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Main Sim - And So It Begins...

Posted June 17, 2022, 10:44 a.m. by Lieutenant Commander Eulailia Dacascos (Chief Operations Officer) (Mika Jackson)

Posted by Gamemaster Alias Smith N. Jones, Esq. (Gamemaster) in Main Sim - And So It Begins…

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Eulailia Dacascos (Chief Operations Officer) in Main Sim - And So It Begins…

Posted by Captain Alexxander Ryley (Chief Medical Officer) in Main Sim - And So It Begins…
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
“Thank you counselor.” Sara said with a nod to McMillan. “As for your questions” she looked to Gadi. “In this instance, mentorship looks like crafting and going over the stories with each other until we can not just recite them, but retell them convincingly. As far as my path here… it starts like any good lie. With the truth. We were summoned for a top-secret briefing. Seeing the skeletons in Starfleet’s closet shook my faith. Finding nothing to prove me wrong and the long list of regulations becoming ever more confining, I abandoned my post. For me, it’s not so much a life of a criminal or a pirate, or whatever you want to call it. It’s closer to a maquis freedom fighter. I offered you the ‘real facts’ on Starfleet and an opportunity to make a stand for ourselves.”

-CO

Bethany didn’t say anything and she hoped she wasn’t so stunned that the look of disbelief showed on her face. Recite them? Oh no that wasn’t enough they had to BELIEVE it, their hearts beat with it. Recitation would convince no one, but no one was listening to her or Calloway. Oh Fun, she was going to get to play a double-double agent. Beth’s head already was beginning to pound trying to keep that straight. She made a note to tell Calloway to give the captain a crash course in what it really meant to be Maquis. The Captain was going to have to get really good really fast to pull that off.

“Yeah, that sounds pretty damn close. We’re burned anyway, and blacklisted. At least we got the Pelican out of it,” Randi said. There was no small measure of bitterness in her tone, her head tilting side to side a little as she said it. Being from a small colony world, more than once they’d called for aid from the Federation and had gotten the finger. The Colonial Defense Fleet back home, she imagined, would be pretty strong by now. Probably not really in need of the Federation’s help much these days. Though they were still likely to be cordial.

This whole operation stank in it’s own way. Whoever stuck her here had to have been out of their minds. Or maybe they were a special kind of crazy, like a fox. Either way, she didn’t feel like she had much of a choice. Either way she was likely to spend the rest of her life in a cell. Assuming she didn’t get vaporized before the whole thing was over. Which, that might have been preferable. At least that way it wouldn’t be an issue for her. It reminded her of something an anti-matter fueler once said when asked about the stress of the job. There wasn’t much stress. If a problem came up, either they would solve it, or it wouldn’t be their problem anymore.

The idea of spending time in a cell was less bothersome than the alternative. Her hands balled into white-knuckled fists, her jaw was clenched, and the muscles along it could be seen jumping beneath the skin. Her neck was tight and corded. Her neck and shoulders felt tight, and the back of her throat was almost shut. And despite the short sleeves and open midriff she was suddenly too hot. The engineer took a moment to close her eyes and focus, forcing her hands open, she put both hands over her chest over her heart. It wasn’t in a hurry, but in a controlled manner, but she pressed in, lips moving as she silently recited something to herself a few times, then seemed to settle.

Finally, she let out a long sigh which trembled a little. “Shiny. Let’s be bad guys. What’s our first target … or are we just going hunting?”

Martel, CE

Dacascos, COO

“One of our resident agents” sara said “already offered us two targets. A tellarite freighter, hauling weapons. And a ship full of VIPs. Let’s hit the tellarites first. We can keep some of the weapons, sell the rest. It might look suspicious if our first job out of the gate is too high profile. Like we’re looking to get noticed. Pull one off, then worry about stealing from the rich and powerful.”

-CO

Of course, a Tellerite freighter would be our first target. thought Eulailia. They were long-time United Federation of Planets members and have always had hundreds of freighters floating around the Universe. However, she wasn’t sure how easy it would be to take over one of their freighters. These creatures were hostile by nature, and she couldn’t imagine they could just board the freighter and take their weapons.
“Ohhhh, we are definitely in for a fight. Those pig-faced creatures are not going to part easily with their merchandise.” She paused then said, “Getting the merchandise is just part one. Part two is escaping with it. We are going to need a practical escape plan. This is a Brazen class ship correct? I suggest we use our deflector shields to ensure a quick retreat. We need to adjust them to produce an interferometric dispersion which will limit their or any other ship’s sensing techniques and allow us to remain undetected as we make our getaway.

Dacascos, Trying to be a team player

“The thing about Tellarites too is that besides being very obstinate, they’re masterful engineers. Even a freighter is likely to have nasty teeth.” With Dacascos’ suggestion about the dispersion she smiled a little. “I like where your head is on that. Unfortunately we’d have to stick around and keep the field up. We could drop a probe rigged up to do that though. OR… We drop chaff. But we don’t need to.”

Reaching out to the conference table in front of her she touched one of the LCARS panels on it and in a few short strokes, brought up a holographic display of the Rabid Pelican hovering in the air. A moment later it broke into various decks and sections with subsystems being outlined. Reaching out she touched the holo coming form the emitter inset into the table. One system lit up, and the rest of the ship configuration dimmed. “One of the early things we did while getting ready for this is went and picked up a little toy. Two, if you count our charming gentleman with the cane.” She jerked her head toward Ryley. The memory of that particular away mission was still pretty fresh in her mind. And then there was Ridad. Would be good to check up on him, she supposed.

The system showed it was labeled as a cloaking device. “That’s right, we stole ourselves a klingon cloak. I think we can steal a firmware update for it too. All the tests look good. So we can find our prey, de-cloak, smash, grab, and then vanish again.” She paused for a moment and sighed. “That’s one of our big playing cards. And it’s vital for us.”

Randi, CE

“I hope miminal casualty is still the aim?”

-Lieutenant Patrick McMillan: Counselor-

Nodding her head at the Counselor’s comment, Eulailia said, “I agree.”

“If if that’s true, we can’t let it look like we left anyone unharmed out of the goodness of our hearts…” Sara didn’t like where this thought was leading her. “It has to be that we’re leaving witnesses. To tell the tale to others. Spread word of us and our deeds.”

-CO

A slow even breath went through Beth, the captain was getting it. The perspective was changing from we’re good guys we can’t do this, to we are bad guys but we don’t want to draw too much attention. Now if the rest could just follow her lead.

Eulailia asked the Captain, “How does one do that?” It was an honest question for a girl who was not knowledgeable about how to inflict violence on another being. The only way she could think of was yelling at them, it never crossed her mind that she would have to hit them or cause physical harm.

Dacascos, COO

“We show off those new guns Randi installed for us. But I need some target practice. I don’t want to hurt someone, but that requires precision and skill to make it look like I will. And these new guns do not have the finesse of Star Fleet issued phasers and torpedos. Off by a centimeter and I’ll be living with the responsibility of being a mass murderer.” And that was on Beth, ships weapons and defensive systems were her responsibility, and there was NO way she’d put it on one of her junior officers to make that call.

“Well, I don’t think she’s suggesting we board and start executing crew,” Randi said. “Though we could.” She shook her head. Pausing for a moment she slashed one hand through the air. “Okay the problem with this is we’re trying to game out rules of engagement. How we’re thinking about it. We don’t care about rules anymore. Screw that. It’s simple. They have what we want and need. So let’s go take it. There’s nothing to do but do it. And no amount of ‘what if’ and ‘what should we do’ will get us where we need to be. So … we use our training and skills. We’re red team now. We win by any means. We take what we want. And we don’t care.” Her gaze swung to Eulaila, and there was no small amount of sympathy. “We have to be selfish and ruthless. And really not care. The not caring part is the only way I can think of to handle it for now.”

They had to turn off a big chunk of their humanity to get the job done, and that was going to be hard for pretty much all of them.

“So this freighter,” she said after a few moments. “Do we know where they are? What their manifest is? Details of their ship? Or are we winging it?”

Randi, CE

They sent the information to Calloway’s computer and she left, so maybe their ‘handlers’ would provide the information they needed. “What exactly is their cargo we are going after and what are the specs on the specific freighter we’re going after? I don’t relish our first go round being a boarding party. We don’t have our story straight enough for that.”

Beth, COS

“Sound dangerous all together.” Ryley said, folding this hands behind his head, palms on the back of his head while he stretched. “Just so you’re aware, since this is no longer a federation vessel, my services cost and they ain’t cheap. Try not to get yourselves too banged up.” He gave a smirk.

Ryley
MD

Bethany smirked, she almost laughed, Ryley was pure gold. She leaned over in her seat next to him. “You prefer booze or latinum as payment, doc?”

Gadi, CoS

Turning around, Ryley smirked at Bethany. “I’ll take anything thats tradable, spendable, gets me drunk, high or laid kid. Depending on how much treatment you need of course it might be all of the above.”

Ryley
MD

Beth turned her chair and eyed the doctor, “I can cover everything but getting high. You’ve got the drugs doc not me. But if business has been slow, I might be able to help with that.”

He continued to smirk. “It’s a poor merchant that dips into his own stock.” He replied.

“It… scares me that I can’t tell if you’re joking, Doctor Ryley,” Paddy replied with a bemused look on his face.

-Lieutenant Patrick McMillan: Counsellor-

“Never joke about booze, goods, commerce or sex counsellor. It never ends well.” He said in sage reply to Patrick.

Pikelsimer and Blue had been very quiet, letting the crew come to their own terms with what they were now. The only reaction from either had been Blue placing a hand on Pikelsimer’s metal arm when McMillan had teased Shara as the older man started to move at the Counselor. Other than that, both simply stood… and watched.

As the crew became more… acknowledging… of their particular circumstances, Blue spoke up. “Captain, that’s a great start. But get specifics. Because you will need them. And as far as how long this will take? Well, thats up to you. The more of a name the ship makes for itself, the faster that invite will come. Agent Pikelsimer and I have a start set up… after that the training wheels come off and we are truly on our own.” Pikelsimer stepped forward slightly and said “The Tellerites are carrying a shipment of Federation Marine phaser rifles, body armor, and some heavier ordinance. It’s new stuff, but no prototypes or anything. Security will be tight, and they won’t give up if we give them that option. They are too stubborn.” His gaze shifted to the Operations Officer. “And Ms. Dacascos? I’d warn ya not to call them ‘creature’ to their face. You won’t like the response.” He looked back at the assembled officers. “The VIP ship is a luxury liner. Three hundred passengers and a security force of twenty. Eighty five crew outside’a that. We need the weapons and armor from the Tellerites to take on the liner. That’ll do two things. One, it gives us credibility for having Federation gear. Two, it shows our target group that we mean business and aren’t just snatching and grabbing at a whim. We’re smart. We plan. And we think ahead. The freighter is two days from our current spot, so you have that long to get yourselves ready for your debut. Don’t screw it up.” and he began walking to the door. As he reached it, he stopped and turned. “Counselor? A word in your office, if you please. I’ll be there in an hour.” and he walked out the door.

Blue watched the FedSec agent leave and got a thoughtful expression on his face. He looked at the Counselor and said “You’ll want someone with you for that, I think.” and then looked at the rest of the crew. His artificial eyes took in all the faces and looks before him. “But he is right. We can’t screw it up. And these people do not play. They will hurt you if they even think we are onto them. And in ways none of us can even imagine. And I was their guest for almost a year.” and he gestured to his eyes. “Two days… get sorted what you need to sort. If you need to talk, come see me. I’ll help you as best I can. Any questions?”

GM

Beth snorted, “Yeah why did you leave us with only 2 days to give us this crap? If this works it’s not because you and FedSec Cyborg boy made a decent plan, it’s cause you got lucky enough to get stuck with Calloway. We can NOT train a whole ship to be deep cover operatives in 2 d@mn days. You should have at least prepared her earlier. What were you thinking?” Then she got up and walked out.

Gadi, CoS

After a few seconds Ryley carefully got to his feet using his cane to support his move from his chair. “Well if everyone else is leaving…and since I’ve nothing useful to add…” he said and limped off too.

Ryley
MD

Eulailia watched as some of them began to leave. She was bewildered when Agent Pikelsimer, called her out. She knew not to call the Tellurites creatures to their face. After all she had encountered them before, on multiple occasions, under friendlier circumstances as the daughter of a Federation Ambassador. She stood up and said to Blue, “I do not have a question, just a comment. Our Chief of Security is right. We should have been given more time to prepare for this.”

She looked at the Captain and said, “I am sure you do not need us all to board the freighter and I probably would not serve well in that role. What else can I do to help this mission, sir.”

Dacascos, COO

Blue looked directly at Dacascos and said “I’m sorry the schedule doesn’t work for you, Commander. Next time we attempt to pull off the single biggest double-cross in Intelligence history, I’ll be sure to check your calendar.”

Eulailia frowned at him and said, “I don’t think you really care about my calendar or anyone else’s. I think you just need us to be your pawns and get you into that restricted part of space. But I know you are here and not on any other starship because you know we can do this job regardless of the amount of time we have to prepare for it.”
He stepped away from the wall and looked at the Captain. “Captain, two days. Whatever we can do to assist we will, but…” and he looked at the Operations Officer before looking back, “… you might want to let your crew know… again.... that this isn’t Star Fleet anymore. Its a lot different on this side of the law.”
She rolled her eyes and said, “We are overly aware as it has been mentioned over and over again. We understand the mission, we just don’t like the parameters of it.”
Blue looked at Dacascos again and said “You were given all the time we had. I trust you all to make it work.” and he left the room.

GM

Eulailia threw her hands up in the air, after he left, looked at the Captain, and shook her head in frustration.

Dacascos, COO


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