Keeping Things Brief

Posted on Wed Oct 5th, 2016 @ 9:42pm by Colonel Damian Highsmith M.Eng & Lieutenant Ryan Rose & Captain Luke Smith

Mission: Bad Moon Rising
Location: Main Conference Room, Deck 1
Timeline: Mission Day 1, 1300

ON:

Damian stood in front of one of the massive viewports with his hands tightly clasped behind his back, watching as the Hammersley passed through the elongated stars. As he stood there, he pondered the mission orders that he had been handed less than 12 hours ago. They were to head to Starbase 900 and determine why their communications had suddenly stopped-. In Damian's mind, there could only be two options why this could happen- either the station had suffered a massive communications failure or they had been attacked by something that they couldn't defend against. He begrudgingly began to recall when he had been aboard the Valhalla and they had received a distress call from a Forward Operating Base that had come under attack by the Vaudwaar. By the time they had arrived, there was hardly anything left of the base except smouldering ruins and the mangled bodies of the small detachment that had been stationed there. His hand dropping to his side, Damian balled it into a fist. If someone had the audacity to attack the Federation in the Delta Quadrant, then Damian would make them pay dearly. Checking his watch, he could see that it read 1250. Taking a seat at the head of the conference table, Damian waited for the rest of the staff to show.

A moment later the door opened and in walked Lt Commander Plataea Yamaguchi, she took in the lack of anyone else other then the skipper present at a glance, before moving to the replicator for a doughnut and a drink before she sat down at the table, she then slid a report across the table to Highsmith. "The report you asked for skipper. I needed additional time so I could inspect the weapons I had..."

Damian deftly stopped the PADD and spun it so that it faced him. Reading down the report, he nodded approvingly. "This isn't bad for less than 48 hours on board. Continue your weapons inspection and I want two tactical drills scheduled at random. I don't care if you wake the crew in the middle of the night- run the drills until we can have a full response prepared in less than three minutes. Understood?" he asked, knowing what her answer would be.

Yamaguchi peered across at him, she held her silence for a moment. "Yessir."

"Also, you might want to look into some training sessions with Commander Glyndar, she's still designated as a Tactical Officer and she'll be able to help you familiarize yourself with some tips and tricks." Damian mentioned.

Yamaguchi nodded her head slowly. "I'll talk to her. See what she says."

I say your decorations better be worth the aggravation she thought as she crept into the room with Lee catching the tail end of that conversation. However, she simply took her seat, saying nothing.

Lee came in after checking over the readings from his panel and brought a PADD into the briefing, "Sir, sensor diagnostics are proving somewhat troublesome so will need to look at that....small power fluctuations but I will allocate resources to the holodeck if you need them. Shuttlecraft two isn't usable at this time so repair crews are on it so shuttlecraft one is available. Have we come up with a name for them yet?" Lee asked.

Yamaguchi couldn't resist. "Hubris, Catastrophe, Phobos, Deimos, Enyo and Eris.". She rattled off a few names. "I believe they are human names of various deities... right?"

Damian chuckled slightly and spoke up. "You're close but not quite, Commander. Our shuttle's namesakes are Norse in origin- the Commanding Officer before me elected to give this ship a Norse feel. In fact, the unofficial mascot of the ship is Thor. " he said, pointing a quick historical point.

"I can live with that" said Janet. "He was very much like a deity on my home world" she said, though not fully delving into the topic.

Lee smiled, "Now there's no need to call my shuttlecraft Catastrophe. We could name it Yamaguchi but all aboard the Guchi just doesn't sound appealing." Lee returned the joke.

(Tag Everyone else)

Briggs was following the map on his PADD as he walked into the conference room, stopping only as he looked up and noticed the room was full of the senior staff, including Lieutenant Rose. He froze as he lowered the arm holding the PADD. "I'm sorry, I appear ta have gotten turned 'round," he said, turning crimson with the eyes of the command staff of the ship on him.

Yamaguchi gave him her best 'come hither' look. "Really...?" she inquired. "and how so?" she added with a gentle smile.

"Well, ma'am," Briggs said, after swallowing. He held up the PADD in front of him, like divine evidence or a shield against his own intrusion. "I was tryin' ta get somewhere else and certainly not interruptin' a meetin' of the senior crew. Ma'am."

Damian raised his hand sternly. "Have a seat, HM3. Since you're here, you might as well observe how the senior staff does things." he said, motioning to one of the few empty chairs.

"Aye, sir?" Briggs said, not sure himself if he meant it as an affirmative response that he heard the order and would follow them, or if it was a question. But, keeping an eye on the group, he moved to the indicated chair, dropped his pack at his feet and sat, rather stiffly, in the chair. All the while he was wishing he suddenly developed the ability to merge into a wall.

Yamaguchi's smile only widened. "I will have those two drills ready to go in about two hours after I figure out what time I'm going to run them." the tall woman explained.

Damian nodded. "Very well. You may execute when ready." Looking over to the rest of the staff, he noticed that they looked slightly bored. "Well don't all jump up at once. I need updates and I need them now."

Yamaguchi nodded. "I'm going to be in the armory for the next two hours. I like the hands on approach." and with that she rose to her feet, assuming they had been dismissed, she turned and walked out of the room, her long legs eating up the distance quickly.

Briggs perked up at the discussion regarding the 'surprise drills'. He hated suprise drills. It was all well and good for the officers, but for him they usually came about the time he got into good sleep, then there was a bunch of rushing around and...well...as an NCO, he didn't get to go back to bed but had to work on 'improving response efficiency' and then head off to his normal duty assignment while the officers went back to bed or finished their duty shifts. "Crap," he muttered to himself. And being as he wasn't supposed to be in this meeting, he was sure he wasn't supposed to go telling anybody that they were being planned either.

Yamaguchi smiled. "Oh I love drills. This will be outstandingly wonderful.. I'll wake everyone at three AM and then when everyone gets back to bed. I'll wake em again at Five AM." as her grin widened. "The crew will want to murder me in my sleep before I get done." she had no intentions of waking everyone but she knew she had a leak with HM3 sitting before her and she wished to the rumor to get out, she was going to help it along any way she could. She added a maniacal sounding laugh to rub it in.

Damian looked over at the Commander that was halfway to the door. "I didn't dismiss you, Commander. Keep your seat." he said, a slightly sour taste in his mouth. "Computer, dim lights and initiate briefing program Highsmith-Delta-Three." The computer, beeping it's acknowledgement pulled up a diagram of Starbase 900.

Plataea stopped as if someone had yanked on a chain, she sighed before she returned to her eat in silence.

"This is Starbase 900- Stardock Class. This base houses 200,000 people and acts as the center of all Starfleet operations in the Delta Quadrant. As of 2300 five days ago, contact was lost and their link to the Solaria Gateway went off line. Our orders are to go through an alternate gateway into the Delta Quadrant, make our way to Starbase 900, and determine what happened. As a note, recent intelligence reports have indicated an increase in Borg activity throughout that sector along the Jathlin Arm-" Damian stopped as he zoomed the view in on the particular area. "This area is home to the Devore Confederacy, the Vaadwaur, and a sizable contingent of Borg ships that seem to pop in and out at random. Further, they've noticed that the Borg have been venturing closer to Starfleet assets in the area but not taking any offensive action. It's almost like they were testing us..." At the last sentence, Damian trailed off.

As the lights went down, Briggs reached into the bag at his feet and brought out one of his jerky pouches. Ripping it open, he chewed on a large piece while watching and listening to what the Colonel was saying. "How ya lose contact with a whole starbase?" he asked, meaning only to speak to himself and not realizing he was muttering out loud.

But, he'd heard of the Borg, mostly in passing. He didn't have any first hand experience with them. They were pretty much the bogeyman man monsters in some holodeck programs he'd run with a few others in the past. Right scary robot zombies that were programmed to be too tough to be real - with no feeling, self-repairing systems and the biotic energy shields that adapted to phaser fire so they couldn't even be killed after two or three a gun.

Was the Colonel really saying they weren't just holodeck bad guys but were real bad guys? He shook his head, they didn't have much in the way of medical options that he knew about and, from what he saw in the holodeck programs, they turned those they killed into robot zombies as well.

Turning to the Petty Officer, he looked over. "That's the problem, HM3- we don't know how Starfleet lost them. For all we know, they might have been attacked or suffered a massive systems failure. Honestly, I'm hoping it's the latter."

"Well, sir," Briggs said, but slowly since he was caught by the Colonel. "Ain't they got them redundancy systems? Y'know, them backups to backups?" But, even the implication of that question hit him. They should have redundant systems and if they weren't working then...

Briggs couldn't even imagine 200,000 casualties of an attack, or even worse, slow and horrible suffering due to systems failures. If the comms were out, what about life support? And, if that's the case, why were they still just sitting here instead of heading out to do something to help?

Janet sat there shaking her head and silently letting her frustration build up behind her piercing Xenexian eyes. She slammed her clenched fists onto the table. "Losing damn contact with any starship or starbase and disconcerting. We can talk and talk all damn day, but none of it will matter. We need action. Whatever plan we come up with, we need to act sooner rather than later."

Lee thought on the loss of contact with a whole starbase, "Even I find it hard to believe that we could possibly loose contact with a starbase of that size. I would think that their comms is quite fine and the base is operational but they have something else that's blocking communications. A base that size would have enough resources to erect an alternate comms system within twenty hours. As well as that, the starbase must have had recent visitors before we even get there." Lee thought on as to 'what visitors?', what could be a threat to the starbase to de-power it's systems?'

"It doesn't matter." Yamaguchi commented quietly but with a tone of finality. "The Borg are not this subtle, they don't need to be... When they come, they do so with overwhelming force...Trust me.. I know." she explained. "Maybe its just a com's issue... but losing the gate and contact with the base... That's cause for concern." Yamaguchi sat back. "Personally we have two options.. Go through the alternate gate now and rush there.... or two.. go through the alternate gate except take a more subtle approach."

Plataea tapped the PADD before her. "Our ordinance loadout is not what I feel comfortable with heading into what we can assume to be a war zone. Adding to this is the fact that we are alone with no supply lines and now way to get help should we need it." Yamaguchi sighed.

In shock, Briggs dropped his pouch of jerky as he looked at the senior officers assembled in the room. Though he highly doubted they'd admit it, he sensed their fear of what was coming and that had a profound effect on him. War-zones? he heard them say, alone?. These words sapped his appetite and confidence while he watched their masking anger rise. If the senior staff, the most knowledgeable, capable people on the ship didn't think they were going to come out of this alright, what hope was there?

Slowly, reluctantly, he picked up the pouch but his desire for meat snacks was gone. How long did they have? A day, a couple days? How long until they were overwhelmed and destroyed by this robot zombie enemy?

Yamaguchi shifted her attention as she regarded Briggs. "I do have a few tricks up my sleeves the Borg have yet to see." she responded. "Do we have any historical fans in the room?"

Lee watched the various eyes and posture as he could tell, 'no.....No.....you do.....you do....you love history.....hmmm.' he thought that looking at everyone and if you're good at, can give you an opinion as to what they might do next. Sometimes Lee has gotten it wrong so he chooses to stay quiet.

Damian turned to Yamaguchi, suddenly interested. "Not necessarily but you have my interest. Speak up, Commander." he said, turning his chair to face her.

Yamaguchi swallowed the mouthful of doughnut she had just eaten. "Well.. the Borg have been known to be unable to resist ballistic weapons." she paused. "Now I doubt a Starship version of this would help us as they would have adapted to kinetic based weapons like railguns by now." she explained. "However... an old style slug-thrower might work for a time... I have no idea of how long it would be before the Borg adapted to this tactic.." Yamaguchi sighed softly. "We need new tactics in dealing with this enemy... maybe cyber based warfare." she shrugged. "Eventually... They will assimilate our entire Galaxy. Especially if we do nothing.."

"Ain't it just like a virus then?" Briggs asked from back in the room, looking to Rose for confirmation. "I mean, when I've played'em on holodeck games, they come out just like zombies, ain't that just a virus? They get infected and become zombie robots and then go out tryin ta make more'a them zombies? Why don't ya be lookin at findin a cure for their zombie virus?"

Yamaguchi sighed softly as a look of sadness came over her features. "Because they aren't infected with a virus." she explained. "The Borg are simply too strong for us to face in their present form, we simply lack the ships or the strength to take them on on a one on one basis.. Eventually they will overwhelm us with sheer numbers.." she closed her eyes as she took a moment, clearly the Borg had cost her dearly or someone close to her. "The Borg was relentless, they will not stop and ..... we need new tactics if we are to survive them."

"Well, iffen it ain't a virus how they makin more robot zombies?" Briggs asked. "Seems that's how we stop'em."

"They simply use nanoprobes to infest the bodies of their victims. They start by taking over the blood circulation system and spreading from there." Plataea paused. "I suppose you could call it a virus.. but one thats mechanical in nature." she paused a second time. "If we want to survive them, eventually we will need to deal with them once and for all... Trouble is... I have no idea how and I've faced the Borg at almost every major encounter we've had with them...."

Briggs frowned as he crumpled the jerky bag. "Well, I still don' unnerstan. Iffen the mamoprobes are like a virus, why not just treat'em like a virus and kill'em off? Ya kill the virus, ya solve the threat. We use some'a them nannites in medical problems and they don't go off killin people and makin robot zombies cause they designed to be shut down. What I know of them zombies is they are like a pandemic, why don't we just treat the pandemic and innoculate against the virus?"

Yamaguchi sighed softly. "Were it so easy..." she regarded Briggs, a deep sadness in her eyes. "We'd need to inoculate billions of drones all at once.. separating billions from the collective and we'd need to get past their defenses and weapons.." memories of a planet being glassed by six Borg cubes haunted her. "You ever seen what the Borg are capable of when they decide you need to be exterminated?" she narrowed her eyes. "It does happen.. from time to time."

"But..." Briggs said then shook his head and looked down at the jerky bag, now a twisted mess, the contents shredded. "Iffen the virus are robots, ya don' need to physically innoculate'em all. They talk to each other, don' they? Put in a spartan of our own and BOOM!" he slammed his hand against his thigh as he spoke to create the sound, "it spreads and kills off the virus and no more robot zombie."

Yamaguchi paused as she considered it. "Mmm." as the wheels behind her eyes spun rapidly 'Is it possible?' she mused to herself. "Its also been done." she added. "What do you know of the Borg named Hugh?" she inquired of Briggs. "We might try something.. only on a larger scale."

Briggs's forehead furrowed as he concentrated, trying to remember details of the times he played the Borg holodeck games. It was one of the few times that he allowed himself the option of using weapons, since none of it was real anyway. Finally he shook his head. "Sorry, Commander, but when I play them robot zombie games, I ain't worried about introducin myself so I don't rightfully know if there's any zombie name'a 'Briggs'."

"Well when we finish here... Unless the Skipper has anything else for you... You go look up the Hugh Incident at some point in time." Yamaguchi responded with a smile.

The confused look on the young Trill's face only deepened. "Aye, Commander," he said, knowing it was an order. "Only, I don't right know of any incident I had with robot zombies outside of playin on the holodeck. Was there something wrong with that?"

Damian thought for a moment- kinetic weapons were going to be their only effective weapon against the Borg. "Commander Yamaguchi, you have my full permission to replicate kinetic weapons. Keep me updated on your results and inform Gunner Slabaugh that you'll be conducting specialized testing. The last thing I need right now is to have an angry rangemaster if he sees you shooting old fashioned weapons on his range. Looking to the rest of the assembled staff that had fallen silent, Damian could hear the metaphorical crickets chirping. "Anyone else?" he asked.

Yamaguchi nodded her head. "I'll handle it right away skipper. If it works.. then I'd like to mandate that ballistic weapons training for security and tactical at the very least. In case we face them..." she paused. "Also I'd like to use the TR-116... I'm going to design and build a few variants of the weapon... I am an Engineer at heart sir." she paused. "While I schedule the three drills I'm going to run.. one per shift."

Damian thought for a moment to consider the repercussions of granting access to one of the few projectile weapons in the Federation inventory and nodded. "Keep me posted on your progress, Commander." Looking to everyone else, he could sense the general lack of interest spreading through the room like a plague. Everyone was chomping at the bit to do more than they were doing now, given the gravity of the situation and Damian couldn't blame them as he felt the same irresistible energy flowing through him. "If that's all, you're dismissed." Damian glanced over to the Chief Medical Officer "Doctor Rose, see me in my Ready Room when you get a few moments." he said, almost like it wasn't a command but more of an afterthought.

Lieutenant Commander Janet Glyndar had watched most everything unfold and be exchanged in silence. She was still learning about this crew and being a young single mother was starting to really weigh on her. The Hammersely was a fine starship, had a good Commanding Officer, but he was a marine no less and though once upon a time this posting would have been idealistic for her, she was beginning to realize the woman she had been before being a mother was not the same woman she was today. "Aye, Colonel" she said, her silence breaking as she stood up and proceeded to leave the room and the presence of the others.

Rising from his seat, Damian walked slowly toward the door. Turning slightly, he paused to look out at the still stretched stars and hoped that this new crew could handle the mission at hand because he would need every drop of blood, sweat, and tears to keep this ship going on it's path and he couldn't abide failure, not when they were this close and the very fate of the Federation rested firmly on their shoulders.

Yamaguchi likewise rose to her feet, she shifted her attention to the windows, as she took in the starscape for a moment. "For if these men do not die well.. It will be a black matter for the king who led them to it." she said quietly. "Its better then an old Egyptian prayer." as she focused her mind ion the work ahead of her. "Ez megszakad a szívem" which the translator responded with 'this breaks my heart' before she walked out of the observation lounge.

:OFF