Posted by Lieutenant Sheleah Ruby (Diplomatic Officer / CNS) in Main Sim - Bridge

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Brenna Neenna Atoded (Chief of Security) in Main Sim - Bridge

Posted by Gamemaster Rei (GMT) in Main Sim - Bridge
Posted by… suppressed (26) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The Saracen had been sent on a cruise to patrol the ‘west’ side of the fleet’s grounds. While well within Federation territory, there wasn’t an actual heavy presence this far out. It fell to a few ships like the Saracen, patrolling the black, in what was still effectively the wild west. Of course, there were plenty of routine things to do. Even if they were tedious.

“It’s just been so quiet lately,” NE Harmon said, studying the operations panel in front of him. Fiddling with the displays, he ironed out a power irregularity in the tertiary ODN network. Then made a note about it in the log.

“Don’t say the ‘q’ word,” NE Locke hissed, flashing him a grin, then sobered. “Same goes for the ‘s’ word.”

“That’s just superstition, you know. There’s no statistical proof that–“

“There are always truths behind ever superstition, Ensign Harmon,” 2nd Lieutenant Laju said calmly from the tactical station.

An alert passed across his board, an incoming signal. “Huh,” he groused, then pulled up what information he had on it. It was coming from just on the edge of high-resolution sensor range, some three and a half lightyears out. There were a couple of ships within sensor range, but nothing to get conclusive information, save for that ship. It was flagged as a distress call. Ship under attack.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to wake the captain up,” NE Harmon said.

Jensen had been zoned out at the helm, but perked up when he heard the Ensign mention the Captain. Luckily, no one else around him seemed to notice. Cadet Truhart peered over to the Ops station, then turned back to the conn and projected the quickest route possible. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to take the ship off course without permission from the CO.

“Agreed, we should also alert the senior staff as well, Ensign,” At the same time, her hands flew over the sensor controls of the Saracen’s powerful sensor arrays. It was too far away, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t get eyes on the situation much sooner. Without waiting for the senior staff or Captain, she readied a Class 9 Probe and set it for extreme sensor sweeps. She knew from her bridge training that a Class 9 probe could travel at warp 9 for about twelve hours. More then enough of a head start for the bridge crew to respond.

That would mean, once they arrived on the bridge, they would be greeted with the latest information available. As the call to the Captain was being sent out, the probe was being launched.

It was seventeen hours to that distress call at maximum sustainable warp, and too far for emergency warp. Whatever was going on, it was already too late. But there might be survivors. =^=Bridge to Captain Knight…=^=

Rei, GMT

“At our current position we’re looking at a seventeen-hour detour at max warp, Lieutenant,” Jay announced, watching the probe jet out from the ship and into the distance. “Do you want to hail the ship, sir?” The Cadet Helmsman asked.

Cadet Truhart

“Hail what ship, Cadet? Give me a report someone, please.” The slightly Italian accented voice of the Captain came from behind the group as he stepped off the Turbo-lift. Coffee cup in hand, fresh uniform and not looking like he had just woken up it would be clear that he hadn’t been sleeping when the call came in, along with not even being in his quarters.

The pause in his voice and the way he stopped and looked at the helmsman in his Cadet uniform before he sat down indicated that the new crew member was unfamiliar to him immediately, although he clearly knew the young cadets name. Although the pause did make it convenient for the Officer of the Watch to vacate the Captains chair.

“Welcome to the Saracen, by the way, Mr Truhart.” Dante spoke as he placed the coffee cup in the cup-holder that Alindor had retrofitted to the chair for him, then looked around at the rest of the Bridge Crew for this shift. His eyes fell on Laju and he nodded, before turning back to Helm and Ops.

Captain Knight, CO

NE Harmon turned to regard Captain Knight. “We have a vessel on long-range scanners sending out a distress call. They reported they were under attack. Contact is intermittent. I.F.F. registers it as the SS Bhari.” Tapping a couple controls on his console he continued. “Its an independent prospector and hauler ship. Probably has less tactical capabilities than one of our runabouts.” There were any number of things the ensign could speculate on, as to why the vessel was under attack, but whatever was going on it was hours away at best speed.

Another alert came through and a look of concern crossed the fresh-faced operations officer’s face. “Contact lost, sir. Inconclusive as to why.” He didn’t need to say it was likely destroyed. But were there survivors?

NE Harmon
Rei

Jensen’s shot a glance at the Ops officer, then back to the CO. The Cadet wondered how many other ships received the message but chose not to assist. “Who would want to destroy a defenseless hauler?” Truhart asked rhetorically. Shaking his head, the Cadet turned back to the helm and awaited the CO’s orders.

Cadet Truhart

Sheleah made her way quietly onto the bridge. She wasn’t late for her shift but she had arrived after the Captain and her mother would have told her that was bad form but would have been proud of Sheleah none the less.

Sheleah was an observational counselor and prefered to walk every inch of every place she served rather than sit in any office assigned to her. When she wasn’t on the bridge or in session, she could be found just about anywhere, at any time.

• Sheleah

Brenna’s shift wasn’t scheduled to start so she had been walking and exersising her huskies when the call for senior staff came through. Dropping off her boys, she donned a clean uniform and made her way to the bridge.

The lift doors opened and she made her way to the tactical station to releave Laju. “Lt Laju,” she greeted while scanning the display.

Atoded, CoS

Siarram had to finish up what he was doing before he could come out of engineering… Which meant no time for a new uniform. Ah, well, what did one expect? He was an engineer and this ship kept him busy. He brushed himself off and managed to look presentable before showing up on the bridge to answer the call for senior staff. As he entered he looked up at the display, trying to figure out what was going on.

~ Lt Ch’thaanaq, CE

“Thank you for coming so promptly,” Dante greeted the latest Officers to arrive. “We have a distress call from a vessel at extreme long sensor range, and their signal just disappeared. Likely worse case scenario but we will investigate.”

He turned to Truhart. “Mr Truhart, lets stretch our space legs shall we. Bring us to Maximum Warp, hold for 12 hours then drop us back to Maximum Sustainable. That should shave a few hours off of this potential rescue mission. Oh, and lets pick up our probe on the way, shall we, seeing as we are going to overtake it sooner rather than later.”

“Aye, Captain.” Cadet Truhart replied, nodding his head in affirmation. The Helmsman noted the engine status as green, then proceeded to slowly increase the warp factor by 1, until the warning alert displayed on his screen with a 12-hour countdown once they reached Warp Factor 9.7.

“In the mean time, lets make the best use of the time we have and information we were able to collect. “See if we can find anything in the signals we collected as to what kind of ship the S.S. Bhari is,” he glanced at Sirram here seeing as he was on the Bridge, “how many on board and who is the Captain.” Next he looked at Atoded. “Lets also bring up a Tactical evaluation of who in this area might have hostile intentions.”

It was a relatively quiet stretch of Federation space. For the most part nobody seemed to be out here, except some minor trade. Though they were close to the neutral zone. There was of course the Tzenkethi Coalition. But they’d been quiet for years. Of course in out of the way places but still close tot he lines were places pirates like to hide out.

“Aye, Sir.” Brenna set both her hands to the console and typed away, pulling up the latest tactical reports and evaluations for the area, looking for hostile and neutral factions. It didn’t hurt to check friendlies either. You never knew what might set someone off.

Atoded, CoS

“Aye, sir.” Siarram said, voice firm. He began looking through the data for the requested data, the type of ship or at least clues to what it might be, the personnel aboard. Once he had some amount of info, he could start looking for specifics like who the captain was.

The S.S. B’hari showed up as a Levisto-class ship with over 37,000 cubic meters of cargo space, which was well-over five times the Saracen’s cargo capacity. But with significantly less beam (width), decks, or length. The Levisto-class was mostly an engine section, a bridge and habitation module, and then five cargo bays that made up most of the ship’s length. There were a couple of phaser strips at the ends that wrapped around the hab and engine modules but they were Type V at best, with prety modest shields, and virtually no armor plating. Designed purely for hauling a lot of goods from one place to another, with just enough teeth to discourage pirates. But not capable of more than light combat until they could run away. It didn’t help that the ship class was quite aged, though a good captain could stay competitive with refits.

Last, he turned to Sheleah. “Its’ early and I’d prefer to think positive on this despite what our sensors say, but we may have some survivors that might need your expertise sooner rather than later.”

Captain Knight

Jensen calculated that they should overtake the launched probe in about 2 hours, in which he’d transfer the data captured along it’s route, then wipe it clean for another use.

Cadet Truhart

~ Lt Ch’thaanaq, CE

Sheleah nodded.

“Yes sir. I’d like to know about the Captain also. I request being kept in the loop if things take a diplomatic twist in the future.”

Sheleah glanced down at her station and began going through crew psychological files. She would also be interested in what the probe picked up when the time came.

• Sheleah, CNS/DO

The crew information was thin on the B’hari. It looked like a small family crew, with a couple of hired hands.

Rory Sands was pushing toward sixty, but still vital and strong. Captain Sands had a reputation for staying on schedule and meeting deadlines. Liked to under promise and over-deliver if he could. A smart businessman.

Leena Sands was Rory’s partner in crime, so to speak. Operating as peace maker, engineer, and medic aboard the vessel, she saw to much of hte crews needs and could repair just about anything.

Two sons, two daughters, all capable members of the crew in their own right. The two hired hands were friends of the family.

DaVinci entered the bridge running his hands through his hair and looking a bit disheveled. Sitting down in his chair, he reported, “Sorry, I’m late, Skipper. I was . . . working on my . . . cardio. Someone read me in?”

Colter (XO/CIO)

Jensen turned his head slightly upon hearing the XO step onto the Bridge, then quickly turned his attention back to his own console. “Cream of the crop…” The Cadet whispered to himself, with a slight smirk on his face. Surely, he was going to let a more seasoned member of the crew fill in the First Officer.

Cadet Truhart

“Distress call, ship under attack, gone from sensors, probably boom. We’re enroute now but it’s going to be a fair few hours before we arrive. Time to gather whatever info we can before we get to the scene and find out what’s going on.”

Dante hit a few controls on his arm rest and remastered the known info to Colters chair for him to review.

“Suggestions, number one?”

Knight

DaVinci smirked as he took his seat next to Dante. “We get there ASAP, skip?”

((If I missed anybody’s info requests, or stuff didn’t get answered, gimme a nudge and I’ll get that fixed. Also apologies. I was going to post days ago, but every time I did, people chose right then to pester me IRL. Like I wasn’t allowed to post. So… there’s nobody to stop me today! MUAAHAHAHAHA… adjust tie Ahem. Anyway… ))

Rei

Truhart noticed they were beginning to receive data from the probe they launched earlier, and transferred it to the command chairs and tactical. He wasn’t sure if it would provide that much more information then they already gathered, but was worth a look into.

Cadet Truhart

“Laju, put the distress call on audio. Let’s see if we can pick anything from that,” DaVinci ordered. “Mr. Truhart, anything helpful coming in from the probe yet?”

Colter (Xo/CIO)

OOC: Mike took an eLOA so I’ll have Atoded answer here.

Atoded cycled back through the logs and pulled up the various intermittent signals and pieced them together to give a more complete picture of the distress call. “Contact was intermittent at best before we lost contact Cmdr. I.F.F. registered it as the SS Bhari, an independent prospector and hauler ship. A runabout would have had a better tactical chance. I’m trying to piece together the various signals to get a better stream of the message.” She filtered for static and background noise, which she could examine after, and then hit play. “coming up on audio, Cmdr.”

Atoded, CoS

A moment later the computer gave a soft double beep.
*”This is the S.S. B’hari. We are under fire and in need of assistance. We can’t hold out for long.” An explosion cut through the transmission, resumably picked up by the B’hari’s audio pickups. “–ink we will –able to re—at. Attack was su–en and —provoked.” Another explosion, followed by a burst of static. “-----ian in make. --------- gression.” Through the background audio the bridge officers could hear the panicked callouts as they desperately tried to fight back and also make a break for it at the same time. Their warp drive had already been knocked out and main power was faltering along with their shields. It didn’t look good. “Be–re.” A moment later the audio scaled up into a high-pitched electronic death squeal as the transmission ended in a scrambled, distorted energy spike.

Sheleah perked up to listen to the audio. She was hoping that by examining vocal stresses and speech patterns she would be able to learn something about the situation.

• Sheleah, CNS/DO

There was immense stress in the voices, quite consistent with a crew that were fighting for their lives and ill-equipped to do so.

“Nothing much beyond what Atoded stated, Commander,” Jensen replied, ensuring the data was also sent to the PaDD the CO and XO were signed into. “I’ve sent the data to your PaDD for quick reading, sir.” He stated, hiding a smile from the Ops officer next to him.

Truhart

Siarram looked up as his scans finished and the information came through. “It’s a Levisto class, an older ship. 37,000 m³ of cargo space, but not as wide or long, and less decks than Saracen.” He had to wonder, if it was five times as large, yet seemingly smaller, where was all that space? “The interior is mostly engineering and cargo, but there’s a bridge and a habitation area. There’s phasers, but not powerful ones.” He glanced at Brenna and the captain, “Type V, at best, I think?” Weapons were not his strong suit. “Shields are decent, but not great. And no armor plating. It’s certainly not made for fighting anything more than your average space pirate.”

~ Lt Ch’thaanaq, CE

More data spooled in from the probe, but there wasn’t much, at least at first glance.

Rei

The reginal tactical report came up and Brenna read through it. “Local tactical analysis only shows minor trade through this area. Though we are close to the neutral zone. Of course the Tzenkethi Coalition is near by, but they’ve been quiet for years. This is ideal location for pirates though.”

Atoded, CoS

DaVinci listened carefully to the message, trying to make heads or tails out of it. He ran it again from the last burst of static: ” “-----ian in make. --------- gression.” to the end, “Be–re.” . . . . . He tried to clean it up as much as possible and began running algorithms as to what the message might possibly be saying. . . .

Colter (XO/CIO)

The message data had already been scrubbed through. With the B’hari being relatively right around the corner, though hours away, the signal was quite strong. One could surmise the garbled transmission was due to equipment damage.

@Atodad - After another minute or so of reading, two other items catch their attention .Two other vessels have gone missing in the region. They never checked in at their next scheduled ports of call.

Rei

Brenna looked further into that. Looking up the reports to get information such as the last known location, missed port of call, specs and crew of the ship’s, and their expected route. “Captain, two other ships have been reported missing in this region. I am pulling the reports now.”

Atoded, CoS

Sheleah was watching screens and the activity of the bridge crew. She was pleased with the way everybody seemed to work together so well.

• Sheleah, CNS/DO

Brenna’s screen began to display various bits of information. The two other missing ships were the Starchaser and Rockhound.

The Starchaser was registered as an independent free trader, much like the B’hari. It had been traveling from Betazed to Starbase 211, to Solarion, all the way to Starbase 310 with only minor stop-offs, and back. It seemed to be a relatively common route for the vessel and crew.

The Rockhound was a geosurveyor and prospecting ship and crew. Hopping from system to system hoping to find a good strike and start a claim. They were an independant outfit had had made a fair chunk of latinum here and there. They were known for disappearing and then turning up a little later, often with ore to sell. Usually they would show up after a month, but they hadn’t come up for air in at least two if not three.

Rei