
Acting captain Lucinda wiping out her communicator, ordered lieutenant Tanaka at the communications console, "Perch me through to engine room".
"Done", lieutenant Tanaka confirmed.
"Engine room we need more power to weapons or we are going to be out of this fight very fast. It goes without saying that will be the end of us".
"I hear you captain but that last powerful explosion which engulfed the Sandawana in flames knocked the power generator units offline", replied a female voice.
Acting captain Lucinda was about to ask, "where is lieutenant commander Simba", when it hit her that the engine room chief was on the surface with the away team.
"Lieutenant commander Simba is the only person with authorisation code to get the units back online", the famale.
"Captain, we have lasers, we are only left with missiles", reported lieutenant Alex Bara. "The missiles tubes are going to have to be manually loaded".
"Ok get your people on it", acting captain Lucinda ordered.
"The weapons systems team is already on standby", lieutenant Alex Bara confirmed.
"Very good, lieutenant, commence firing. Make every round count", captain Lucinda instructed.
Missiles struck the leading Drachalian starships blowing them up in spectacular explosions.
"Captain", we are beginning to lose altitude", reported lieutenant Tashinga at the flight control console. "Permission to divert auxiliary power to flight control?"
"Granted", confirmed acting captain Lucinda.
Lieutenant Tashinga's fingers moved rapidly over the instrument panel before him stabilising the descent of the Sandawana fell out the of the sky.
"Implement immediate course to avoid the possibility of crash landing back in the opening", acting captain Lucinda ordered lieutenant Tashinga.
"Steering is not responding to controls. I am only able to divert the limited power available to break our fall", reported lieutenant Tashinga.
Acting captain Lucinda quickly wiped her communicator from the utility belt around her waist where it was attached.
"Look up captain!!", lieutenant commander Simba called out urgently pointing up at the sky above them. Captain Maguire had been busy directing the members of the away team to the relatively safety of a hiding position behind some enormous boulders. As fierce fighting commenced between the Sandawana's armoured units and their Drachalian opposite numbers. Away team members starting with engineers were taking turns to break cover and run in between bursting spontaneous fire from exploding alien ordinance being fired by the Drachalian armoured units. They ran to the edge the of the massive opening which was not easily visible as it was shrouded in the falling shadow from the wall on that side of the massive opening.
Following the direction lieutenant commander Simba was staring at in horror, captain Maguire was shocked to see the Sandawana dropping out of the sky at an accelerated rate than was normal for a starship coming into land. To make matters worse it was coming down on the plain where the armoured security units were engaged in fierce fighting with the Drachalian armoured units.
His communicator crackled before he could recover from the shock. He quickly retrieved the device from his utility belt, no sooner had he tapped on the answer icon than acting capatain Lucinda's voice burst over the communicator, speaking urgently, "Clear the area immediately, Sandawana is coming in for a crash landing!!"
There was no time spare and quickly captain connecting to the Sandawana's armoured fighting units urgently ordered,
"All units retreat to my position immediately!!", he directed activating the location finder to transmit his position.
In a demonstration of the discipline instilled by Space command's training, the armoured units immediately withdrew leaving the Drachalian in the middle of the battlefield. Picking up the remaining engineers who were still hiding in individual locations they raced to captain Maguire's position. Just as the Sandawana crash landed smashing the Drachalian armoured units beneath its super structure as it touched down on its underbelly.
The shock of the impact was felt aboard the starship with crew members holding on to their workstations and various other fixtures aboard to brace themselves.
"What happened to the landing pods?", acting captain Lucinda asked lieutenant Tashinga at flight control, though she had already guessed what had happened.
"We have insufficient power to and have lost control of most of the ship's systems, including deploying landing gear", replied lieutenant Tashinga.
"Ok which systems are still functional?", acting captain Lucinda.
"Basic life support..."reported lieutenant Tashinga.
"What do you mean 'basic', lieutenant", asked acting captain Lucinda.
"Provision of sufficient oxygen levels to allow for breathing. However internal climate control air conditioning units which keep the internal atmosphere from becoming too hot or too cold are no longer functional", replied lieutenant Tashinga.
"Ok what other systems are functioning, do we still have use of missile launching systems?", asked acting captain Lucinda.
"Negative", replied lieutenant Alex Bara at weapons control. We have insufficient power to missile launch pods".
"Ok so we are completely defenceless", remarked acting captain Lucinda with a sigh of resignation.
"We still have communications", remarked lieutenant Tanaka.
"The Drachalian ships must have assumed that we were destroyed in that last explosion. That buys us a bit of time before the next attack", announced acting captain Lucinda. What else do we still have control of that might be useful?"
"Doors and lighting systems are still functioning. But they are not much use in a fight. We need lieutenant commander Simba up here fast to activate the power generation units", said lieutenant Tashinga.
Acting captain Lucinda got on her communicator.
"Sandawana to lieutenant commander Simba, we need your codes to activate the power generation units".