Posted May 24, 2021, 2:07 a.m. by Lieutenant Auleraine Brison (Engineering Officer) (Melissa Aragon)
Posted by Ensign Three of Five (William McRaven) (Engineering Officer) in Bridge Main Sim
Posted by Commander Garinder’Jen th’Jir (Executive Officer) in Bridge Main Sim
Posted by Lieutenant Auleraine Brison (Engineering Officer) in Bridge Main Sim
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻Snip
The two fighters had been flying along side the probe for the length of its search pattern… seemingly for no reason one fighter cut across the flight path of the probe and slowed almost getting in its way, while the second pulled back and moved into the ‘slot’ what was classically the ‘ideal’ firing position for a fighter to fighter engagement. Of course the probe wasn’t a fighter, so it wasn’t necessary to be in this position to negate the probe, old habits died hard.
GM
“Cmdr we have the PaDD ready if you can get them to agree to let us beam it over.” Revan spoke up, and then glanced at the screen with the probe and fighters, “That’s odd behavior. It’s like they’ve never seen a scientific probe before…or a benign one anyway.”
Lt Edman, counselorJen nodded absently, his focus and antennae looking at the display. “Have we touched on a sensitive area of space I wonder? Display and scan of what is ahead of the probe now. I want all data before they … ” His voice trailed off and he smiled. “And evasive maneuvers on the probe but keep pushing it forward. I want to see how good these pilots are before they knock out our eyes.”
- Jen, XOThe annoying part of the asteroid field was the scanning problem. That’s why there was the need for the probe. At this juncture the sensor scans were not producing anything useful. The probe scans placed on full forward still wasn’t giving anything aside from more rocks floating ahead.
The evasive maneuvers caused the fighter cutting back and forth in front of it to break off. Whoever was in the fighter didn’t seem to want any part of an unmanned ship moving erratically. The fighter aft of the probe wasn’t as nimble as the probe either by choice, ability, or craft limits. But every time the probe made a move it was back in some sort of firing position in two or three seconds.
At this point the trailing fighter took a single shot that missed the nose of the probe by 50 meters.
GM
“OK, that wasn’t very nice.” Lera frowned. “I am wondering if everything they have ever seen here has been a threat and they simply don’t understand.” She was musing out loud, not realizing she had stood up and was stepping towards the center of the bridge. “Maybe if we stop the probe. Let his warning shot stop it. Make him stand down,” she murmured under her breath with luck. “We may need more dialogue,” she laughed as an afterthought.
Lera
Engineer“They’ve followed the probe quietly for some time even after an adjustment of its course,” Jen said. “A quick stop is possibly in the works but this is very instructive. What is in the area that they suddenly don’t like? Or .. have things not gone well on the ship with the Captain? But .. this tells us a lot about the skill and tactics of these pirates, in particular these pilots. Are they making moves in line with practiced and trained fighters or are they ramshackle and amateur?” He looked at Lera. “My guess is that if they don’t take out the probe then they will destroy it if we bring it to a halt. But let’s have some fun and watch closely in the meantime. And then talk to them. They don’t know that we have control on the probe - we can say that the probe detected a potential hostile formation and went into an automatic evasive programming.” He pointed to the one at the rear. “That one looks skilled. That pilot is always there with a minimum of effort.”
- Jen, XOLera nodded. “That makes sense. Evasive maneuvers and forward as well. If we are getting close to something, maybe we can get readouts on it before it is destroyed, if that’s their plan.” She turned back to her console to be sure the feed was coming in as it was being recorded. She didn’t want to chance missing something if she was right and they destroyed the probe. “And if they destroy it, it also gives us a chance to open a dialogue by way of an apology, perhaps.” She changed her voice to sound as if she were naive and innocent. “We’re so sorry. We were trying to get readings of the area. Have we crossed into something we shouldn’t have? Is it dangerous? Perhaps it would be better if we knew so we could be sure to warn others who came here.” She broke out into a giggle that was quickly stifled as she realized how silly she was being.
Lera
Engineer
((comic? perhaps.... innocent? Not a chance!))“You, Counselor, are enjoying this,” Jen said, amused.
The probe began its pattern of jinks and other maneuvers. Being unmanned and small made it a hard target. The fact that it was only using pre-programed and/or delayed course changes remotely delivered made it a little less effective. The fighter pilot took another shot, this time missing the probe by about 10 meters. With this level of precision shooting it was likely that any time the fighter wanted to negate the probe it could.
GM
From the look of it, the probe was not going to last too much longer. “We already know we’ve got their knickers in a knot just because they are firing on it. Let’s see what happens when we reverse course and come back the way we came. That can be as telling as if we tried to go farther. That fighter is too good for my probe’s comfort.” Turning to tactical he said, “Reverse course on the probe. Bring it back home. Continue evasive if they keep firing even after it is coming back.”
- Jen, XOThe fighters seemed sufficiently mollified by the course change. The fighters returned to their previous position loosely behind the probe at a relatively unassuming distance. It best could be described as ‘flying casual.’ As long as the probe continued it’s reverse course there were no further firing incidents.
GM
“As one of your earth prophets one said, ‘curiouser and curiouser’,” Jen said. “They should have kept firing. That way they could have explained it away. Now they have indicated a probable region of interest. He turned to tactical. “Log the location of this short battle and course of the probe. It may be entirely mute if this is where their base is and we wind up going there for repairs. Bring the probe back home.”
Of course, Jen thought, they could have just been bluffing. At this point it really didn’t matter much until they needed for it to matter. “Bring the probe back home to the barn,” he said. “And run an analysis on the tactics of the fighters and pilots.”
- Jen, XOCourse, location, would actually give a cone of probable interest. That was also adding in what the aliens thought the sensor range of the probe was in the first place, which could have been off by a significant amount.
GM
Jen considered the next move as he looked at the split view screen. “They seem pretty protective of their base. They should know that even if we’re all blindfolded there is a thing called positioning systems. But if we’re to go there they may want that equivalent. He turned to the team on the bridge. “We are potentially going to be placed in a vulnerable position here. They want our tech and may take any advantage to gain it if they can get it. Options for going to the base to counter this? Jen had a couple in mind off the cuff but he wanted their options first and not having his skewing the ideas.
- Jen, XOLera had been watching the probe and maneuvered it back into the bay as ordered. Once inside she made sure the latest data was downloaded. As she flicked over the entries and the video, she frowned. “Well, I see two choices. Try diplomatic routes and see if bartering and cajoling will work. Or we can use our superiority, where we know it exists, and just head straight for it. I doubt those fighters can do much damage to us at full shielding unless they have firepower capabilities we have missed.” It was the basic of whatever other thoughts anyone had, she thought. They really only had two choices that all other suggestions would fit under. Didn’t they? Direct approach or terms and talks and negotiations. It seemed logical to her. But then, she wasn’t one to think of how to approach things. She was the epitome of ‘hit them hard and just do it’.
A quick glance at Revna and she ducked her head back to her console as if expecting the Counselor to take her to task on her thinking and then start saying it was part of her past that made such assumptions. She bit her lip and looked over the data to be sure she wasn’t missing energy and weapon signatures that would matter.
Lera
Eng“I’m sure that the Captain is trying to work things out diplomatically. After our .. debacle at the Station we are not suitably winning friends and influencing people just yet.” His eyes flickered down the latest on the repair statuses. They were going slowly but they could only do so much and nothing they could do on the list could be completed without outside help.
“I would be more comfortable in expressing strength when we’re fixed and operating optimally be it to fight or to strategically retreat.” He curled his lip up. As an Andorian and a soldier he had trouble saying ‘retreat’.
“In the meantime, if we are taking up the Pirate’s offer of them repairing us for some form of barter, how can we keep from being vulnerable while sitting in some form of space dock?”
Jen, XOThree of Five lifted himself up from under a panel he was fixing. “Might I suggest, we work a barter for the pirates to keep us safe as they help repair us? They are letting us use their form of a space dock, I’m sure they have security measures for if one of their enemies try to attack it, I’m sure we could try to barter for that protection to cover the Atlantis as well.” Three of Five offered, then went back to fixing the panel.
Three of Five, engineer.
Lera bit her lip. “Isn’t that asking the bad guy to keep an eye on your back? I would say we would be better set to ask for help and perhaps bring one or two of them here. I doubt they would blow us up with their own on board. Right?” She started tapping out a quick query about the exact nature of the repairs they needed absolute help with for now. Do we really need to put ourselves in a vulnerable position? She mused as she tried to ascertain the best way to get the repairs done without a complete shut down and belly up position.
Lera
Engineer
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