Slave Raiders

Posted on Mon Mar 13, 2017 @ 5:37pm by 2nd Lieutenant Gage Aravan & Major James Mattis & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant Vincent Kramer & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Lieutenant JG Mar Megara & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Lieutenant Xylia Lischka

Mission: An Orion to Die For
Location: Stameris Orbit
Timeline: MD 4 || 1300 Hours

Galor class

Zh'eqaotrar sat at the helm of the Galor class ship as it moved towards the point where they had no choice but to give the subspace passcode or turn back. The ship that had formerly belonged to Raimus was no Victorious but after repairs had been done to it, it was serviceable and the engines and weapons were working. She was glad she was part of an excellent crew and that they had a contingent of Marines, Security and Tactical personnel on board.

Xylia stepped onto the bridge and looked at those present. They were taking a huge risk by using the Galor class ship, but it was one of few options they had. Her nerves were shot, but on the outside she was cool, calm and collected. There was nothing to let on how she really felt. She mentally prepared herself for what they were about to do. With any luck, things would go off without a hitch, and they'd be back with the missing OSTC personnel before they knew it. "All stations report," she ordered.

The young ensign looked up from the Security console. "All green here." Or as close to it as this ship was going to get anyway.

A Deltan operations officer, a petty officer, sat at the sensors station, keeping a close eye on them. "Operations is ready, Captain," said the Deltan in his deep, bassy voice.

=Science=

Lieutenant JG Carla Torres stood at the Science station monitoring the sensors. The five foot, ten inch Colombian had her long black hair pulled back into a pony tail which swayed every time she twisted her torso. So far everything was standard and nothing was standing out. "Science reports ready, Lieutenant," she said in her thick Spanish accent. "There is nothing out of the ordinary on the sensors."

=Medical=
Dr. Bill Schumacher eyed one of the nurses warily as they worked to ready sick bay. He was a suspicious sort who didn't like shenanigans and the nurse appeared a little too chipper for his liking. "Just sort the medicines without singing, yeah?" he said sternly.

"Sorry, sir," replied Nurse Michael Pembrooke sheepishly. "It keeps me sane. I'll do my best to stay quiet!" And smilingly, he set to work on the medications.

Dr. Schumacher grumbled, but sent the all-ready to the bridge without another word to the nurse.

=Engineering=

Lt. Stephen Drake reviews the readouts from the engineering console. He sighed. He was feeling a little on edge. He knew all about this bucket of bolts. He wasn't worried about her, just any damage she might take.

=Intel=

Demetrius had taken up a post towards the back of the Bridge. He wasn't in uniform, either. As a matter of fact, he had programmed something a little more Farian into his Mnemonic Clothing. And that's exactly what was showing now. The human had undergone minor surgery to look like a Farian...just in case. He had his energy knife safely tucked away so that no one could even tell he carried it. He checked the inside pocket of his coat for the stun gloves as he sub-vocally activated the voice print implant. So far, so good. He knew that the personal transporter and cloak were working just fine as he had tested them before they left. The anti-sensor belt that he added to his Mnemonic Clothing ensemble was also ready to go when he needed it.

Report, thought Demetrius. He moved forward and took up position on the left side of a terminal and retrieved his Intelligence tricorder from his pocket. Though, his didn't look anything like a tricorder. In fact, it looked like the Intelligence officer had simply removed the three basic layers of an old LCARS control panel and compressed it into a solid, clear tripolymer. He put the spycorder down on the console, quickly activating an encryption/decrpytion algorithm along with the standard software to bypass the most common computer authorization codes. He then started tapping away at the Federation Standard interface. In a matter of seconds the cryptologist had access to the ship's communications and the subspace network. "We have ears on their communications, Lieutenant. If anything about who we're looking for is brought up, we'll know about it."

Prior to the away mission, Alex had briefed him that, yes, their mission goal was to rescue the Starfleet personnel that had been taken from OSTC. But their Starfleet Intelligence mission goal was to gather as much intel as they could on the Orion Syndicate and its business as of late, no matter what. And Demetrius' access to Raimus' ship would be the greatest asset towards accomplishing that goal. He looked down at his Intelligence tricorder, whose primary function at the moment was to hack into the main computer of Raimus' ship. Demetrius' goal was simple, retrieve tactical and personnel data the ship's computer had on the Orion Syndicate. He was hoping to get lucky enough to find an unencrypted data steam and log Raimus' authorization. But he knew that it wouldn't be that easy. Nothing ever was.

=Marines=

Master Sergeant Gage Aravan sat with the other Marines checking and double checking their gear and each others while he waited for word that it was time to do a ground and pound on the opposition. He didn't like the thought of not firing until they were fired on, but orders were orders.

Walking over while buttoning up his Armour, he asked, "Gage, are you alright?"

"Yes, Sir," Gage responded as he finished checking a Marine's gear beside of him and looked back at the Major. "Everything is five by five."

=Bridge=

"Price of Business" the intercom squawked as a automated message came in. "What is the code?

Xylia took a deep breath. There was no turning back. Now she hoped what Vash told her was the right code. If it wasn't, they would be facing a firestorm. "A cluros dubi can overcome an etadubran."

Coordinates came into the ship's computer a second later and Ensign Zh'eqaotrar confirmed them. "It's leading directly to Stameris, Lieutenant," she said. "Shall I take us there?"

"Yes, but proceed with caution," the Lieutenant ordered, standing on the bridge with her hands clasped behind her back. Now was the time to be able to give orders at the drop of a hat if things went south, and sadly, the odds were against them. She refused to be negative, though. They'd achieve what they were meant to.

The Andorian Ensign turned her attention back to the helm and set the course before she engaged and transmitted the coordinates back to the Victorious via an encrypted message.

The Price of Business entered warp a minute later and headed for Stameris. The Andorian glanced at the Lieutenant. "Message sent to the Victorious. ETA to Stameris is ten minutes."

That was a lot of time for bad things to happen, and even if they made it through without incident, they still needed to deal with getting to the personnel from the OSTC. Xylia took a deep breath. "Major Mattis... make whatever preparations you need to. You and your team will be going live in roughly eleven minutes," she ordered.

"My Marines are ready for action now", Mattis said looking around the room and smiling.

"Let's make sure we get everyone back home safe," Xylia said. "What's our ETA?" The longer this took, the better their chances of being caught. With backup on standby, she wasn't as worried as she should have been.

"Five minutes at current warp, Lieutenant," the Andorian helm replied. "We're coming up on some satellites that are doing passive scans, but I believe they won't detect the actual crew compliment unless they go aggressive. I have to fly relatively close to them with the coordinates that we have."

If we could only be so lucky, Xylia thought as she contemplated what to do. There'd be little time to prepare if the scans became aggressive. "Maintain course and speed. All hands... prepare for the possibility that things will go south quickly. Operations... prepare for transport. Mattis, the ball is about to be in your court. Don't let us down."

"You have my word that me and my men will not fail," Major Mattis said.

Gage went to get the rifle companies ready in the transporter rooms and hoped the Cardassian transporters were as smooth as Federation, but he doubted it. "Marines ready to transport," he said.

"Acknowledged," Xylia said. "The moment we're within range, begin transport."

"We'll be ready, Captain," Tom replied, still not used to addressing a Lieutenant as a Captain.

"Doctor Schumacher... prepare sickbay for possible injuries," the acting XO ordered. "We're going to be optimistic about no casualties."

=^=Understood,=^= came the reply over the coms.

=Sick Bay=

"Black, Kelvin, make sure those medkits are ready," Schumacher barked. "Stevens, make sure those phials are secure. I don't want any of them breaking."

"Sir!" came the voice of a panicked young nurse- student from the pips on her collar. "Quarantine is down."

Schumacher rubbed his temples. "Do you think we're going to need it, nurse?" he asked.

She opened her mouth to reply, blinked, and closed it again, looking sheepish. "I guess not, sir."

"Make yourself useful and help Stevens," he told her, and she hurried off to see what needed doing.

Bridge

"We're being hailed and given instructions for orbit," the helmsman replied.

"Follow the instructions and begin beaming the Marines over. Issue Red Alert. The second they're over is the second they'll know we aren't Raimus or his goons," Xylia said, getting an uneasy feeling.

===========================================

=Victorious=

=Command=

Alex had been in command of the Victorious once before. But it was a bit of a different mission then. Now, they were ferrying Security and Tactical personnel to strike the slave facilities and providing air support when needed. And when the reached their destination, they could be taking on some of the missing Starfleet personnel. He trusted that the Medical attachment aboard would be ready for anything. Who knew what kind of atrocities their personnel had been put through. He wanted to shift a bit in the command chair, but he knew better. Instead, he leaned back and crossed his left ankle over his right knee. "Okay, let's hear it. Reports from all stations."

=Helm=

Ensign Jake Black sat at the helm of the sleep Aquarius class destroyer and engaged the cloak on Command. He had orders to follow the Galor class to provide support for it and to offload the contingent of Security and Tactical personnel once they reached their destination. He only hoped that the cloaked ship wouldn't be noticed when they slipped in behind the Galor on route to where the Starfleet personnel were being kept.

Eddie Braeden was ready. He'd been born ready. Now he was getting the chance to prove himself in the field. Granted, this was not the way he'd envisioned his first real field op going down, but such was life in Starfleet. He looked up at the lieutenant in command of this leg of the mission. "Ready here, sir."

Tom wasn't about to let the Victorious have all of the fun without him this time, especially since he was due for a chance to get to know the smaller ship personally. Besides, he would at least get a better look at how the ship really did perform under pressure.

=Science=

Ensign Paak swiped a holographic screen to the side and enlarged a section of space of around the Galor class ship. "We are monitoring their progress," said the Ferengi. "So far, so good."

=Medical=

Meg wasn't entirely sure what was going on; they tended to leave out a lot of information when giving orders to the "lower decks." All she knew was that she was ordered to the Victorious, so there she was, helping to make sure that medical was prepared to deal with injuries. She had a feeling she was about to get a crash course in triage.

"Check the calibration on these tricorders," a voice said as the person dumped about five tricorders on the counter where Meg was trying to sort medicines.

She sighed agitatedly, but only said, "yes, sir," and finished up with the medicines before turning her attention to the tricorders.

=Engineering=

Lieutenant JG Michel Kawalski stood behind the the monitoring console nearest the warp core. He wanted to stay on top of all the issues. Reaction was good, power flow was good, power across the ship's grid was good. Ski felt that they were ready for the next conflict. He was very grateful that Lt. Kramer had allowed him to continue to be the Lead Engineer, here on the Victorious. He knew it to be a great little ship. He also expected it to preform when tested.

With the audio of bridge communication in one ear, Kawalski tapped his comm, "Bridge, Engneering here. We have full power at your command." Even under the strain of the cloaking device, this little ship had lots of extra power to handle the situation.

=Intel=

V'les, the Vulcan analyst that Alex had chosen for this mission, was standing at the Intel station. She had a lot of information in front of her, most of which dealt with possible personalities that they could come into contact with. Another holographic screen showed images of the ships. They had very little information, as Alex had briefed her. So she was ready to input what they could garner from the Galor's interactions with other ships and crews. Not to mention other codes and frequencies that they might need. Starfleet Intelligence would most certainly be pleased.

While studying an image of the Hideki class fighter, a light blinked off to the left of her terminal. Touching it brought up a small hololgraphic screen. It was an encrypted Starfleet Intelligence signal from the Galor class ship. Demetrius had activated his tricorder. "The mission proceeds as normal, Alex," she said. And knowing that he was most likely listening for surface thoughts at a time like this, she followed with, As does ours.

"Very good, V'les. Thank you," Alex responded. And added, Begin signal intelligence and analysis operations. I don't want them caught off guard. And you have your orders once Demetrius has access and begins transmitting.

V'les nodded. Understood, she thought.

==Bridge==

"Captain!" called out Chief Barnes from the Operations station. "Incoming message with the Galor. They're coordinates that lead directly to Stameris."

Alex still couldn't used to that. "Stameris is it? V'les, I want everything we know on Stameris. Might be something in there we can use if need be. Chief, get those coordinates to the Helm. Take us to warp as soon as it's plotted. Everyone on your toes, we don't know what we'll end up in the middle of when we arrive."

"Aye, Captain," said V'Les, "I'm bring it up now and transferring it to you."

"Got it," Tom said, using the console's messaging system to deliver the coordinates to the helmsman.

Ensign Black took the coordinates and programmed in the course before entering warp seconds behind the Galor class.

Alex nodded as they engaged warp. It was only minutes now. "Security, prepare your personnel for transport. Ops, standby for en masse transport. And do your best to keep a lock. The plan is to bring everyone back. That said, Rho to Medical, we're not sure of the condition in which we're going to be getting anyone. Have triage teams on standby."

The only part of that order that Eddie wished was different was that he was not going with his men. Lieutenant Mallory had put him in charge of this group of security personnel, and he did not want to disappoint either Mallory or the captain. He sent instructions to the security personnel to be ready and stand by, shift their alert status up a notch or two. He received an immediate response from the unit leader and the team leaders. "Security is ready, Sir." he reported crisply.

"Transporters are on standby and ready," Tom reported. He had preloaded all of the necessary combadges into the targeting sensors and assigned transporter operators to the Emergency and Cargo Transporters. If they had to get everyone out in a hurry, he was going to have to use every resource at his disposal, even if that meant he'd have to use most of the lateral sensors as transporter emitters.

Elizabeth checked to confirm everything was in order before offering her status report to the Captain. Pleasingly it was - although Elizabeth never became excited as things could change for the worse in an instant - particularly in this sort of situation.

"Tactical ready" Elizabeth confirmed.

"We're ready for anything you can throw at us!" came the overly confident voice of Dr. Merkle over the coms. "As long as it's not an an angry Klingon being attacked by tribbles.

"Very good," said Alex. "Let's monitor the Galor class. As soon as they begin transporting, get those coordinates and follow suit." V'Les, how are we looking? Anything yet from Demetrius?

No Alex, she thought. Perhaps Raimus' ship computer is proving to be more difficult than anticipated.

Thank you. Alex had chosen Demetrius specifically for this mission. He knew he could pull it off.

The helmsman looked over at the Lieutenant Rho. "Sir, the Galor is being given orbital instructions."

Alex nodded, it was about time. He was getting anxious, but not so much as he suspected the Security personnel of being. "Okay, only the Galor knows we're here. And that's the way we're going to keep it until absolutely necessary. Find us a good hiding spot so that when we decloak for transport, we can't be seen. Secret backups should remain that way as long as possible."

"Yes, Sir," Ensign Black said as he brought the Victorious around and headed for the secondary site where the personnel were likely to be held.

Alex leaned back in the chair as the ship entered orbit over the secondary site. "Begin the transport," he said.

Tom nodded, entering the commands. It wasn't the first time he performed mass transports, but it was the first time doing so with pads this small. "Energizing," he reported. It took a few minutes to cycle through each of the pads, getting troops on them, initiating and clearing the transport and so on. "Transport complete," he reported.

"Excellent. Thank you Mr. Barnes," said Alex. "Now we monitor subspace frequencies and keep the long range sensors on active scan. We're not getting caught off guard."

Ensign Paak, the Ferengi at the science station, nodded. "Long range sensors on active scan, Captain. If anything warps into this system, we'll know about it."

V'Les answered, "We continue SIGINT analysis, Alex. All is well at this point. And our mission progresses, she thought, actively speaking her thoughts to him. Demetrius has made a connection. Data transfer is underway."

As his people were beamed to where they were meant to go, Eddie ensured that everyone was in place and ready. This was done via short-burst communications on a lower frequency than was normally used by anyone to keep it off of the "radar" of the enemy. Sure of his people's readiness, he stood silent and waiting.