Intel Gathering
Posted on Fri Oct 7, 2016 @ 4:35am by Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes
Mission:
An Orion to Die For
Location: Victorious
Timeline: MD 2 || 0800 Hours
The Aquarius class destroyer left the Triumphant early on the second mission day with orders to pass undetected in the Orion Sector. The small ship had cloaked after a safe distance and a circuitous route away from the main ship and the pilot, a wiry Bolian male, seemed to have a solid idea of the more dangerous areas of the sector and what the safe lanes for pirates were.
"Estimated time to Orion Sector Tactical Command is two hours," he reported.
Lieutenant Gefel sat at one of the aft stations, monitoring ship systems, specifically the ships cloaking device. His department chief had sent him on the mission, probably as payback for almost destroying the slipstream drive. Was the Trill trying to get rid of him? Maybe he was... and to be fair, Gefel couldn't really blame him.
Ensign sh'Paveress, a slender Andorian shen, sat at the science station, monitoring sensors as they continued to operate under cloak. There was a lot of traffic in this sector, and it appeared it was concentrated near their destination. She tried to ignore that, hoping the mission commander had their backs.
"Thank you, Dal," said Alex. He leaned back in the command chair on the small bridge of the Victorious. This entire scenario reminded him of past Intel missions; the smaller Defiant-sized ships, the teams with interspersed personnel, all of it. Only then, he'd been one of the team members, not the mission commander. "Keep in mind," he said, "this is an infiltration mission; we're here to gather intel and information. All we know at this point is that Tactical Command reported they were attacked and have since gone silent. And with two hours until insertion into the station, we have plenty of time for questions...," he paused and smiled, "...my fellow traders, merchants, pirates, and brigands."
The six security personnel were a mixture, three females and three males. One pair were dressed as if they were together, giving the impression of a pair of Human mercenaries who also happened to be more to each other than co-workers.
The second female, surgically altered to look Cardassian, looked vaguely like a bounty hunter of some breed. It was hard to tell if the swagger she affected was for that reason or the species norm.
The second male, another Human, was very obviously giving the impression of a rogue. He wore a devil-may-care expression and stood leaning against a wall, one foot placed against it.
The final two, a Klingon and a Human, were giving a good show of being pirates who thought they would make a good haul. Underneath all of their facades, however, was one common thing; they were watching everyone on the ship to ensure the safe return of every member of this mission.
The Cardassian bounty hunter glanced at Lieutenant Rho. "Lieutenant Mallory told us that we're to follow your plan. So, how do you want us to proceed precisely?"
"First thing," said Alex, "we'll be breaking up into teams so that we can cover more ground on the station. Not to mention, having ears in more places than one. I have five Intelligence personnel on deck three giving their equipment a once over. The break up will be one Security and one Intel as much as is possible." He looked to the two that were dressed the same. "The husband and wife mercenaries here will have two infiltrators with them." Turning back to the surgically altered Cardassian bounty hunter, he continued, "You will have an infiltrator, our non-chalant friend over there will have one, and our two pirates will have one infiltration officer." He paused for a second, considering who to assign where based on their disguises and covers. But there would be plenty of time for that yet.
"As far as proceeding," continued Alex, "you are all proficient at your respective jobs. I wouldn't dare tell you how to do them. But the mission, that is infiltration and intelligence gathering. You infiltrate the station, offices, storage, social groups, if there's even people...whatever might yield the results we're looking for. And that would be why was the station attacked? Who attacked it? Why have they gone silent? What were the aggressors looking for, if anything? Where is the Starfleet staff and why aren't they answering? And so on."
Of course, the Intel infiltration specialists already had the mission breakdown and were disguised as traders who were less than disruptable. The Trill female, Nanrun Tod, lounged in a black bodysuit with a number of weapons strapped to it in various places. A surly looking human male who had an ocular device over his left eye sat in a seat looking as if his clothes were collected from a dozen outfits that were assembled into one. A Romulan female, actually a Vulcan in disguise sat at a terminal tapping her fingernails on the edge of the console. A Betazoid man who looked like he took delight in reading all the dirty little secrets that a mind could hold stood by the Tactical station idly looking at it, and a Bolian male who looked as he had lost far more fights than he had won by the amount of scars on his face and hands.
The Cardassian nodded. "It sounds like a good plan." She let her eyes take in the infiltration specialists that were nearby, wondering which one he planned to send with her. She looked back to Rho. "We should likely figure out who will be working with whom so that we can get familiar with our team and build enough rapport to function well together in the hostile, or possibly hostile, environment." she suggested thoughtfully.
As the Intel agents paired off with the Security personnel, the Victorious closed on the Orion Sector Tactical Command until they were within sensor range and the Bolian pilot looked back at Lieutenant Rho. "How close do you want to get, Sir?"
"As we don't know what happened, sensor range is good for now," Alex said to the Bolian.
Dal brought the small ship out of warp a few million kilometers away. "Aye, Sir," he said.
"Ensign sh'Paveress," he continued, "What do the sensors tell us about the outpost and all of this traffic?"
"The sector is heavily populated," she reported after checking her readouts. "Tactical Command, however, is relatively silent. Except..." Her voice trailed off as she confirmed the readings. "I'm picking up a lone vessel and isolated lifesigns within the outpost. Looks like... Scavengers."
Alex shook his head. "We'll always have those. But at least that's all. Dal, bring us to transporter range and hide us as best as possible from the traffic. They don't need to see us when we decloak."
"Aye, Sir," Dal said as he brought the Victorious slowly towards the base. "Closing to within forty-thousand kilometers. There's a few hulks near the base. They shouldn't be able to detect us unless they're running active sweeps." He edged the small Aquarius class destroyer next to a devastated Romulan freighter that had seen better days.
Alex watched as the pilot brought the destroyer next to the large hulk of a ship. "Very good." He turned to address the teams of Security officers and Intelligence officers. "The initial plan is to transport into an abandoned area of the communications section of the outpost. While trying to stay away from the scavengers, or if necessary, incapacitate them, see what you can get regarding communications, specifically outpost to ship communications. Starfleet will always be Starfleet. So they would have initiated communications with an unidentified ship. And get what you can off the sensor logs. An unresponsive ship may have caused them to perform active scans. Questions?"
Martha had sent down Elizabeth Alexander to participate in the away mission. She was a new recruit and the Triumphant was her first assignment - so Martha felt it was ideal for her to get some away team experience aboard the Victorious.
When asked if there was any questions Elizabeth kept quiet - she didn't have any - although she was still very nervous when it came to asking any questions she might have.
Alex gave it a few seconds more.... "Alright. If no one has any questions, then we'll start beaming aboard." He turned his attention to their pilot. "Dal, prepare to transport the teams into the communications section. Different locations, though."
"Yes, Sir," Dal said. "I'll keep an eye out for anyone who may show up. Is anyone staying aboard other than me?"
"One of the Engineers and sh'Paveress can stay and keep you company," said Alex. "Elizabeth might be of some assistance at Tactical as well. Just in case anyone does show up. But we need to get in there, get the information we need, and get out. Prepare the transporters."
Nanrun Tod went over to the Cardassian female that she had paired off with. "You and me first?" she asked her.
Zearra nodded to the other woman. "Let's get this done. I'll let you take point, so to speak, since you're the expert here."
Nanrun nodded and headed back to the transporter. Once Zearra joined her, Dal energized them and they found themselves in a corridor with flickering lights.
[===Orion Sector Tactical Command===]
Nanrun pulled her tricorder out and immediately started to scan. "Nothing within a hundred meters of us," she noted. "Let's get moving." With that, she headed in the direction of the Operations department.
Zearra followed just behind her, eyes flicking about just in case. She didn't trust this. The scanner read empty, but something in her gut kept screaming that this was a trap. Her hand tightened around her weapon, a modified Cardassian disruptor, modified for more power to go with the whole pirate motif. She was aware that, normally, Starfleet would have frowned on such modifications, but this was not a normal situation. She would rather not need to use it, but she suspected she would likely have to -- several times likely -- before this mission was over.
[===Victorious===]
Rho watched as the first team disappeared. "Mak, Ranham, you two pair up with our two human mercenaries." Since Mak had been on less missions, he preferred him to go with the two security officers, just in case. And having the Betazoid with all of them would give an added edge.
Mak and Ranham stepped up the transporter pad and waited for the other two Security personnel to join them, each checking their personal weapons, one a disruptor and one a Ferengi phaser that was like a plasma weapon.
The apparent husband and wife mercenary team, Everett and Lauren McKenzie, checked their weapons one last time and then stepped up onto the transporter pad. "Ready when you are." Everett told the infiltrators. :Lauren nodded agreement. They had taken up positions to either side of the infiltrators as if protecting the people who paid them for the job.
[===Orion Sector Tactical Command===]
Mak and Ranham materialized with Everett and Lauren on the opposite side of the station from Nanrun and Zearra. Mak looked at Everett and nodded to the left. "Let's go this way and they can go that way. Nanrun and Zearra are closing on their target already."
Everett nodded, giving his "wife" a significant look before heading off to the left with Mak. Lauren returned the look then followed Ranham, both of them eyeing every nook and cranny as they approached or passed it for any sign of a trap. It smelled like one, and if it was one, they refused to get caught with their figurative pants around their ankles.
[===Victorious===]
T'pessang the female Vulcan disguised as a Romulan woman checked her disruptor and nodded as she stepped up to the transporter next. The human male, Max joined her and looked at the last two Security personnel. "Looks like we're it. Shall we dance?"
The Klingon and Human approached and stepped up on the pad. The Klingon had already checked her weapons but patted one of her blades with a smirk, typical of the breed. The Human male with her shook his head Even though they were very much in character, they were still watchful, ready. "We're ready."
The other human male, Max Delorean, who looked like he was dressed in rags stepped up as well.
Dal energized them once they were on the pad and looked at Rho. "Looks like that's all of them. Now to keep an eye on that scavenger ship, Sir."
"Move us into a better position, Dal. As long as we're cloaked, they'll never know we're here," said Alex.
"Aye, Sir," Dal said before he began to maneuver the Victorious towards a nearby asteroid that was as big as the Triumphant and had plenty of places on the surface to hide.
"Let me know if they start moving start moving things off the outpost, sh'Paveress," said Rho. "I want to know what it is they think they can scavenge. And see if we can find out anything about their ship. Just in case."
"Aye, sir," the shen said, manipulating the sensors to focus on the scavenger's ship, but leaving them to still operate in a passive mode as to not alert the other ship. "As soon as I see something, I'll contact you right away."
"Thank you," he replied. Alex settled back down into the chair. He knew that it could be a long wait because he had been on the other side of these missions in the past. This had to be the worst part, though. Sitting and waiting.
[===Orion Center Tactical Command===]
Meanwhile, Nanrun Tod had decided the best approach to the Operations center without being seen was through the Jeffries Tubes which she had scanned with her tricorder and had the map on the small screen. She looked at Zearra as she popped off an access hatch. "Ready?" she asked.
Zearra was not terribly fond of these tubes -- they made it very difficult to properly defend -- but she nodded. "I'll go first," she proposed, "in case we run into anything on the other end." She was suggesting, not commanding; and so she waited for Nanrun's response -- even a slight nod would do -- before getting into the tube.
T'pessang, Delorean and the other two Security personnel materialized in the eastern quadrant leading towards operations and the Vulcan-turned-Romulan brought out a tricorder and scanned the immediate area.
"This is odd," she said. "I'm picking up signs of battle damage, but it seems to be quite deliberate. Of course, without seeing it, I cannot confirm these readings."
The Klingon, Mora of the House of Koroth, made a slightly rude noise. It was not at the Vulcan-turned-Romulan, but at whomever had done this. The Human, Eric Lexington, much shorter than his Klingon counterpart but no less capable, frowned. "Then we should check it out. Which way?"
T'pessang paired off with Mora and headed to the right. "We shall see," she said. "There are only two ways to go. Let us go right."
Mora nodded to her partner and followed to the right. Dark eyes searched every corner, crevice and angle in the corridor for possible traps as they went. Her hand closed on her Klingon disruptor, the other on one of her knives just in case it was needed.
Delorean looked at Eric "That leaves left to us. Shall we?"
Eric nodded. "After you." Since the infiltrator knew where he was going, the Security man decided to follow the lead of the one most trained for infiltration. He was as watchful as his Klingon counterpart though.
A short time later, Nanrun came to the exit that would lead into the Operations center of the station and scanned with her tricorder. "I'm picking up six life signs from the other side of the hatch," she said.
Zearra frowned. Something about this just didn't sit well with her. Everyone was clustered here? There were no guards, even hidden ones? It felt too... convenient, too much like a trap waiting to snap closed on their necks. "We should inform the rest before moving in." she suggested quietly.
Nanrun tapped the Romulan communicator she had gotten for the mission. "Dot to Aerv. The sitrep looks hazy."
Meanwhile, the other two operatives made their way to the other doors leading into the Operations center and paused to wait for their Security escorts to join them. T'pessang scanned with her tricorder once more. "I am picking up life signs. Approximately six inside the center. Two Klingons, one Cardassian, a Ferengi and a Romulan."
Mora and Eric joined them, having ensured the security of this position, at least for the time being. Mora frowned. "This makes no sense." she growled low.
Eric nodded. "It's all too easy. We should coordinate with the others."
T'pessang held up a hand as the Trill's voice came over her communicator. "Acknowledged," she said. "I'm getting the same feeling. What is your location?"
Nanrun smiled. "In a Jeffries Tube right outside of the Operations center. Give us a moment for the distraction." She looked back at Zearra. "Do you have any stun grenades with you?"
Zearra grinned a wicked little Cardassian grin. "Of course." she said as she patted a well-concealed pouch in her outfit, her tone indicating that she was more than ready to see them work on the enemy -- she was very much in character in case they were overheard somehow.
"Let me get one," Nanrun said and held out her hand. "We need a diversion."
Zearra nodded and reached into the hidden pouch in her clothing, removing one of the grenades. She then handed this to Nanrun. "This touch-point here activates it. You'll have six seconds to toss it after that." she told the other woman.
Nanrun took the grenade and gave the woman a slight smile. "Thank you." She tapped her combadge to link to the other members of the away team. =^=Distraction coming in six seconds. Be ready in three.=^= She waited until she got acknowledged from the other Intel agents before she activated the stun grenade, slid the access hatch open and tossed it in.
Remar, the lone Cardassian on the small crew, was standing at one of the consoles in the Operations Center. A panel was propped against the bottom of the console with random parts on the floor. He had finally gained access and began transferring data from the Federation outpost's computer. There were only a handful of groups that dealt with them in that sort of thing, but tactical data from a place like this would fetch a grand price. While the transfer was happening, Remar was scanning the database for any kind of weapons stored there.
Remar's fellow crew member, Brock, the Ferengi, was on the other side of the room working on a PADD. "So, what have we found so far? Anything?" he asked.
There was not enough time for anyone to answer Brock. A small, oblong canister with a blue glow in places bounced across the floor and landed near the Command station. Remar turned to look and didn't even get the word out before it exploded. Then Cardassian slumped over the console he was working on, thrown off-kilter by the grenade. He found that his hearing and vision and balance were most certainly affected as he tried to stand moments after the explosion. Difficult was putting it mildly.
As the blast continued outwards to it's full radius of two hundred feet, the other four members of the pirate group were disoriented and stumbled on their feet.
Nanrun tapped her combadge and motioned to Zearra. "All units move in! Stun only!" With that, she grabbed her disrupter and dived into the Operations center.
Zearra brought her own disruptor up and into ready position. Then she rolled into the room after Nanrun , coming up into a kneeling, ready position.
With the other Intel and Security agents coming in from various angles, the battle was short lived and even if a stun grenade hadn't been used, the pirates were in no condition to go up against trained officers.
Nanrun set Delorean and Mak to watching the doors with some of the Security people while she and T'pessang went to the main computer and began to work. "Inoperative," T'pessang said after a moment while Nanrun moved under a console and began pulled isolinear chips out and examined them.
"These have been fried," the Trill said after a moment. "Deliberately and then replaced."
Mora and Eric stayed with Delorean by one door while Lauren and Everett stayed with Mak by the other door, weapons ready and eyes searching every corner. Zearra squatted beside Nanrun, watching her work under the panel, frowning. The chief had been right; this did smell like a trap. "Why would someone remove the chips to fry them? Unless they didn't want to risk frying something else near them maybe?" she asked. Not being an Engineer, she was making a guess and hoping the other woman would give her more to work with.
"Or they didn't want us to learn what they were doing," Nanrun replied.
Zearra nodded, mentally chastising herself. She was Security, not Tactical, that was true; but that had been an amateur mistake. "True." she agreed.
T'pessang suddenly backed away from the console she was at. "I would strongly suggest that we abandon the station as soon as possible," she said. "They did not get to complete their work. The self destruct has been initiated and the bypass has been corrupted."
On the Victorious the sensors came alive with reports of multiple ships heading their way. Dal looked over at Rho. "We've got company, Sir," he said.
Alex grinned. "Now it becomes a challenge. Just how many visitors can we expect, Dal?"
"I'm picking up four ships inbound of various configurations. I'm getting Klingon, Romulan and Cardassian." Dal reported.
"I don't like that," he said aloud. "Sounds like more pirates. Tactical, get me a readout on those four ships. Dal, get a message to Nanrun and let her know what's happening. Ensign sh'Paveress, I want you and Elizabeth to work on a backup plan that will hopefully give us a little extra time if we need a quick escape. Get one of the distress beacons. Reconfigure and program it to emit a specific message that I'll let you know about when I find out more on these ships. It's an old trick called a Cry Baby. The last time I saw it used, the commanding officer had it programmed to emit a distress call saying that they were a civilian ship carrying twelve hundred colonists that was under attack with life support dropping. Hopefully we'll come up with something that appeals to a bunch of pirates."
Elizabeth nodded and made her way over to the tactical station ready to broadcast the message that was required. It sounded like a good plan but Elizabeth knew nothing was ever as easy as it sounded.
"Let's get to it then" Elizabeth said.
Dal opened a channel to the away team on a secured frequency. "We have inbound. Prepare for emergency transport."
The Andorian nodded to the Intelligence Chief and looked to the woman from the security division. "I'll need help overriding the default Starfleet signals. I can create the message relatively quick once that's done.
Elizabeth nodded after she turned to face the Andorian officer who had addressed her. It was a far more interesting away mission than Martha had told her it was going to be when her senior officer selected Elizabeth for the assignment.
On the station, Nanrun got the message from the Victorious and looked at Zearra. "It's time for us to get out of here," she said and headed over to where the others were waiting.
Zearra did not need to be told twice. With the self destruct active, she was pretty sure they should be getting out of there anyway. The report of incoming ships only confirmed her earlier paranoia and gave her all that much more motivation for getting the hell out of Dodge as the saying went. Standing, she quickly followed Nanrun to where the others stood beside the doors.
As they approached, Mora narrowed her eyes. "What's happening?" she asked, her tones calm but indicating that she knew something was amiss.
"We need to abandon the station," Nanrun said as she tapped her combadge. =^=Away team to Dark Angel. Beam us out now=^=
"Get them out of there! Now!" cried Alex.
Meanwhile, Delorean had attached a device to the side of the main computer and looked up. "Thirty seconds until I get the sensor data. That's all I need."
"We may not have thirty seconds," Nanrun told him. "Get what you can and prepare to beam out."
Dal locked onto the away team as Delorean yanked the device off the computer with a curse and moments later, they stood on the transporter pad of the Victorious. "Got them, Sir," he reported. "Ships are still inbound."
Zearra was glad to be off that station. The whole thing had smelled from the beginning, but this last was just the icing on the cake. She glanced toward the rest, ensuring that the rest of her team had made it back to the Victorious. From the other Transporter pads, Mora, Eric, Lauren and Everett nodded to her, their expressions somber. This had not gone to plan; they could only hope that their Intelligence counterparts had gotten what they had needed.
Zearra looked back to Nanrun who seemed to be the lead of the Intelligence folks. "All accounted for." she reported, a bit unnecessarily; but confirmation was always good.
"Very good, Dal," replied Alex. "Set a course for home and standby to engage. Nanrun, I want a debrief before we arrive."
"Of course, Alex," Nanrun said as she headed for a seat and sat down as the other agents settled down.
Dal checked the readings, then brought the Aquarius class ship around, cloaked and engaged warp for the Triumphant
Looking back to the Lieutenant, sh'Paveress reported, "Transmission is set, sir. Your crybaby is ready for launch."
"Excellent. Hold off on launching it until we know if we're going to need it," replied the Intel Chief. "Hopefully the cloak will be enough to mask our escape. But if not, I want that out in space and transmitting right away."
At the moment, the sensors indicated a massive explosion where the Orion Center Tactical Command was located and the ships which had been inbound towards it began to veer off in different directions. The shockwave from it raced outwards in all directions and approached the Victorious before the small ship entered warp and headed home.
