Opportunists

Posted on Wed Mar 30th, 2011 @ 10:29pm by Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Acle Walex & Lieutenant Valkris Edwardson & Lieutenant Peter Brown & Lieutenant JG Christopher Rogan

Mission: Shadows Fall
Location: USS Iapetus - The Triangle
Timeline: Whilst Away Team Beams onboard SB102

Walking back on to the bridge from his brief trip to his ready room - he had opted to work through lunch, and take it after the away team was away - Vorn moved towards his chair at the centre of the bridge, and lowered himself swiftly into it, swivelling as he sat and accessing the arm chair controls for a ship status display.

"Report," he said, calmly. "How is the away team progressing?"

Acle glanced down to the Padd in his hands. "Away team just reported that they have just made it onto the station. Looks like their insertion was successful Captain."

Peter was working on the Operations station checking on the power flows to make sure that the ship was ready for anything and checking on the away team. "We still have a valid transporter lock on the Away Team in case of an Emergency Beam out;" reported Peter.

Valkris stood at an empty console, keeping herself busy by looking at the latest information available about the station itself should something go horribly wrong, the team would need options. "...Captain, what is your...backup plan should something go wrong?" She asked "..any number of variables could affect the success of this plan."

"If anything goes wrong," Vorn replied, knowing from past experiences never to go into anything without a backup plan, even if it was a rather crude one, "then the away team have been issued a signalling device, which will alert us to the fact. If we receive that signal, then we'll have to take a more... direct approach." He hoped that they could learn more about this ship and its crew before having to deal with them directly, but if it came to it he was willing to take the ship in there, disable its weapons and lock a tractor beam on it, treaties be damned.

Breaking the relative quiet of the bridge, a series of alarms started ringing out from the tactical and operations consoles.

Peters hands flew on the Operations Station as he check the readings "Captain sensors are picking up three vessels on intercept at Warp 7.35," said Peter from the Operations Station.

Frowning, Vorn adjusted his seating position slightly. "Yellow alert," he said, calmly. "Can you identify the ships?"

"Checking now," replied Peter as he scanned the ships to get a reading as he shook his head. "There to many different classifications of vessels. Unable to discern what they are. Could be pirates, don't know for sure."

Valkris moved over to the Tactical station " Shields up, Photon torpedoes loaded and ready" Valkris replied "...Captain, both the IKS and a number of pirate syndicates operate out of this area, a Starfleet vessel would make a tempting target for them! If our presence has become known, then the away mission could become compromised!"

The tell-tale chirp of an incoming hail sounded through the bridge. "Put it on-screen," Vorn said, pre-empting anyone's move to report it and directing his attention, and his curiosity, to the viewscreen.

"Captain," the speaker on the screen was a Rigelian, seated on a bridge which clearly wasn't uniform. The bulkhead plates that Vorn could see had clearly had a number of patchwork jobs performed on them. "Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the Triangle."

"Thank you," Vorn replied, his tone cautious. "May I ask who you are?"

The speaker smiled. "I am Captain Arngal, and I represent a party who are very interested in the newest Starfleet vessel in our neighbourhood. In fact, they are very eager to meet with you."

"Captain, I advise extreme caution! One doesn't send three ships just to ask for a meeting!" Valkris reasoned "..The simple fact that they know of our presence already and the fact that they have intelligence on this ship should be a matter of concern. Suggest finding out what it is they want or who they are looking for you to meet with."

Chris stepped forward Captain on a diplomatic standpoint. The Rigelians are much like humans. They don't like to mince words. I suspect this particular Rigelian is no different. I advise you use direct statements and questions and they love posturing. They love the challenge of equals."

"Captain, I too would advise caution. But, I believe that we cannot afford to simply dismiss them out of hand. Those vessels represent a powerful military edge that we should investigate... With due caution of course." Acle said, his expression thoughtful.

Peter Looked at the Captain and spoke. "I agree Captain, we must be wary of the situation. Three vessels voice concern of hidden motives; if any meeting I suggest only their Captain and only allow him to beam over and we maintain high security while on board."

"...Captain, I would caution against assuming that every Rigelian acts and thinks like every other. Have we heard anything from the Away team? This may be nothing more than a means to distract us from our current mission." Valkris added.

"Lieutenant, I am well aware that each species has unique individuals. But I will defer to Ensign Rogan's expertise in this instance, as most species do have a general cultural trend. Would you not say that there was one present in your own species, Klingons? Or in humans?" He turned round to speak to Peter's concerns briefly before continuing. "I don't think that they're accusing us of hidden motives. Captain Arngal's tone just doesn't match with that. They're most likely looking to curry favour with us." Turning back towards the viewer, he pressed the button on his chair armrest to un-mute the channel.

"Captain Arngal," he said, raising his voice slightly. "Why would the people you represent want to meet with me? My business in this region is nothing of concern to them."

"Those I represent are eager to meet with a representative of the Federation. I'm sure that there are many things we can offer each other." Arngal's frown was purposely used to make himself appeal confused or insulted by Krace's question.

Acle looked down to a blinking light on the console on his chair. With a frown, he pulled up a Padd, careful to keep even the hint of a screen away from anyone else's view beside his own. His frown turned to anger for a moment before his expression smoothed to it's normal stone. He leaned over to the Captain.

Acle spoke in a voice barely audible even to Vorn, and his expression was blank, betraying no emotion. "Captain, the bastards just attempted to hack into shield grid 29. It was a clumsy attempt, and the computer automatically blocked it. The computer is also asking permission to firewall all remote shield connections, which I approved."

Acle finished speaking, then leaned back into his chair, starting an active scan off all network connections and reading over the event logs.

With that information, Vorn now understood the real motives behind the visit of these three ships. Three likely pirate ships, he corrected himself, most probably attempting to make a hole for their transporters. "Captain Arngal, cease your attempts to break through our shields for your transporters immediately, and leave this area." His voice took on a much more threatening tone, hoping to send the pirates away without a conflict.

Arngal smirked. "Now now, Captain, be reasonable. There are three of us, and but one of you, after all."

"If the odds were in your favour, you wouldn't have felt the need for duplicity," Vorn retorted. "Scan my ship. We are more than capable of dealing with your three vessels with minimum damage to ourselves."

"We're a very lucky bunch, Captain," was Arngal's last comment, before the screen cut off.

Vorn's commands were given with urgency, but paired with a calm tone. "Power weapons, target the enemy weapons, transporters and communications," he ordered.

Peter entered commands into the Operation Station diverting the power to the the weapons, preparing the ship for battle. As the Chief of Operations, his job was to maintain the power. He looked at the readings and readied himself.

"....Phasers locked, and Photon torpedoes loaded and ready to fire on your command...Captain." Valkris replied.

"Phasers only," Vorn reminded her, looking over his shoulder. "Remember, I want them harmless and mute, running away with their tail between their legs. Do not target to destroy. Understood?" Receiving a slight nod, he turned back to the viewscreen and continued. "Good. Hold fire for now. Let them make the first move."

Surely enough, they didn't have to wait long before the tell-tale bang of a phaser beam striking the shields resounded through the ship. "Damage report?" Vorn asked, calmly.

"Shields holding Captain. Damage is negligible." Acle replied calmly.

"Lieutenant Edwardson; return fire."

Though Valkris in her heart disagreed with allowing them to all escape, she nonetheless did as ordered "..Targeting their weapons and communications arrays..." She called out "...Firing Phasers only..."

The precise shots of the Starfleet targeting system did exactly as they were designed to, with precision explosions as the weapons found their marks, effectively muting their would-be assailants as well as removing their teeth. "Very good," Vorn said, pleased at how controlled the crew had handled the incident as the three ships started veering away. "Lieutenant Brown, keep continuous long-range sweeps, make sure we're alerted if we attract any more attention. Miss Edwardson, track those three ships. Try and estimate where they came from, and time required for them to make a round-trip back."

-----------------------------
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer

Commander Acle Walex
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Valkris Edwardson
Chief Strat Ops Officer

Lieutenant Peter Brown
Chief Operations Officer

&

Ensign Christopher Rogan
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Iapetus