Posted Feb. 17, 2023, 10:53 p.m. by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) (Jennifer Ward)
Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - Arrival To Vok III
Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Main Sim - Bridge - Arrival To Vok III
Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - Arrival To Vok III
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[snip]With the probe launched it took a few minutes for it to get on station nearer to the asteroid ship. The ‘asteroid’ on scans by the probe were on first result fully given over to showing it was an asteroid made mainly of iron and other such general minerals like those around it in the belt. The ‘asteroid’ did not make any hostile or corrective movements when the probe was obviously when its range of influence by 200 meters or so.
Visual scans also showed what seemed a normal iron made ‘asteroid’. But it was finer details now up close which over the next half an hour gave little hints at the true purpose of likely some kind of really well made camouflaged ship. Someone had taken great effort to clearly build a ship as naturally as possible that even on a closer scan would likely pass for a natural asteroid at a quick glance. But being studied now as it was the crew could see small bumps or ‘crater’ holes which given their alignment were clearly carefully made RCS thruster jet holes which would account for the minute burn effect they had seen earlier by a freak chance. Given the positioning of these thrusters they soon could devise a rough shape of likely the ship in some form.
From what could be told someone had indeed at some point in recent months or a year or two at most taken actual local asteroid chunks from within his system. They had then carefully lined some kind of rough spherical/angular rectangular hull with said rock chunks, and taken extreme efforts to then build natural colored and rough shaped hull for everything else to maintain the rough spherical natural asteroid shape. Given the size output of the RCS thrusters and the rest of the structure probably there were at most 4 or so people if any on board the ship. There was no sign of defenses or weapons either at present nor the outlines of what might be considered such in the natural slopes of the rock. It was clearly though not capable of warp travel, nor likely of much more then limited sublight speeds if at all. Its destination was still it seemed either the sun, or if it made the course change to come the northern pole of Vok III
GM CockRoach
Rand listened as the information was relayed. So not anything more than what they already knew, or could surmise with the given data. She looked at Kovan, “Let’s send another probe out, into the field and see if someone is watching over them. If not....” she looked at Morgan at tactical, “Morgan can we tractor that thing?”
Tracy turned to look at her, “The Sentinel has 2 tractor beam emitters located aft dorsal and aft ventral on decks 1 and 12. The dorsal emitter is clear of the ship’s nacelle pylons for a full 180 degree area of lock. The 2nd emitter is located ventrally on deck 12 providing the same 180 degree area coverage. Both emitters have a maximum range of 10,000km, depending on local relativistic and delta-v conditions, as well as a towing capacity of 20,000 metric tons each. That 4 person ship is well under the 20,000 metric ton limit. Unless they did something to make the mineral composition of their hull heavier than anything we know.”
Rand nodded and looked back at Kovan, “If we don’t have a second ship to deal with, let’s go capture a fake asteroid.”
Yeoman Rand
Looking over things on the surface it should easily be possible to tractor said ‘ship’. With the second probe then launched and sent out of the system it seems someone in Vok III’s orbital platform had taken notice and was hailing on audio with an inquiry of what was going on. =/\= Vok III space control to USS Sentinel, care to explain why you are launching probes? Something to report?” a male voice asked over the open channel.
Rand rolled her eyes. Really? Open comms with hostiles in the area. These people had no sense of self preservation. =/\=Vok III space control. We are simply following orders. My Commander tells me to get updated astrometric and stellar readings, I do it. Anything to report will be handled through Cmdr Alden given to your governor. Sentinel out.=/\=
Yeoman Rand
=/\= We see Sentinel. Well you could have informed us of this event. Vok III space control out. =/\= the male voice said closing the comms with a slightly huffed attitude.
It took Alden a while to find time to respond to Rand’s message. The code meant she must want it private. Finally, his voice came over the comm, =/\= Alden here. Requesting to be beamed aboard ASAP.=/\= Judging by the tone of his voice, he had received and understood Rand’s coded message.
~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO
=/\=Aknowleged Cmdr. Stand by for transport=/\= Rand breathed out slowly and nodded to Kovan. Better than a code. She hit the comms for the ship and relayed the request to the transporter room. A moment later the chief had completed the transport. “Welcome back, Cmdr.”
Yeoman Rand
GM CockRoach
With a quick, respectful nod to the transport chief, Roman quickly made his way to the bridge. He nodded to Kovan and Rand, “I want a report. What is going on up here?”
~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO
Rand turned toward Morgan, “Pull up the recording.” On the screen their original scan of the asteroid field played, and showed the asteroid ship purposely moving to avoid a collision with another and then resuming to drift. “Sensor readings showed a thruster type energy signature but small. It will either collide with the sun, or if it adjust course again, reach Vok in a few days. We launched a probe,” she motioned to Franks who had the details on the science station. “We confirmed it is a ship, big enough for around 5 people but appears to only have thruster capability, and they took a great deal of effort to use local asteroids to camouflage their ship. It is small enough we can grab it with a tractor beam. We launched a second probe into the field to see if anyone is waiting for them. Colonial space control is curious why we are launching probes. I told them we are gathering astrological scans to update charts while we are here. That you would inform the Governor if it was necessary. If someone is out there, and we know the Orions are about, communications should be cautious. They don’t appear to grasp that. Might be why they keep getting pirated.”
Yeoman Rand
Roman listened carefully to the information as Rand presented it. He was glad he’d returned to the ship. “Do the tractor beam. Let’s ask the Orions ourselves what they are doing in our space, so close to our colony.” He smiled, a faint, barely there smile and Rand’s final comment. “All further communications with the planet should be cautious. We don’t want the Orions overhearing anything of consequence.”
~ Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO
Franks spoke up. “We don’t know who is in the ship or how many. We are just guessing a crew number based on size of the ship.”
Morgan nodded, “Could be Orions but they are not usually this sneaky.”
The Helm officer spoke up, “Course to asteroid plotted and heading at full impulse Cmdr.”
Sentinel NEs
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