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+--- Thread: Fleet Mission: "Tides a'changin'" (/thread-202.html)
Fleet Mission: "Tides a'changin'" - Steve Malloway - 04-14-2017
EARTHDATE: 2392, November 23rd
USS Eagle, Captain’s Ready Room
1335 hours
It had been a long time coming; this day. 2 years, or rather just a little over, doesn’t sound like a long time in the bigger scheme of things but you could ask anyone in Starfleet and they would tell you that war can alter your perception of time.
In 2385 the Starfleet Strategic Response Fleet had been commissioned, with its role primarily being the exploration through the Federation’s Iconian Gateway. Needless to say there were some who were unhappy with this latest venture. They had said with so much still unknown it came with too much untold power over the Quadrants and many believed it to be Starfleet’s first act towards becoming the ultimate power and declaring war on all. So the Cardassians acted. With the Romulan Star Empire gladly willing to help.
On March 25th 2390 the first onslaught against the Gateway and Starbase Thrinacia had begun, as if out of nowhere. There was no initial report from Intelligence to say any of this would happen. To say the least, it had been embarrassing for Starfleet. Thrinacia was still 8 months away from completion on her upgrade to an Immense Class station, and many of her systems were still offline which had made for an easy target. So, in came the first fleet of Cardassians. The outer lying turrets were no match for the Cardassians without support, and they carried on straight for Thrinacia once these had been destroyed. The Starbase and what little support she had from only one small Taskforce put up one hell of a fight – they held their own for nearly 3 hours before backup warped in. Along with evacuation craft.
Command knew there was no holding the system.
The Gateway had been their primary target, and was easily disabled. Next up came Thrinacia. As the SSRF’s base of operations was at the point of no return the Cardassians withdrew, followed by a small group of Federation vessels… into a Romulan trap. Not 6 lightyears away a large Armada of both Romulan and Cardassian ships were waiting, wiping out the Starfleet Squadron.
Thrinacia had been evacuated, all personnel and as much equipment as possible had been beamed aboard freighters and evacuation ships as quickly as transporters could handle. The damage to the base had been so high it was a danger if anyone were left behind. As for the Gateway Control Station, that was no better. Control over the Gateway had been maintained enough for Aurora Colony’s initial team to get back through and warp to safety – they were just a Science team, minimal weapons. And so the decision had been made to leave the system and regroup.
2 years. 2 years of skirmishes, diplomatic contact amongst all major powers. No luck. Just battle after battle. Obviously the Cardassians felt they owed payback after the Dominion War, and you didn’t need to take more than one guess that the Romulan Star Empire were at a loss after the Hobus Incident, blaming the Federation for their loss. Their alliance was a match made in heaven.
The SSRF was pulled straight into the fight. Her ships and personnel had held their own well during the Battle at Thrinacia, despite the retreat. As such, command had issued a restructuring. They needed seasoned commanders out in the field, ones they knew would serve better on bridges of starships than behind desks at Command. Admirals Malloway and Morgan took voluntary demotions down to the ranks of Commodore, each joining Commodore Jackson heading up additional Taskforces within the 14th Fleet. This made room for a whole new command team to oversee and liaise with them. They made one hell of a team.
But 2 years takes a toll. Life was lost. Starships too. The damage was intense to the Federation.
Until now. Today was the day the official ceasefire was being brought into effect.
****
“You’d think they’d have a little more security and defence for this signing going on.”
Commodore Malloway turned from the small mirror in the room just off of his Ready Room, looking back at his First Officer. “Hmm, a good point I suppose. But Command feels this needs to show how willing we all for peace, and no representative is to have gone armed to the teeth.”
“Still, I think it a bad decision. More so that no one from the SSRF is present – not even Fleet Command.” The XO stood, straightening his jacket as he watched the Commodore place his pips back to his collar. “Still, it does mean some decent R&R for us and the crew.”
Steve nodded in agreement, a glance to the window in his Ready Room showed the streaks of the ship in warp as they zipped on back towards Earth. It had been a while since Steve had been ‘home’, infact the last time he was on Earth was for his daughter’s graduation from the Academy in 2389.
“Be good to meet up with old friends and colleagues that’s for sure. The whole Fleet deserves this respite from… well, everything.” Steve chuckled as he made his way towards his desk and picked up a PADD. His fingers danced across several buttons as input commands before he handed it to the Commander with a nod. “All done. Keep me updated on our progress to Earth,” The Commander nodded to his superior’s orders and turned beginning to leave the Ready Room before he was stopped and turned at Steve added, “and Commander, keep an ear to the ground.”
TAG: ANYONE
RE: Fleet Mission: "Tides a'changin'" - Callum Jackson - 04-15-2017
USS Majesty
Captains Ready Room
13:35 Hours
For the last week the Majesty has been travelling back to Earth, she's just completed a second tour of patrolling the shipping lanes used by Starfleet for resupplying the front lines. During her tour she'd taken some damage.
The Majesty had picked up some unusual readings from a nearby sector, upon investigation they found a freighter had suffered a pressurisation failure, moving closer to help, a cargo container collided with the Majesty's main deflector, ironically, the container was packed full of engineering supplies intended to patch up the front line ships, instead those supplies severely damaged the deflector, engineering patched it up as best they could, but the parts required had just been destroyed in the collision and Majesty was not carrying the required parts.
After helping patch up the freighter and delivering the containers the freighter could no longer hold, the Majesty returned to her patrol, still capable of warp 7.5, Jackson saw no reason to return to repair the deflector and mess with the patrol rotations.
Other than that incident, the Majesty saw nothing else of interest for the remainder of the months tour
The Majesty's superstructure groaned as she shook again, Callum casually stopped his mug of coffee falling off his desk for the second time that day.
"Is there anything Engineering can do about the deflector? Over the past 2 days that turbulence has been getting worse" Callum asked
"No Sir, we don't have the parts, we can't repair it until we reach Earth, we'll just have to put up with the turbulence until then" T'Sai replied "We should arrive at Earth long before the deflector fails enough to let a piece of space dust punch a hole in our hull" T'Sai added.
Callum took a sip of coffee and sat back with a sigh "Understood. Thanks for the briefing Lieutenant." he replied.
"Sir, may I ask a question?" T'Sai queried, Callum nodded in response "Have you heard any more on the signing of the cease fire?" T'Sai asked.
Callum shook his head "No more info on it, I'm sure we'll find out more when we arrive." Callum paused for a moment "We still on schedule for a 14:30 arrival?" Callum queried the only thing that wasn't included in the Vulcans full report.
"Yes Sir, and understood" T'Sai replied
"Very good, you may return to your post" Callum said as he turned his chair to face the view of the stars as the Majesty once again shuddered.
TAG: Anyone
RE: Fleet Mission: "Tides a'changin'" - Lorenzo Schrödinger - 05-12-2017
USS Eagle
Nov.23, 2392
Officer's Quarters - Earlier, Shipboard Time
The room was party-like, a song was being repeated had a very upbeat tempo. The language was unfamiliar to those uninitiated, and even for the sole occupant of the room, Lorenzo's grasp of the language wasn't as great as those born to it, or has taken the extra time to study it. But he preferred it that the computer not automatically translate it. Even with the latest and greatest in translation software and synthetics would allow him to hear the song in Standard/English, but he thought that was a bit blasphemous.
A glass of carbonated green beverage was on hand, chilled. It was like the song playing throughout his quarters, rather an old formulation. Lorenzo had been up consulting old texts he had managed to get copied and shipped to him on the Eagle. Before him was an old analogue keyboard layout. LCARS was great for whatever he needed to do for his function, but when it comes to writing a paper, he really felt it stupid to try and fumble around with LCARS or speak to the computer hash it out.
His terminal though would beep, indicating he had two hours before his watch. Saving his work, he leaned back, the chair reclining to allow him to relax a bit and thought of the past three years. He was thrust into a war in which he got to test his theories and while the adage that no plan has ever survived contact with the enemy, he had managed to carve out a name for himself. He smiled bitterly as he remembered those under him who were lost before pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes for a second.
He awoke with a start as his terminal beeped again, this time indicating he had 45 minutes until his watch. He would head into the bathroom, allowing the sonic shower to remove the night's grime from his body. He detested sonic showers, preferring to allow cool, filtered river water to cover him and for him to use homemade soaps and pumice stones to work at his skin, but he barely could afford such luxuries, especially in a starship. The first thing he wanted to do when he was granted liberty on Earth was to teleport several meters above the Shenandoah outside his family's vineyard and just plunge into the water. Putting on a new uniform, he donned the buffer belt that marked his position as chief of Hazard Team on the Eagle. Inputting a code, a drawer would slide out of his desk, revealing a rather substantial handheld weapon. Made of modern steel, it was a replica that he had spent much time perfecting over the years.
Nearly five centuries old, it was considered obsolecent with the fielding of plasma and pulse based energy weapons. Lorenzo though would come to appreciate the ancient firearm, its appreciable heft and satisfying action of a well built and maintained machine. It also gave one-too many boarder, Romulan and Cardassian alike, a nasty surprise. He would place the weapon and spare ammunition into holsters,w hich would then be 'teleported' into the buffer, leaving him a clean belt. The buffer already held a Type 2 Phaser of his modification and some supplies, and with ten minutes to spare, left to his duty station.