Posted by Lieutenant Steven Leon Marsh (Chief Science Officer) in USS Tian An Men- ‘Missing’ Side-Sim

Posted by Ensign Cassidy Abrams (Security Officer) in USS Tian An Men- ‘Missing’ Side-Sim

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in USS Tian An Men- ‘Missing’ Side-Sim
Posted by… suppressed (16) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

=^=Europa we have small arms fire on the Bridge, but no bodies. That suggests that whatever happened the Tian An Men crew got away taking their wounded with them.=^=

“Well, at least off the bridge,” Cass said softly. They hadn’t ventured elsewhere on the ship to see what the situation was like there, so it was hard to get the full picture at the moment.

Marsh made that relatively positive interpretation of the information to help lighten Cassidy’s mood, but she slapped that idea right down.

He nodded to Abrams, “get a scan of the weapons fire, and residual DNA in the cabin maybe we can get racial id from either and a time line from the breakdown. Meanwhile, I’ll hook up the power cell and see if I can get a log and the last few minutes of the sensor report.” Interestingly enough this wasn’t the first time Marsh had hooked up a power cell to a non-functional bridge in a environmental suit. He shook his head to himself, this was something he did not enjoy repeating.

Marsh

For a moment it was like she could sense his thoughts as Cass too was reminded to being stuck in a shuttle in an EVA suit with him. At least there was a way home here and no clock ticking down to their impending death. “On it,” she said, moving around the bridge with her tricorder.

Marsh would find a useable power juncture to hook up the power cell, but it would take some finagling to get access to the computer.

Marsh pulled in the cable, “Hello baby, you want some power? Yes you do…”

As Cass moved slowly around the room, she watched the readings that unfolded. “Hard to get a timeline on the energy signatures. Given how long the ship has been missing though, it’s not unexpected. But definitely over a week. I’d say more than ten days at least.” The ship was reported missing at that point after three, so they were closing in on the two-week mark. “Three disruptors signatures. Orion, Tholian, and…” She frowned, her voice sounding confused. “Talarian.”

Looking around, three people had been on this bridge and fired weapons at the crew. A crew which then somehow escaped. She knew there was a reason the ship was left intact. But… was it? “I feel like we should explore the rest of the ship a little. After we check the logs, of course.”

Ensign Abrams, Security

“Talarian? what the hell are they doing? Heck what the hell are any of them doing, particularly together. They have to know if we get evidence of an attack on a star-ship. We are going to wander over to their Empires and burn something down.”

We’re not all that far from their territory, relatively speaking.

“Logs’ coming up. I hope we get something good.”

Marsh

OOC: Miss me??

OOC: Thanks for your patience. Weird few days and I needed to do some prep to continue the rest of this side sim. And our previous mission had us out at Grazer which is in the general area near the Talarian Republic and the Tholian Assembly. You can see the area on the Star Chart. Look for the Brownish blob that is the Tholian Assembly and zoom in, lol. https://www.star-fleet.com/gmd/map/draftchart2.png
IC:
It took a minute for the ship’s logs to come up. The last one was made eleven days ago. It contained two parts: one made at 1457 hours and the second at 1533. The log before that was made two days earlier.

Ensign Abrams, Security

“Eleven days old, that’s near the time of the ship loss.... I hope it has something.” He looked at Abrams, “that’s why they tell you to always update your logs.” Marsh just piped the information out on the speakers… no need for secrets now.

After that was done he continued with his data collections, “Perhaps the tactical and security consoles will have more to report. There are always internal sensors as well.” Marsh diverted the power to those systems shaking his head.

Marsh

After a moment of coaxing, the video logs began to play starting from the earlier log made thirteen days ago. Cassidy couldn’t help but creep closer and closer, her gaze unwavering.

A middle aged woman in a command uniform and four pips appeared. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a loose knot at the nape of her neck and she carried a relaxed expression in her light brown eyes.

Ship’s Log, Stardate 19032.2, Captain Maxine Massey reporting. We’ve been continuing on our course after stopping briefly to allow stellar cartography to do some updates before we head out into true deep space. They brought the new systems online just in time to discover a large plasma storm that is likely to cross our path. It’s rather massive and even catching the edge of it would lead to significant damage, so we’re adjusting our course to give it a wide berth even though it’s going to take us well off of our original course. It should only take an extra two days to get back on track.

The log ended and the next played immediately with the captain reappearing.

Ship’s Log, Stardate 19032.4, Captain Maxine Massey reporting. After getting around the worst of the plasma storm, we were still experiencing some interference with the external comms and sensors. Unfortunately, it meant we were apparently a great target for some vultures wanting to seize on an opportunity. A ship came out of seeming no where and attacked. If communications were working, they aren’t now. For a ship the size it was, it was grossly overpowered with a mixed set of weapons and they landed some solid hits to our shield generators, creating some well placed holes. It’s like they had studied up and knew where to hit us to cause just the right amount of damage (She sounded greatly frustrated at this point) The port nacelle took some damage and warp is down for a few hours at least. As are comms. Engineering says we’re going to need dockside work to be fully functional, but we should be able to patch things well enough to get the hell out of here. Hopefully that will happen before our friends return, since they took off after we landed our own shots. Strange, but worrisome.

The next log played, but there was a new face appearing. The lights were dim and the background flared in and out with the red alert. Her blond hair had slipped a probably once tidy updo and there was a pretty obviously gash on the side of her face along with scrapes and possibly small burns.

Ship’s Log, Stardate 19032.4 Supplemental. Commander Norene Abrams reporting. The mercenary ship came back just before we had finished repairs and struck hard. Impulse and warp engines are down, life support is barely hanging on we have no shields. We don’t know what they want, but they’ve started boarding the ship. It’s 2 to 1 in our favour, but we’ve already had reports of casualties from unexpectedly strong firepower. Captain Massey is critically injured but conscious. With no backup within several days’ travel, the Captain reluctantly has ordered us to abandon ship. We’ve got no choice but to leave…

A voice behind her called out urgently. Come on, Commander, we’ve got to go! We’re almost out of time!

Norene looked strangely calm and resolute. We’re heading for a nearby planet, about two hours at impulse. Habitable, but barely. It’ll have to do. We’ve set the self-destruct, so if you’re reading this on the log buoy, then that’s where we’ll be. With any luck.

The screen went blank.

Cassidy murmured something to herself that the suit’s comm’s wasn’t able to clearly convey. It could have been a curse or a prayer. Or both.

“Well, this isn’t a log buoy, so we can assume the self-destruct was interrupted somehow,” Abrams reasoned, her voice sounding slightly shaky. They at least knew the crew was indeed mostly alive and where to look to find them. There couldn’t be too many habitable planets in close enough for escape pods to be able to navigate and travel too under potential enemy fire. The shuttles and runabouts could have provide cover, but if the enemy ship wanted to make quick work of them it seemed like they had had that option. There was no debris detected though, so that was a positive.

OOC: Cross-posting the audio to the bridge thread.

Abrams, Security

“We would have detected that many destroyed escape pods.” He looked at the blank screen. “A pirate ship capable of overwhelming the Tian An Men. Not too damn likely, they knew exactly where to hit them… sounds like an inside job. Who attacks a Federation ship as a target of opportunity. We carry no cargo, no wealth, just 400 trained officers and a Sh*t-ton of firepower.”

=^=Captain I recommend an immediate sensor sweep and resetting of our security functions.=^=

+^=Computer, who deactivated the automatic self destruct system?>=6+

Marsh