STF

MPT - LS - Starbase 243

Posted May 1, 2021, 11:52 p.m. by Crewman Quinn Emery Kindle (Yeoman / RTF) (Cassa D)

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in MPT - LS - Starbase 243

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in MPT - LS - Starbase 243

Posted by Lieutenant Surda (Chief of Security / RTF) in MPT - LS - Starbase 243
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The dark void of space hid many secrets, and sat tucked away near the edge of Ferengi space in no-mans land was no different. The location had been chosen early on after several science probes failed to return but continued to transmit and to the founders meant that somewhere in the dark void was a location where there was one way in and one way out. The Bardeezi nebula was unique; it was a maelstrom of huge proportions and yet provided the exact sanctuary required for an organisation like the ARU.

It took two year to complete Starbase 237, the starbase itself was one of the largest known projects undertaken by the ARU during the creation; two Ships had been lost due to the nature of their new home, it was unrelenting and unforgiving. The Starbase is designed to be separated in six different sectors, The inner ring, Upper ring and lower ring. Both the Upper and Lower ring also has multiple vertical skyscraper like buildings which made up the civilian and military housing districts. The Inner ring was the commercial, science, medical, engineering and command zone.

Surrounding the main structure are three petal-like structors, hollowed out, these are District 1, 2 and 3 and provide the station with its enormous capacity to effectively secure anomalies. Atop these districts are shuttle bays which lead directly to the inner ring docking bays, larger ships cant dock with the structure but there is a separate anchorage and shipyard nearby. The most unique thing about the Districts is each has their own sustainable engineering section, with impulse engines and weapon capability, and can be separated from the main structure to become its own entity. The districts also have Crew Quarters, Command decks, Science and medical facilities along with the RTF Barracks and the anomaly containment blocks. They are in their Essence a ship. When Undocked district one becomes USS Styx, District two become the USS Lithe and district three the USS Phlegethon named after three of the five rivers of hell. Along with the two dedicated defence ships the USS Acheron and the USS Cocytus completing the five rivers of hell. The Starbase is heavily protected, there are often ARU ships coming and going at any one time and the nebula itself could hide a fleet.

The inner perimeter of the Nebula has several strategically placed overlapping arcs of fire Phaser and Photon platforms, between them and the edge of the nebula is a cloaked gravity minefield similar to the one used in the defence of the federation during the dominion war. On the very edge at the entrance of the nebula is a lone duel manned sensor platform with the sole purpose of detecting incoming ships designated ‘the crows nest’ so it was no surprise that the incoming ship was picked up especially when it wasnt transmitting the usual ARU identification codes.

Sleeping as he floated around the instrument room, Johhanssen, a large muscular nordic security officer was snoring away, the initial beeps and light panel illumination didn’t catch his attention as he dreamed of somewhere other than the crows nest. The Crows Nest was as small as a shuttle, with two bunks a small recreation area and the main instrument area something else to note was there was no gravity plating meaning they were in a constant state of zero G. It was day 57 of their 100 day tour in the crows nest and Johhanssen couldnt wait for some action, not that anything ever happened anyway.

From the distant shores of his hitherto peaceful slumber, Johanssen would first become aware of a rustling sound, then a scream, then something small and hard colliding with his forehead. Opening his eyes, he would be greeted by the sight of his bunkmate, Hooper, careening around the room in an effort to capture several bright red, floating objects.

Awoken by the noise and then the collision with whatever the hell had hit him Johanson plucked the gobstopper out of the air, “What the hell is this Hooper?!” He asked his tone angry and nordic.

“Dropped my gobstoppers,” Hooper shrugged in response to the anticipated question. “Gonna take me a week to find all of ‘em. Oh, there!” And with that he launched himself at the other man and fished one of the sweets from his hair.

Swatting the other man away Johanson wondered what he had done to land himself with this idiot. He pushed Hooper away, with the zero G environment meaning they both went backwards.

“Oh, also…something’s out there,” he added, almost as an afterthought. “Something not us. Not…ARU.”
And with that, Hooper disappeared out of the door, a trail of the bright red gobstoppers floating like a procession in his wake.

Excitedly Johanson sat back down and began booting up the scanning system, “Hooper began coding a message to Hades and let them know we have…” He waited while their long range scanners went to work, at this range they wouldn’t know what ship it was or its designation just its direction. “Its large, going warp 6.5 and its heading… It’s coming straight here!” Excitement rang through his voice, “Contact them now!”

The smaller man whooped with delight as he successfully captured two of the runaway sweets, cramming them both into his mouth at the same time so that one nestled inside each cheek, giving him the appearance of a well-fed hamster.
“On it!” he mumbled a reply to Johanson, before turning to his keyboard and typing with a speed that could almost have been artificial.
“6.5? That’s…that’s got to be a pretty large ship. Can you make out any details yet?” he asked whilst continuing to record his message.

Johanson shook his head and then verbally, “No just that its big and coming this way from its configuration however it could very well be Starfleet but with so many ships designs out there and with the distortion from the nebula its difficult to be sure. Better safe than sorry though” He thought, raising the fleet to a possible inbound hostile was no small task.

Meanwhile deeper into the nebula the unsuspecting Starbase and its two ships the USS Acheron and the USS Cocytus laid in wait, still and silent. shuttles whizzed about performing routine maintenance and transferring personnel from ship to ship, transporters didn’t work in the nebula and to engage the warp engine would lead to a catastrophic burn, only impulse was allowed in Tartarus. In the command center Commander Mac paced the consoles making small talk with the other officers about the nights boxing tournament, there were no ships scheduled to arrive soon and only one ship the USS Archer was docked at the anchorage.

At the comms station, a Romulan officer had been keeping one eye on her terminal while the other scanned the PADD in her hands, on which chapter fifteen of her latest romance novel was discreetly being displayed. The chirp from her console demanded full attention, however, and with the PADD immediately cast aside, Lt Narena deftly accessed the incoming message.

“Commander,” she called out almost instantly. “A hail from the Nest. We have a vessel approaching.”

From his standing position overlooking the command center also called ‘the podium’ Commander Braxton tapped his control panel and brought up the visual from the nest. “No visuals yet? How certain are we that it’s coming directly for us? Do we have an IFF yet?” His voice was calm and stoic like most Klingons though his smile showed he hoped it was foe.

“Just outside of visual range, Commander,” Narena replied. “But their trajectory is definite.”
She wanted to add ‘what the hell else would they be all the way out here for?’ but bit her tongue just in time.
“Shall I initiate contact, Sir?”

The Commander nodded, “Yes” came his simple response, “Let’s see what we’re dealing with, bring the station to alert and tell the Acheron and Cocytus to form a defensive posture at our end of the gauntlets event horizon, hail the unknown vessel”

“Contact initiated, Sir,” the Romulan declared.

Standing in the middle of the room her looked to the =^=Unknown Vessel this is Hades, please state your designation and intentions we are fully equipped to defend ourselves if necessary.=^= It was sharp and to the point, at this range the ship would only have audio, the reason behind using their own unofficial callsigns was to not inform the possible thread of their own nature, they also used a network of randomly placed communication buoys so trying to fix the transmission location was impossible.
The reply that echoed through the base at that moment was nothing if not unexpected.
=^= Still as cheery as ever, eh, Braxton? Well wait ‘till you see what we’ve brought you! =^=

Narena made no attempt to hide her groan. “It’s Captain Cobb, Sir,” she announced redundantly through gritted teeth.

But even for Cobb was this no laughing matter and he was quick to retreat to a more professional demeanor.
=^= Hades, this is the USS Leviathan, requesting permission to dock. Sir. =^= he gave the formal request, then glanced nervously towards Raauhl as they waited for the reply.

There was a long silence, unintentional as the communication always seemed to give of an eerie delay, =^=Permission granted, welcome home, God’s speed.=^=

Were one to drop a pin inside the Leviathan’s CIC, then at that precise moment, it would have sounded like an explosion. Every station, every seat, even some standing positions at the rear, were occupied fully by the Leviathan’s alpha crew. But the silence that had wrapped its way around them was so heavy as to be tangible.

In the centre seat, Captain Cobb gripped at the armrests until his knuckles were white as bleached bone, his eyes fixed on the viewscreen ahead, even as the tactical display began to paint a picture of the crowded corridor ahead.

Rising to his feet, Cobb cleared his throat and then slowly crossed to the helm, placing one hand gently on the shoulder of the officer there and, with a final glance to Commander Raauhl, announcing,

“Crew, prepare to enter the gauntlet.”

OOC: REACTIONS.

From her chair, Casela glanced about the room. Entry to starbase 243 was an exercise in psychological warfare if she’d ever designed one. She resisted the urge to call down and check on the readiness of the RTF teams. That duty had been placed on her when Manhattan had gone missing and then with his promotion. But they had Vonn now and really, to give the man his due, there was no need, not even for protocol sake, to ask the man if RTF was ready. But there was an area of tension strong enough to make her stomach churn. From herself. She hated the gauntlet and for some reason despite all the harrowing situations she’d been in, the gauntlet bothered her. But she caught the Helm officer’s glance and she got up and stopping next to Cobb she leaned a hip against a console and nodded to the helm officer. He was the best in the fleet, but he’d come to her a couple weeks ago to talk about this. He’d admitted to her that the weight of responsibility on him every time he went through here always set his nerves off slightly. “Just like we practiced, hmm? Chase those hell hounds back to their cages with their tails tucked.” The officer grinned back at her and turned back to the controls calm, collected, and quite sure of himself. She nodded to Cobb and then headed back to her chair. She paused briefly next to Raauhl with a wink and a hand to his shoulder, briefly, before taking her seat again. Ugh…her stomach felt like she was in zero-gs. She glanced around the rest of the CIC taking in the crew. That was the beauty of Leviathan. In the months since their first mission they had formed something much strong than family, and not one mind in the room doubted the helm officer’s ability to safely, and with flair, navigate the gauntlet.

Surda shifted her weight, almost imperceptibly. She had never been through the gauntlet, but the symbolism still stuck out to her. Navigating obstacles so that they could reach Hell… Just like walking Ajira’s Corridor after death, attempting to reach judgment. She glanced back down to her station, even knowing nothing had changed. The CIC was tense, the air almost electric, not with fear but with excitement. Everyone knew they could do it, and yet they had still gathered, wishing to watch the homecoming.

In the Crow’s Nest, Hooper’s excitement levels began to rise.
“They’re coming!” he squealed to Johanson. “I’ll bet you a whole bag of gobstoppers that they don’t make it past the third turret.”

  • Commander Raauhl, XO
  • Captain Zacharia Cobb, CO
  • NEs
    Lt Synthi-er, CNS
    -Lt. Surda, CoS

Silence resumed. For the valiant Helm Officer, Ferro, it must have felt, in that moment, as if every pair of eyes in the room was trained on his back. Recalling both the strategy, and the calming breath techniques, practiced with Lt Synthi-er, his hands remained solid against the controls as his own eyes remained fixed on the terminal at his side.

And then came the signal they had expected and dreaded in equal measure. A digital chirp.
“That’s the map?” Cobb whispered from his position to the left of the helm.
A nod, before Ferro’s right hand reached out with impeccable control and accepted the incoming file - the current configuration of the gravity minefield. The schematic remained on screen for exactly thirty seconds, before disappearing completely from view.

A nod of acknowledgement between the captain and Ferro, for they had both stared unblinkingly at the map, and then with an intake of air, the helmsman shifted the ship into impulse and began the slow, methodical journey ahead…

  • Captain Zachariah Cobb

Quinn walked onto the bridge, a tray of fresh croissants in her hands. Two thermos on her belt and her signature playful cheek grin on her face showing her dimples. “Did I miss the fun part?” she asked looking around those on the bridge, she stopped near Cobb’s chair because she did not want to crowd the helm officer. Quinn was looking forward to the visit to the star base after their gauntlet run was complete, she had only two plans for the moment, shopping and exploring though she was always willing to change her plans, if a friend wanted company or something.

Quinn Kindle, Yeoman, R T F, Cobb’s Angel

OOC: I’m trying to leave the gauntlet for Jake to have his input, so for now, if you all want to imagine…[spoiler]…we made it through and are now on the starbase, then you can explore the base itself in other threads if you want :)

  • Sharon

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