Into the Darkness

Posted on 28 Feb 2017 @ 11:14pm by Captain Jasmine Somers FCapt & Major S'arila Donovan & Captain Maia Sterling & Lieutenant Commander Sheela Swiftpaws & Lieutenant Solan Jekkar & Lieutenant Commander Remington Dodd & Lieutenant JG Akuhl K'Tel & Ensign Angelica Wright & Petty Officer 1st Class Timothy Nelson
Edited on on 28 Feb 2017 @ 11:17pm

4,414 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: S02 Episode 2: Once More Unto the Breach (Main Story)
Location: Hydransz outer sector/inner Sector
Timeline: Mission Day 15

[ON]

- Bridge - USS Tomcat -

As the Tomcat took up the jump off point outside the inner system of Hydaransz Jasmine was well aware of the extra ships and troop transports that were ready to come in and back them should they be needed. While they were stationary Jasmine looked at K'Tel.

"Very Good El-tee, your shift at the helm is over, let me meet Ensign Wright," Jasmine said with a smile.

A broadly smiling blonde stepped forward.

"Glad to be aboard, ma'am," she said.

"Greetings Ensign, one rule, do not destroy my ship," Jasmine said with a teasing smile.

A gleam came into the young woman's eye.

"That gives me a lot of latitude ma'am," she said mischievously. "Are you sure about that?"

Looking at her mock seriously "I am sure, get on to the helm, you will be taking us into the system" Somers responded.

Angelica's eyes lit up.

"Yes ma'am!" she said enthusiastically, then went to her post.

With that done she looked around, Lieutenant Jekkar was at his post, Commander Sterling was in the First Officers chair no doubt with both the XOs interface and Science Sensors, she opened the Comms channel.

=/\= All hands, this is the Captain, Commander Swiftpaws report to the bridge and man the Communications and Sensors station, Ensign Taggert report to the bridge and man the Engineering station and Lieutenant Walon to man the main Science station on the bridge, all others prepare your departments, we will be heading into the inner system within the hour, Somers out = /\=

When she closed the link she looked at Sterling "Commander is that probe ready to launch?"

"Aye Captain". Maia replied.

"Then make it happen, launch that sucker and let's see how much data we can get before we lose it," Jasmine said.

Maia flicked a few buttons and the probe was away. "Probe launched, Captain". Maia reported.

Then looking at Jekkar "okay how is the immediate airspace looking anything on tactical sensors Lieutenant?"

"All clear Ma'am," Jekkar commented. "Nothing to report."

- Lower Decks -

=/\= All hands, this is the Captain, Commander Swiftpaws report to the bridge and man the Communications and Sensors station, Ensign Taggert report to the bridge and man the Engineering station and Lieutenant Cahill to man the main Science station on the bridge, all others prepare your departments, we will be heading into the inner system within the hour, Somers out = /\=

Sheela busily re-reading the intel reports again to see if there was anything she had missed. She was a bit miffed that there would be no stop at the Starbase HQ for a face to face with the intel department. She knew she was looking at old intel, yet current enough to use. She knew more to be had. But couldn't be risked over the communication airways. When she heard the order to get back to the bridge. She wrinkled her nose a bit and then secured the info.

=/\=On my way, Captain.=/\= she replied, tapping her comm badge to close the line. She took off her work jacket and grabbed her uniform tunic and jacket.

"Hey Hildie," she called out to the tall German woman working with her. She was one of the most intelligent impulse drive engineers, and a warrant officer, which she didn't often get the chance to work within the fleet. Hildegard Johnson, née Schmidtchen, was 5'9" and had long brown hair braided and had brilliant blue eyes. They were also working with Thraan, an Andorian male CPO who specialised in fusion reactors, and Gaila, a red-headed Orion female CPO, who specialised in subspace mechanics, and worked on the subspace driver coils.

"Yes sir?" she called back, as was the custom in the fleet. She caught Taggert's toolbag, then looked back up at her.

"Take over here and make sure we get that reactant flow fixed. Thraan, make sure theres no computer tie-ins to the impulse drive that could disengage the system without manual intervention. Temporarily, we need them physically disabled. We'll restore it after this mission," Taggert said as she addressed the others she was working with. "Gaila, keep up the good work on that driver coil. We got another 2% out of it just by fixing that bug in the code."

- Medical -

Akuhl strode into sickbay, cursing herself for taking the capital ship piloting course back at the Academy. She had needed an elective to fulfil her non-major course requirement, and the only other class available was hydroponics.

But now that she was back in her element, she could feel herself calming down. And it was then she realised she had not gotten lost once during her trip back to her primary duty station.

"Great," she muttered. "I just have to be angry all the time and I'll never get lost."

- Bridge -

=/\= "Dodd to the Bridge, Engineering is ready to go." =/\= The chief engineer stated in reply to the the captain's all hands announcement. He then preceded to review all the systems for anything that may have been overlooked. He decided he would spend his time reviewing the Warp reactor and all the matter and anti-matter systems before it to too rough in the heat of action.

Back up on the bridge, Jasmine looked at the lift doors as they opened and out walked Sheela, Taggert, and Cahill. "Take your station people." she looked at Taggert, "Relax, Ensign. Lieutenant Dodd had some bridge duty, now it is your turn."

"Aye, sir," she replied, with a professional nod, as she walked on to the engineering console to the side of the bridge, and set up its interface to match her preferences.

Looking front again "Ensign Wright prepare to enter the inner system, Commander Sterling what data we have back on that probe send to Commander Swiftpaws station for Intel analysis," Jasmine said.

"Still receiving telemetry Captain. The Polaron pulse on the probe has identified three tachyon generators within 20 million kilometres of each other so far. Continuing to receive telemetry, Sir". Maia stated.

Sheela casually strolled onto the bridge with no hurry. She settled in the Secondary Com's spot and hooked up her storage device and began to monitoring radio frequencies.

Dr. Cahill assumed her position at the Main Science Section and was looking at the incoming data. She reported, "Probe is working perfectly and sending back all data it is picking up. I am saving all data as it comes in to prevent losing it, Captain. I show all three fields are being scanned at the same time and am receiving excellent data as we do the scans. It appears the fields may be possibly artificially generated to act so something may be hidden in them but I am still checking the data as it comes in. Also, am picking up signs of areas of high radiation levels in several quadrants as we speak Captain. I suspect the Orions may be more affected by high amounts of radiation levels so I am monitoring these areas as well."

Looking over at Cahill "Okay send that over to Commander Sterlings console and keep scanning"

Dr Cahill continued her scans of the system, she was looking at each planet looking for life signs matching the Orions and was also scanning on deep space scans for Orion ship signatures. She reset the scans so the information was being sent to LCMD Swiftpaws automatically as well. She looked over and smiled, "I am doing the transfer of information to LCMD Swiftpaws automatically as well to Captain. I want as much advance warning as possible when we finally locate the Orions so we can make it as rough as possible for them when we engage them."

"Captain these are false readings. We are being fed information in our scanning beams we need to take down that tachyon grid or punch through it blind, I recommend we launch our fighters to take out those Tachyon generators with Tri-Cobalt explosives". Maia said.

As she faced front "Yellow Alert, we are going in" looks at Wright "okay Ensign Wright take us into the Darkness, Mr Jekkar keep a lookout for hostiles, Commander Sterling do as much of a detailed science scan as you can as we pass the planets. Our initial entry into the inner system may go unnoticed, but it will not be for long, I am sending over the system list and the planets we need to scan. Commander Swiftpaws if we pass any unmanned satellites see if you can tap into their data banks and copy any data you find" Jasmine instructed.

"Heading into the Darkness, aye," Angelica said determinedly, her fingers moving smoothly over the controls.

"Well, here we go again," Jekkar said as he examined the instruments on the Tactical Console. The Andorian ever vigilant.

Into the darkness with no sensors, Maia though.

Swiftpaws looked like she was asleep at her post at the communication station. The only thing that gave proof she was awake was the occasional tapping of the console's controls. Making fine tuning adjustments. She let the junior Comms Officer on the secondary console handle the routine radio traffic as she was busy tracking down an odd signal that just remained out of her getting a lock on it.

As the ship moved forward, Jasmine looked over to Sterling "going to speak to Dodd, you have the bridge Number One" she said.

"Aye Captain" Maia replied.

Somers then left the bridge, the moment the lift doors had closed "Engineering" she requested and two minutes later she was stepping out onto main engineering level.

- Engineering Level -

As she walked down the corridors nodding greetings to crew she passed, she noted that there were one marine and one fleet security standing guard outside the main engineering, nodding to them she entered engineering and looked around the room for her chief engineer.

"Lieutenant Dodd!" she said loudly.

"Ma'am, Chief Dodd is working on some adjustments near the warp reactor," Nelson replied to the captain to help her find Dodd.

Looking at a new crewman, she nodded "thank you" she walked over to where an engineer had pointed and stood there, just as Dodd started to exit the tube.

oO So much accomplished and more to go, I can only hope that the captain will be proud of that hard work all of my engineering staff put in. This is looking look a great assignment. Oo Dodd thought to himself when he sensed that someone important was looking for him.

Just then he crawled out of a Jefferies tube just in time to see the captain standing near the opening.

"Hello, Ma'am. What can I do for you?" Dodd stated as he stood up. He was a little dishevelled and missing his uniform jacket as he was working in the area of the warp reactor and it can get hot in those Jefferies tubes.

Smiling "Oh just seeing how things are going Chief, we have begun moving into the inner system and I wanted to make sure the engines and such are in working order, last time I was here, we lost a lot of good officers, I would like to retain some of my new officers on this mission. I need you to make sure the SIF, power requirements and defences are fully functional, including the mechanics of the offensive systems. The Orions like to fight and try to steal people to sell as slaves. I need you to work up a way for the shields to block any Orion transporter beam, or adjust the ships internal systems to do the same."

"I can certainly get on that, Ma'am. I can use the modulation program designed to keep the Borg from beaming in and tweak it to repel transporter signals that don't have any of our biometrics in them, so we can still use our transporters. I will get all of my shields and hull technicians working on that as the top task." Dodd replied with confidence.

"Indeed, before I go Chief! The engine room is your domain, I accepted your transfer as I knew you could keep my ship running, if I did not think you were up to the task, you would not be here. I need an engineer that will not be intimidated by my position and if he/she thinks I am wrong or in error, I would want them to bring it up to me. You have been doing an excellent job so far Mr Dodd, keep up the good work, if I have any issues you will know of them. *smiling*" as she made to leave she turned back and looked down at him "I have every confidence and faith in you Chief, welcome to the crew."

"Oh, thank you, ma'am," Dodd stated. "I only do what I can to make sure the ship purrs like a kitten. I will only give you and the ship my best and if I have concerns I will address them with you. I owe a lot to my staff and Ensign Taggert. I only fear she will get bored being my assistant chief. I will strive to keep my crew and myself at the peak of our abilities."

oO I really like Captain Somers. I hope that she continues to bring out the best in me and my staff. However, I am sensing nervousness and dread from some of the crew and I hope that those feelings soon subside as it could affect our mission. Oo

"Good Day, Ma'am" Dodd proclaimed as the captain turned to leave.

Smiling wildly she left engineering and returned to the bridge.

Dodd saw the captain leave through main doors to engineering. So had to get to work to make it impossible to get anyone beamed off the Tomcat without our own transporters.

"Pril, can you please get a team of three along with yourself and take over here. I want the anti-matter and matter relay all reinforced to help protect them from rupturing if we get phaser fire or such from a boarding party." Dodd asked of the young Trill that was part of his Energy/Matter compliment.

Dodd then headed to his office to pull up the programming and schematics of the shield systems. As he pulled up the data on his PADD, he walked to the replicator and ordered a green tea.

"Computer, Green Tea, warm, slightly sweet, please." He stated.

The replicator buzzed and sparkled and materialised a mug of warm slightly sweetened green tea. This was the one drink Dodd consumed that helped him focus and clear his mind.

He then took off his uniform jacket and rolled up his sleeves and sat at his desk to work on preventing Orions from kidnapping any of the crew on the Tomcat.

-Bridge-

As Commander Sterling took the Bridge control. Dr Cahill continued to monitor the Science Station. She had scanned several planets and found no traces of any Orion signatures on them and continued to move on to the next one. The inner planet had high levels of Dilithium Crystals so she noted this as it went to LCMD Sheela. It may be important if for some reason we needed to get some quickly. And Later on, Starfleet could send a miners colony to mine for them too. She smiled with relief and tension at the same time. "So far no signs of the Orions found Captain and Commander. The tension on the ship could be cut with a knife if it was any higher. Everyone is ready and wanting to get the fight on. But it will come soon enough."

Suddenly the ship lurched to the left as disruptor beams slammed into the number three port shield.

"You were saying, Dr Cahill? Red Alert, change course to 111 mark 10 full impulse power...Maia ordered.

The ship turned to protect the number three shield.

"Damage control report"! Maia asked.

As the doors opened Jasmine only caught the tail end of what Cahill was saying, "SITREP Commander! Cliff notes version if you please?" Jasmine asked.

"We have been attacked by what I think is an automated weapons platform. The ship is on red alert and I have manoeuvred the ship to protect the number three shield. Damage assessment in progress". Maia responded.

Looking concerned Jasmine sat in her chair as she noticed the ships had already gone to Red Alert "Lieutenant Jekkar target facility and fire at will" Jasmine said.

"Aye Captain." The Lieutenant armed the Phasers and targeted the facility. "Launching Quantum Torpedoes." There was a slight pause as Jekkar examined the Data. "Direct hit, severe damage."

Nodding at the report "Lieutenant Jekkar, what is the status of the weapons systems and defences?" Jasmine asked as they passed the inner asteroid belt.

"Standing by." The Lieutenant said to her. "Just give the word."

"Excellent, Commander Sterling we will be going slow so we can scan those other planets, remember we could only do the outer system last time, we need to update the system database, so grab as much detail as you can on these planets"

"Captain Sensors are unreliable at this time, We should concentrate on taking down that Tachyon grid it's interfering with our sensors. giving false readings". Maia reported.

She nodded in response to Sterling's reply now she turned her attention to Sheela "Commander any interesting chatter from those hidden Orions?" she asked.

Sheela shrugged then spoke. "Just an elusive signal Iz trying to pin down. Must've been the source, where that energy blast came from, getting a lock on the Tomcat." She spoke calmly from her spot at the secondary communication console. "It's just too quiet out there." Referring to the radio frequencies.

"Hmm" then to Sheela, Jekkar, Taggert and Cahill, the CMO was manning the sensor station at this time "Commander Swiftpaws, Lieutenants Cahill and Jekkar and Ensign Taggert, adjust to 2168.415, that should give you more information on our surroundings," Jasmine said.

"Adjusting," Jekkar said as he examined his instruments. "I'm not getting anything unusual on my end...." He paused. "I'm detecting 4 energy signatures that could be cloaked Ships." The Andorian continued to scan. "I can confirm that we have 4 unknown signatures in a standard two by two formation."

"Whoze out there. Theyz ain't talking to each other." Sheela spoke softly, resuming her sleep appearance as she worked the controls on the communication console.

As all this was going on Taggert and Cahill were busy at their consoles and doing their jobs, Jasmine was pleased with this and left them to it.

Looking at them all in turn with an amused expression "we have cloaked friends, two in front and two behind, you do not think I would enter the inner system unprepared this time. The data you should be getting is a direct feed from the four cloaked Klingon Birds of Prey" Looking at Sheela she simply shrugged but speaking in general. "I will not be caught flat-footed this time like I did the first time around, I still have nightmares about that time, what about you Maia?" She asked turning to face Sterling.

Maia simply nodded in agreements and turned to her console and went to work scanning the nearby planets.

With simply a smile she turned to face front again and began typing up her Captain's Personal Log (note: please refer to the posted personal log)

As we took a hit in the number 3 shield from a disruptor blast. Doctor Chill grabbed the counter to keep from falling. She recovered quickly, " All decks report minor damage and minimal injuries Captain and Commander. For some reason, I was not able to detect the weapons system am adjusting to account for that surprise Captain now. Should be able to find them the next time we get close."

Dr Cahill made the ordered adjustments and turned the Captain, "Glad to know we have backup Captain, I was tracking the distortion caused by the cloaked Klingon ships and missed the Orion weapon system. Will not make that mistake again. Was not sure if they were friend or foe."

Looking at Cahill "they are friendly alright doctor" Jasmine said then opened a channel =/\= Somers to Donovan=/\=

=/\= Donovan here Captain =/\=

=/\= Until further notice you are acting MCO =/\= Jasmine said as the ship shook again with a hit looking around "take out that base" she said.

=/\= Understood Captain, Donovan out =/\=

With that done she turned to Jekkar "Mr Jekkar launch Raider Squadron, they are to fly Combat Air Patrol around the ship, Commander Sterling now is the time to get as many detailed scans of these planets as you can, until a full attack we do the science thing."

"Aye Captain," Jekkar said as he pressed the commands into his console. "Jekkar to Raider Squadron you are cleared to launch, begin your Combat Air Patrol and maintain an open channel."

"Yes Captain" Sterling simply said.

"Squeak! Vector 10 degrees starboard Zee-Row elevation! Target!" Sheela let loose with an annoying squeak to grab everyone attention. "Wez been pinged!" Sheela braced herself. "Theyz using radio frequencies to lock onto their targets. Theyz sends out an inquiry to trigger the auto-response. Receive the response. Fire along the return vector to hit the target." Sheela paw/hands flew across the console deactivating the Auto response. As another lance of destructive energy reached out for the Tomcat.

Angelica's hands flew over her console and the ship leapt in a crazy combination of roll, yaw and pitch, nearly causing everyone to fall out of their seats, but the shot tore through the spot the ship had occupied just a split second before.

Dr Cahill made the recommended adjustments. Then she was able to better see what is going on and began to search again. Suddenly another hit from the cloaked weapons systems hit the Tomcat. She picked it up but too later to warn about it. Captain sensors show the weapons systems use a technology similar to the Romulan cloaking systems. And the Tachyon field aids in the enhancement of the cloaking. The tachyon field may be coming from the asteroid field. That is where I would hide one if I was doing it Captain.

She sends the information to LCMD Swiftpaws and the weapons officer. "If we can isolate this area I found on the last firing perhaps we can override the cloaking and make the cloaked weapons systems visible before we get there and evade them or destroy them before they fire."

Looking up in surprise "Commander Swiftpaws jam those damned radio waves let’s cut down on what they can see and do, and yes find a way to disable their cloaks, Mr Jekkar have the two Klingon's behind and in front of us hit targets of opportunity that target us, let our friends have some glory in combat" Jasmine said, so far there was minimal hostiles, but she knew the element of surprise had vanished, if they did not know they were coming, they knew now.

Swiftpaws relayed the orders to the Klingons and began taking steps to mask the Tomcats broadcasts after recovering from the last barrage of destructive energy hitting the Tomcat.

Jekkar nodded. "Aye." Solan contacted the Klingons and relayed the orders. He knew from experience a Bird of Prey packed a punch and that Klingons were not going to take things lying down.

- Engineering -

=/\= “All Engineering Personnel, please assist in damage control efforts as well as maintaining the ship.” =/\= Dodd ordered out to all his staff.

As the number three shield had come under attack that gave him some ideas for how to solve his problem. As the repair team worked on it, he knew all was in good hands and returned to his task to get an idea to help protect the crew from abduction.

After at least an hour, Dodd came to the conclusion of what he could do. He then called a small team together to get to work on his plan. What he would do is make the shields self-modulating with the Borg protocols, but he would have a sub-system activated that would, in essence, turn on forcefields throughout the ship that would also modulate in frequencies to assist in repelling alien transporter beams. The crew would be able to freely move through the necessary forcefields due to the biometric upgrades Taggert did to the commbadges. Also, he would set the system to trigger a homing beacon in the commbadges so the transporters could attempt to lock on and beam them home as soon as possible if they were to be beamed off. However, his use of the Borg protocols and the forcefields should be enough. Also, the shuttlecraft transporter systems, since they have independent computers could be set to continuously scan for commbadge frequencies for a rapid lock-on and beam back scenario.

"Nelson, please come to my office" Dodd stated.

Nelson happened to be just around the corner so he was there in no time.

"Yes, sir. You called for me." Nelson replied as he approached the office which the door was already open as Dodd liked to keep an open door policy in engineering.

"Yes, I need your help" Dodd replied as he handed Nelson a PADD with another way to keep the crew on the Tomcat.

Nelson took the PADD and began to review it.

“Sir, I think this will work and it won’t take too long to get it in place.”

“Okay, you are in charge of this and I will want you to update me on your progress. Any push back and you can have that person contact me.” Dodd replied. “Get this done as soon as possible, it trumps any other duties you have and you can use Pril, Martinez, Wilson, Phillips, T’Vel and Shrim to help you as they are good with shields and such.”
Nelson took his orders and got to work.

[OFF]

Captain Jasmine Somers
Commanding Officer
USS Tomcat

Major S'arila Donovan [PNPC: Somers]
Bravo Unit Officer Acting MCO
USS Tomcat

Commander Maia Sterling
First Officer/CSO
USS Tomcat

Lt. Commander Sheela Swiftpaws
Chief Intel Officer/Communications
USS Tomcat

Lieutenant Alexanderia Cahill MD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Tomcat

Lt. Jg Akhul K'Tel MD
Doctor/ACSO
USS Tomcat

Lt. Jg Remington Dodd
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Tomcat

Lt. Jg Solan Jekkar
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Tomcat

Ensign Nicole Taggert
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Tomcat

Ensign Angelica Wright [PNPC: K'Tel]
Helm Officer
USS Tomcat

Petty Officer Class 2 Timothy Nelson [PNPC: Dodd]
Engineering Officer
USS Tomcat

 

RSS Feed