Welcome to the DQ Part 2

Posted on Sun Oct 13th, 2019 @ 5:32am by Lieutenant Commander Arianna Sky Kamar & Major Naomi Sylan Griffiths & Lieutenant Commander Yarinna "Fanthom" Hawkins & Lieutenant Tree Woods & Lieutenant Thegog Grun & Lieutenant Commander James Trallos MD & Lieutenant Cyrin Xanth & Chief Petty Officer "Chief" Alpha I CSH

Mission: Onboarding & Departure
Location: Bridge

Frank listened as the department heads reported that everything was ready to proceed. He was feeling confident as he gave the order to the away team. Vladinchi was a capable officer and more than prepared to handle the mission ahead.

=/\=Away Team, you are cleared to proceed=/\=

After clearing the away team to begin Frank called engineering.

=/\=Engineering, bring the hologram online and send him to the bridge.=/\=

=/\= Engineering, bridge bringing the hologram online and sending IT to the bridge=/\=came the reply. Arianna lifted her head as the sound of the hologram came into existance.

A figure began to shimmer into existence between the command chair and helm controls, after a few nanoseconds, the figure fully formed to show a middle-aged man of average height and build, with light red hair and a youthful-looking but still commanding face. The man was dressed in standard Starfleet uniform, a black and grey jumpsuit with a crimson coloured undershirt that could be seen around the neck. On his collar was the silver and grey rank insignia of a Chief Petty Officer, which reflected the soft overhead lighting of the bridge. A look of concentration came across the man's face for a moment as it softly said "Program initialised, syncing with the main computer, handshake protocols completed. Referencing logs and Stardates... Referencing complete" All the bridge consoles flickered for a few seconds and the lighting dipped slightly lower at the same time "Integrating with ship systems... Complete. Handshake protocols successful"

A moment later the man's face relaxed, replacing the look of concentration with that of a small boyish grin "Program ready." Looking forward towards Commander Kamar, the program continued "Good Morning Captain, I trust that we have successfully arrived in the Delta Quadrant?" Chief asked

“Yes Chief, we are in Delta, begin your preliminary scans, I want you to keep an eye on things, we are sending an away team to a Hirogen vessel that has not answered hails but has sent a distress signal.”

"Of course sir." Chief nodded once to the Captain before crossing over the bridge to an empty console. Though he really didn't need to use the terminal, as he could interface with the ships systems directly, Chief felt that the more human he could appear to the crew, the more they'd accept him. "Sensors are currently not detecting anything substantial, no other ships in the area or nothing to indicate any cloaked vessels"

Thegog opened his mouth then stopped as the Chief gave its report. He them mumbled under his breath. "I was about to say that. I guess I'll just stay back here and do nothing."

Tree remained silent at her station, regarding 'chief' with distrust. She wasn't a fan of these holographic crewmembers. Too much that could go wrong, in her mind. The problem with technology was that the more technology you put in to a system, the more room there was for things to go wrong. She wasn't a technophobe by any means, but holographic crew went a bit too far, in her book.

Oscar nodded, tapping his combadge. = /\ = We'll be back in a flash, Oscar out. = /\ =. There was a slight intake of breath from Oscar, looking to his men. "Alright, eyes forward," he said as he led the way to the transporter pad. Stancing appropriately as he drew his phaser, his fellow security officers following the motion, the transporter began to wind up. In an instant, they were in another place.

The ship appeared empty, strange and foreign as any typical construct from the Delta Quadrant appeared to be. This time, however, something was off. He noticed motion out of the corner of his eyes. "Over there!" he cried, more to his officers than himself, as something unpleasant made itself known. It was a Hirogen, and they somehow evaded the sensors. A shot rang out just in time for all the Security personnel to take cover.

= /\ = Oscar to Pennsylvania, we got live Hirogen over here! Somehow the scanners missed them! We're being fired upon and taking cover. I'm gonna try to ascertain the situation better, will update shortly. = /\ =

Oscar and his cohorts were out of the line of fire - for the moment. He nodded to the other three, waving to follow as they headed down the corridor. They heard the footfalls of one, maybe three Hirogen behind them trailing them. They had to find a safe place to transport back if things went further south, otherwise they'd be pinned. A short jaunt down the corridor and to the left had them stop. Oscar audibly gasping a bit. This room was clearly some type of brig, and in the center was a figure in a containment field. He signalled two of his Officer's to guard the door, he and the other would go investigate. It was a short trek to the field, the light dim and barely there, but he could see. It was a beaten, battered, human girl. Behind them was the form of an even more scarred and battered human male. They appeared human, from his perspective, but they could of been El-Aurian or any other similar species.

Oscar cursed under his breath. He tapped his combadge. = /\ = Oscar to Pennsylvania, I got two prisoners here, human or human-like, a little girl probably twelve and a male about 30 or so. They look too beaten to talk, but they're alive. They're behind a containment field, and we're- = /\ =

The audio cut off briefly as a phaser bolt struck Oscar. His combadge stayed on. A scream of pain erupted from him as he managed to right himself, the Hirogen weapon striking his shoulder. He glimpsed up and noticed his partner was dead, a scorch mark to the head signalled that much. The two at the door where no where to be seen. Two Hirogen at the door, one behind dead on the wall. Oscar figured the two Security Officer's did that one in before succumbing themselves.

= /\ = P-Pennsylvania, three security officers down, I'm down. I'm hit. They're pointing weapons at me. There's two prisoners here. There's a child here, for christ sak- = /\ =

The feed garbled again as another bolt flew out and hit Oscar, this time making it's mark. There was a groan, Hirogen voices, then static. Oscar Vladinchi was dead.

-Bridge-

Frank stood as the firefight started and listened to Oscar, as he listened to the mans last words a sinking feeling hit him in the gut. “Arianna, beam them all to medical now!” He didn’t realize he called her by her first name, something he swore not to do in the line of duty, but he was so focused on the situation at hand that he was reacting purely on instinct. Tapping his comm badge he immediately contacted the Doc

=/\=Medical, we have multiple incoming injuries=/\=

“Once they’re off of there I want this ship at red alert.” Frank growled, he was upset at the possibility of losing crew.

=/\= Acknowledged bridge. Have them beamed directly to Sickbay. =/\= James looked around, this was going to be bad and his staff knew it. "You heard the Captain! Get those stasis Chambers ready on the double! I want to make sure that surgery suite is ready! When they beam in, start calling it out." They did not have a chance to sim emergency casualties, this might be rough but lives depend on them getting in sync on the first go.

"Energizing now", she said as she engaged the transporters and sent everyone to sickbay. "Everyone is in sickbay! Raise shields!", she said hastily.

Tree scowled. Her direct commanding officer was dead. That meant that the department fell onto her shoulders de facto. She wasn't sure she was ready. She'd barely had time to meet the man, get a feel of his style. Still, she kept her head in the game and hovered over the red alert key. The moment she had confirmation the crew had been extracted, she hit the key. "Ship on red alert." she spoke coldly, as if anyone needed verbal confirmation over the klaxons and red flashing lights. "Shields up, weapons hot. Targeting solution on the Hirogen vessel."

Cyrin hadn't waited for orders. As soon as confirmation was received that the away team and the Hirogen prisoners were onboard he brought the impulse engines up and started to put a little distance between them and the supposedly-disabled ship; the wasn't taking any chances. "I'm repositioning to the Hirogen's aft - they have a blind spot according to the records, though we're too big to exactly fit." He made sure to feed the course corrections over to Tree at Security so she could adjust as well. In the meantime he struggled to keep a check on his anger - Oscar and the others, he hoped they were okay.

"Engineering reports all reactors online, shield generators at 100% and engines at 100%", Arianna said quickly.

Chief continued to monitor the long-range sensors for signs of any more vessels entering the area, after all this could have been an elaborate trap. While doing this, he was also reviewing all the stored data on the Hirogen that had been brought back by the USS Voyager, conducting various battle scenarios and trying to devise a way for success. Hirogen ships were small but powerful craft, they featured heavy Tetryon based weapons and thick armour which could withstand Federation phasers for extended periods. After compiling all of the data, he sent it over to the Helm and Tactical stations "Lieutenants, I have just sent you both a data packet on the Hirogen ship. They may be small but they pack a punch and can easily outmanoeuvre us in close engagements. Most of their armaments are focused at the front of the ship, as it features 2 heavy phaser arrays and torpedo launchers, but there are also some light weapons in the rear. I recommend that you avoid frontal assaults" he said, switching his attention between the pair.

Chief then looked over to the Tactical station "Furthermore Lieutenant Woods, the hull of the ship is composed of Monotainium which is highly resistant to our phasers, so they will be able to endure a long fight. Additionally, Hirogen weapons are Tetryon based. A large build-up of Tetryon radiation can be lethal to organic beings. Also, it will severely drain our weapon energy over time, making them weaker and weaker as the battle continues." he paused to let everyone absorb that information, this would be a tricky fight if it came to it. A few moments later he continued, still facing Woods "I suggest that you rotate the frequences of the shields as much as possible, while it won't do much, it may give us the time we need. I can assist you if you require" Chief said with a soft smile, he could tell that the Woods didn't like him much and that such a suggestion could be taken the wrong way by accident.

Cyrin chuckled, though there wasn't exactly joy in his laugh, and turned back to look at the hologram for just a moment, "Appreciated, and on it." Definitely much better to be behind these things. Navigational sensors still showed him no other ships, but how much could they trust that? It required glancing back and forth between his controls, readouts, and a secondary screen, but he skimmed through the data Chief had sent his way. Known to have avoided Starfleet scanners on past occasions, great.

"Acknowledged, Chief." True Tree didn't like the chief - or rather, what he was - but that wouldn't get in the way of smooth operation of the ship. She was here to do a job, not to make friends or play favourites.

[Medical]

Wounded beamed in on the beds all around him. James took a quick glance and noticed a young girl and middle age man who looked worse for wear but alive. James had one of his technicians start taking vitals on them while he started on casualties. The main biobed had the lieutenant on it with obvious weapon burns all over his chest. "BP 74/40. Pulse is sporadic." The nurse said calling out vitals as soon as the scanner picked them up.

"Give me 20cc's of Lectrazine." James grabbed the vascular regenerator and tried to close up the obvious points of blood loss.

"Sir, we lost pulse."

"Cardiostimulator." James said reaching out his hand. The nurse placed it in his hand. A quick jerk but nothing. "Turn me up to 5 milijoules and give 300 Metrazene." Seconds ticked by followed by another quick jerk. James looked at the master display and frowned. He hated this part of the job more then anything else in the Galaxy.

"Computer, record medical log for Lieutenant Oscar Vladinchi. Notate time of death 1309 hours."

=/\=Trallos to the Captain. Lieutenant Vladinchi had severe wounds to 80% of his torso. I wasn't able to save him. I just had to call time of death. I'm sorry Captain."=/\=

[Bridge]

Frank punched the armrest of his chair and stood up, "I want revenge, verify targeting solution on the vessel..."

Cyrin's jaw dropped open, and he spun around at the helm to look at the Captain in shock, whether from hearing Vladinchi was dead or for Kamar's words though it was hard to tell just by his face. He definitely said though, "Sir, their ship, it's disabled..."

“Lieutenant, I didn’t ask if they had shields or were disabled. I said I wanted a targeting solution and I want it now” Frank said as he took a step closer to the view screen and pointed at the Hirogen vessel, “I don’t want to see that ship in front of us! They murdered Lieutenant Vladinchi and possibly his team!”

"I have firing solution, Captain." was all Lieutenant Woods said. Phasers would be less than effective, but would work to whittle down their shields should they manage to bring them up. But Photon Torpedoes were going to have to do the heavy lifting if it came down to a shooting match.

"Fire Now!" Frank ordered, he watched the screen as nothing happened. He turned to Lieutenant Woods,"I said Fi.." Franks words were cut off as a bright flash enveloped the bridge. As the light decreased, and his eyes adjusted nearly 30 seconds later he asked, "What the hell was that?"

"Sir, it appears they just scanned us with some sort of unknown scanner." He then pushed a few more buttons. "Sir, it appears their engines are powering up, and they are about to go to warp."

Frustrated, Tree slammed her fist on her console. "Aaand they're gone. They detonated some antimatter that scrambled my firing solution." Beat. "Sir."

Chief stood in silence for a few moments, even with all of his advance computing power he had to pause to understand what just happened. The Captain just ordered his crew to fire on a disabled ship, yes they had attacked and killed members of the crew but it could be argued that they did so in self-defence, did that provoke such a reaction from the Captain? Chief decided to reflect on that information later, after all, he was able to rewatch all of the security and sensor data at any time. Instead, he switched his attention to the problem at hand, the hologram attempted to figure out where the Hirogen ship would be heading but that would not be a simple task.

Turning the face the Command chair, Chief gave the bad news "Captain, I am unable to accurately track which way the Hirogen vessel went. The antimatter detonation that scrambled Lieutenant Woods' firing solution also scrambled the short-range sensors" he said with a quick look towards Tactical "It may be possible for us to roughly guess where they were heading, given their last known angle and limited range as a result of the damage the ship had sustained"

Tree gave the Chief a nod. "We can, but it's going to take some time. No way we're catching up with them now. They're gone." She sighed in frustration over losing the ones who murdered her boss. In cold blood. During a mission of mercy. That really didn't sit well with her. "At least it'd give us a lead to follow."

Arianna stood there in complete shock! "How in the name of Kahless could the Hirogen ship fire up its engines without them noticing it? Wait a second...they had a dampening field generated keeping our scans from accurately working!", she said. "Had to be......it is the only logical reasoning why we didn't see it", she added.

While she may have been new to her post, she was too experienced to be surprised and what happened with the Hirogen ship was not surprising, not as surprising as the scuttlebutt about a saboteur oO this is my normal now I see Oo Griffiths thought to herself.