***Sim Log Narrative, SD 201908.30***
Bridge:
The Penumbra was using its MIRAGE cloak, hiding in a rocky ring of an enormous gas giant where there were two Kyrathian Stations, six Colony Ships under construction, and more than a hundred small Kyrathian craft. They had detected some kind of large construction hanging in the violent atmosphere of the gas giant that is unlike anything they'd seen of the Kyrathians. They were about to launch the Cerberus, Patterson's advanced reconnaissance cruiser, to investigate it, and then the Penumbra would go and check out the Stations.
On the Bridge of the Penumbra were Capt. Zak Taylor, their Human Commanding Officer, sitting in the Command Seat; LtCmdr. Jason Carter, the Human Chief of Flight Operations, carefully piloting the Penumbra through the asteroid ring from the Helm Station; LtJG T'Lin, the Vulcan Science Officer, scanning nearby structures, ships, asteroids, and planets from the Primary Science Station; LtJG Tabeshk Tibris, half-Klingon/half-Romulan albino, manning his Operations Console; Ens. Denovan Hawke, the recovered former Borg, on alert at the Tactical Station; and MGny. Derek Hines, the tall black Human Marine, at the Reconnaissance Station.
The Captain opened a comm signal to the Cerberus, "Bridge to Cerberus, Colonel, are you ready?"
From the Reconnaissance Hangar, Patterson responded, "Cerberus to Bridge. Ready for launch. Once we enter the gas giant, sir ... we're gonna lose communications."
Zak turned to Hawke, "Mr. Hawke, do your best to track the Cerberus as long as you can, but you'll probably lose them in that mess."
Hawke answered, "I'll try, should be easy using their transponder code until they get into the cloud."
Hines quipped, "That's if Patterson doesn't turn the dang transponders off."
Hawke did a facepalm, "Wonderful, now I have to keep that in mind. Though it still shouldn't be too hard. I can just tag the ship on the display."
The Captain turned to his Science Officer, "T'Lin, try to get us scanning ability through that gas giant, if you can."
T'Lin nodded, "I will try, sir. The atmosphere of the gas giant is quite thick sir, it may take some time."
Zak returned to the comm, "Cerberus, you're cleared for launch. Godspeed, Colonel."
Patterson responded, "Acknowledged. Departure sequence engaged."
Zak turned to Carter, "Carter, once the Cerberus is launched, take us closer to that Station. We need to get readings on them as well."
A few seconds later, the Cerberus catapulted from the Recon Hangar at full impulse and another few seconds later, disappeared from sensors as its cloaking system fully engaged. And, of course, true to Patterson, the transponders were deactivated.
The Captain stood and stretched, then turned to his Tactical Officer, "Hawke, don't feel embarrassed if you lose the Cerberus. It was designed by Starfleet Intelligence to do just that, disappear." He turned to Carter, "OK, Carter, Hawke, let's go snoop on that Station."
Hawke responded, "Whenever we get close enough I'll start passive scans."
Carter chuckled softly, "Hell I already lost the Cerberus's ion trail." He turned the Penumbra 10 degrees starboard to head towards the nearest Kyrathian Station. He added, "Is it safe to say I want a ship like that when I retire?"
Zak returned to his seat with his own chuckle, "Heh, we'd all like one like that, I'm sure, Carter. I don't know who's ... um ... behind Patterson kissed to get it, and I think if I knew, he'd have to kill me!"
A call came from Ens. Lea Kalawai'a who was working in the Hangar Bay with upgrades to the Delta Flyer to armor them against the violent atmosphere of the gas giant. "Hey, Captain, we've finished working on the first shuttle, moving on to the second."
The Captain responded, "Excellent, Ensign! You're making good progress. Only 5 more to go!"
Lea answered, "I thought we already did the two that are out right now?"
As the Penumbra moved towards the Station, one of the Kyrathian Colony Ships suddenly began moving towards the Penumbra! Tabeshk, monitoring the system on his console, said, "Uhh, that doesn't look good, Captain!"
Hawke reported, "We have a ship coming this way. It could be just its normal path."
Carter began some flight corrections to avoid the Colony Ship. "Adjusting heading, bearing 015 mark 040, slowing to 1/16th impulse ... boats make less of a wake when they move slow!"
The Captain tensed slightly, "Easy, Carter, we can't be seen. We all know that if one sees us they all see us."
Hawke said, "Which is why I'm inclined to think it's just going about it's business."
Tabeshk had also tensed, "Captain, what should I do? Is it possible to use Bug Zapper if necessary?"
The voice of the Recon Systems' Artificial Intelligence, MAX, came through the speakers, "Bug . Zapper? Oh, you've scrambled all my organized microns! This is gonna take forever to sort through ... which is only a few seconds . but for an AI like myself? That's an eternity!"
Tabby said, "Sorry, MAX, it was necessary!"
The Captain finally answered Tabby, "Tabby, just make sure the MIRAGE stays on and the shields stay up." He turned to Hawke, "Hawke, ready torpedoes in case we need to fight a hasty retreat."
Hawke did so and said, "Ready." He consulted his display and then reported, "On the station I'm seeing the skeletal frame of another Colony Ship and dozens of Kyrathians of different classes."
Zak's eyes went wide, "Another one? What the hell? Where are they getting the personnel?"
As he asked this, another of the "under construction" Colony Ships turned towards the Penumbra. Hawke reported, "A half functional ship heading this direction now as well."
Tabeshk let out a squeak, "Eeep!"
Hines interrupted, "Captain, I'm receiving a message via subharmonic frequencies from inside the gas giant."
Tabeshk confirmed, "Yeah, it's from the Cerberus: Oops, rammed it. Sounds like a Patterson thing, I presume."
Zak sighed, "Oh, God! That's not good."
Tabeshk turned and gazed at the Captain's face. He mumbled, "Oh, no. Relok, Patterson and Bevin are on the Cerberus." He slumped in his seat, "Please be OK."
Anticipating the Captain's decision, Carter laid in a course correction towards the gas giant. "Orders?"
Zak straightened, "Carter, pull us out ... take us down to the very edge of the giant. T'Lin, we need to see the Cerberus and that installation. Where's our sensors?"
T'Lin had been flipping through her scans, trying to sort through all the ionized gasses of the gas giant's violent atmosphere. She answered, "I am working on it, sir." She zoomed into the planet where they'd detected the installation, scanning for any sign of the Cerberus.
Carter nodded, "Aye, sir. Tabby, I need all emergency and auxiliary power transferred equally between shields and sensors."
Zak ordered, "Hawke, Tabby, we'll need super shields if we have to go down there to get Patterson ... figure out how to do it. Might need to get Lea to rig up something."
Tabeshk straightened, "On it, Captain."
Hawke answered, "Understood." He glanced over at Tabeshk, "What about shunting power to the emitters from the phaser arrays."
Tabeshk answered, "Depends, we might need them." Then he said, "Ah! What about power from the crew quarters!"
T'Lin added, "The med bay has a backup generator, and nobody is using the science lab at the moment."
Hawke answered, "I thought about needing them, but it won't matter if we're in pieces. I guess the quarters and the cargo bays would work."
Suddenly the voice of Dr. Shadow K'Trevala came over the comm system, "Captain, I have the herbicide and insecticide bombs I've been working on ready if you want to test them someplace."
Zak glanced at Hawke, "Hawke, Shadow said he's finished some Bug Bombs and Herbicides. It sure would be nice to test them out. Let's see if we can get one of those Colony Ships to oblige us ...," he trailed off with a grin.
Tabeshk objected, "Captain! We don't need to go around picking fights, we need to get our crew!"
Hawke gave it a moment's thought then said, "Suppose I could get that half-finished one's attention."
Zak reminded him, "Hawke, make sure they don't know where it comes from. Load a torpedo with some of the stuff and see if we can get it inside their hull."
Hawke responded, "That means physically having to load one unless someone already did."
The Captain turned to his Science Officer, "T'Lin, in order to know if our Bug Bombs are effective, we'll need scans of that ship. Of course, that's only if we don't need to rescue three of my senior officers from a hellish gas giant ...," he trailed off.
T'Lin answered, "Very well." She called over one of the Ensigns nearby and directed him to continue the scans on the gas giant while she worked on scanning the Colony Ship.
Tabeshk muttered under his breath, "Idiot," then called Sickbay, "Shadow, I'm gonna need power, hope you don't mind."
Shadow responded, "Give me three minutes then take Sickbay offline."
MAX added, "We have 6 Delta Flyers on-board... transferring all power from auxiliary craft to auxiliary batteries."
Tabeshk grumbled, "Fine, what about the living quarters? We don't need power in there, right?"
Shadow responded over the open commlink, "Have everyone go to their designated emergency spots. That way we can shut off the power to individual cabins as needed."
Tabeshk answered, "Understood." He opened the comm system, "ALL HANDS, we will be shutting off power to living quarters. Please get to your emergency areas and remain calm."
Hawke saw the report that the torpedo was loaded. He targeted an open spot on the hull of the unfinished Colony Ship nearby. "Torpedo ready, Captain."
The Captain glanced over at him, "Hawke, again, we can't be seen launching that torpedo. Got us covered?"
Carter said, "Hawke, I can skirt across the gas giant, kick up some dust for you."
Hawke answered, "Go for it."
The Captain nodded, "Carter, kick up dust."
Carter nodded and dived the ship into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. "Brace for a rough ride!" Almost immediately, the ship gave a gentle rumble. It was followed by a call from Lea in the Hangar Bay, "What the hell's going on up there?"
The Captain called her back, "Lea, get to Engineering's design room. We might be needing super shields in short order."
She responded, confused, "To the what?" But she immediately rushed to the turbolift, headed for Main Engineering, assuming this "Design Room" would be near there.
The ship's main computer kicked in, "Structural Integrity risk. Gravitational Alert. Initiating Red Alert." The klaxon sounded and red lights flickered all through the ship.
Tabeshk grimaced, "Oh, lovely!"
The Captain also grimaced, "Well, this is going to hell in a hand-basket! Hawke, launch when ready. T'Lin track the results. Tabby ... keep the power steady!"
Tabeshk let out his "inner Klingon" with a curse, "Damn it! Fine!"
Hawke waited just a moment, compensating for their position in the clouds manually due to the ionization, and then fired the torpedo at the incomplete Colony Ship.
Cerberus:
The Cerberus was in the launch catapult of the Reconnaissance Hangar of the Penumbra awaiting the completion of the pre-flight check and the clearance to launch. Aboard were Lt. Col. Travis Patterson, Human Marine commander and Executive Officer of the Penumbra; Lt. Cmdr. Relok, the Vulcan Chief of Sciences; and Lt. Cmdr. Bevin MacArdry, red-haired and freckled Deryni Chief Engineer.
They knew it would likely be a rough ride ahead since they were diving into the violent atmosphere of an enormous gas giant to investigate a Kyrathian installation they'd detected hovering there. Relok had made sure they had a sufficient supply of barf bags!
Patterson sat at the controls, having just finished the pre-flight checklist. He spoke to the Cerberus's on-board Artificial Intelligence, "AEGIS, reroute auxiliary power to structural integrity and inertial dampers. Filter all ion emissions through the shields, and engage the ablative generator once ambient density reaches 120% above normal conditions."
The AI answered, "Acknowledged."
Relok pulled up the sensor feed from the Cerberus, then said, "Yes, I know, AEGIS, some of those are restricted access."
A call came from the Captain, "Bridge to Cerberus, Colonel, are you ready?"
Patterson glanced over his shoulder at Relok, "Ready in the back?"
Relok answered, "Ready, Colonel. I recommend five-point harnesses."
AEGIS responded, "Engaging harness restraint systems." Each seat automatically deployed the recommended five-point harnesses to secure the passengers. Once done, AEGIS reported, "All countermeasures active."
Bevin, sitting beside Patterson in the co-pilot's seat had been scanning the systems (best she could with its heavily restricted access) to see what she might improve. As her harness buckled her in she said in her heavy Brogue, "Raidy tae gae."
Patterson nodded and called the Captain back, "Cerberus to Bridge. Ready for launch. Once we enter the gas giant, sir ... we're gonna lose communications."
A moment later the Captain's voice responded, "Cerberus, you're cleared for launch. Godspeed, Colonel."
Patterson replied, "Acknowledged. Departure sequence engaged." A few seconds later, the Cerberus catapulted from the Recon Hangar at full impulse and another few seconds later, disappeared from sensors as its cloaking system fully engaged. And, of course, true to Patterson, the transponders were deactivated.
Now clear of the Penumbra, all of Patterson's attention, as well as that of AEGIS, went towards course corrections and navigation. Patterson said, "AEGIS, display course corrections as quickly as possible onto the HUD."
AEGIS responded, "Course corrections for dense atmospheric flight processing at 1.4 million calculations per nanosecond. Information coming to the HUD now."
Relok commented, "There are several Kyrathian craft that regularly come and go into the gas giant's atmosphere. How are they handling the turbulence and ionization, I wonder?"
Bevin pulled up the catalogue of sensor scans made from the gas giant's rings and upper atmosphere. She then turned part of the Cerberus's sensors to try to detail what the Kyrathian craft might have been doing to maintain their flight in the giant's violent atmosphere.
After a moment, AEGIS reported, "External pressure has reached 120% abnormal mass. Deploying Ablative Generator. Slipstream offline."
Patterson nodded, "All right . here we go." And with that, the Cerberus began to buck and heave like it was trying to shake off a rider.
AEGIS reported, "Structural Integrity at 95%. Auxiliary power rerouting to Ablative Generator to compensate."
Relok huffed, "Oof!" Then he added, "Whoa! Almost sent a tricorder flying across the cabin!" He secured the loose item to prevent it from happening again.
Another couple of tense seconds passed and AEGIS said, "Structural Integrity stable at 95%. Ablative Generator at 80%."
Patterson glanced at Bevin, "Think you can take power from the ---," he was cut off by a massive lightning bolt that streaked through the atmosphere, narrowly missing the Cerberus. The resulting shock wave sent the small ship careening madly! Patterson tensed, "Whoa! AEGIS, activate atmospheric stabilizers and deploy flaps!" He fought for control in the dense soup of the atmosphere.
Relok, holding on to his console for dear life with white-knuckled furvor, prayed to the Great Sehlat. AEGIS responded, "Flaps unavailable due to Ablative Generator. Atmospheric Stabilizers engaged. Taking helm controls. Standby ...."
Patterson released the flight controls to the AI and clutched his chest in the classic "crash readiness" position. Relok noticed and quickly did the same. But Bevin continued to work frantically to try to stabilize the Cerberus's power grid, while also trying to augment power needed for other areas.
And then AEGIS said, "Ablative Generator at 65%. Structural Integrity field falling to 80%. Impulse strain at 150% and rising."
Patterson said, "For the love of --! AEGIS, shut up and get us on that damn brick!"
The AI beeped an "apologetic" tone and then said, "Acknowledged. Brace for impact."
Relok gasped, "What? Patterson, you want us ... ON ... the installation?"
It was AEGIS who responded, "Given the circumstances ... there is a 22.8% marginal increase for survival for a crash-landing than there is for an emergency climb-out, due to atmospheric conditions."
Bevin continued working at her console, playing with optimal configurations for the power grid, and how best to use the crackling energy all around them to supercharge their systems. She said, "Tray braingin hair ain lak a glidir, air sailplain."
Relok, still stunned, complained, "But ... we were supposed to 'observe and report', not land on the damn thing!"
AEGIS asked, "Commander MacArdry, what are you doing to the power grid? That ... tickles."
Patterson barked, "AEGIS!!!"
AEGIS replied, "Impact in 30 seconds."
Bevin responded, "Trayin tae gait tha mist awptimil canfaigirashun wi tha pawir fer ye."
Relok began to pray in earnest, "Great Sehlat, give us strength to persevere!"
AEGIS said, "Rerouting all emergency power for subharmonic frequency transmission. Message for the Penumbra?"
Patterson gritted his teeth a moment, then said, "AEGIS, send the following message, Priority One: 'Oops, rammed it.'"
AEGIS answered, "Processing." A second later he said, "Message sent."
Bevin giggled, "We shaeld dae tha aigin, bit wi'aut tha 'Oops'!" As she said this, the Cerberus pulled up slightly, giving a last minute energy dump, and "softly" collided with the surface of the foreign Kyrathian installation.
Patterson glanced at his two crewmates as he released his harness, "You two all right back there?" Then he turned to the console in front of him, "AEGIS, status report!"
Bevin first checked the power situation, and whether it not it would be possible to tap into the power grid of the installation to top-up the Cerberus. She said, "Ait caeld be werse, sair."
Relok felt something running down his forehead, wiped with the back of his hand and then saw green Vulcan blood on his hand. He said calmly, "I think I hit something." He had a significant cut on his forehead and a few nasty green bruises.
AEGIS reported, "To put it bluntly, I hit the target."
Bevin chuckled, "Aye, AEGIS, ye daid." She rose from her seat and grabbed the emergency first aid kit, producing the dermal regenerator to seal the cut on Relok's forehead. As she ran the device over Relok's head, she checked herself, "I'm ailraight, jist a laittil shaikin, nae stairrid."
AEGIS said, "System analysis complete. Hull integrity at 72%. Ablative Generator functional at 65%. Impulse and Slipstream offline. Singularity stable. Primary weapon systems offline. Cloaking device: ACTIVE."
Patterson sighed, "All right. We need the cloak and the Ablative Generator." He paused a moment then said, "Gotta get the impulse engines back online. AEGIS, what about auxiliary weapon systems? Transporters?"
Relok said, "So ... looks like they don't know we've ... uh ... landed. Can we get some good scans from here, at least?" He looked up at Bevin as she finished with the medical device. "Thanks, Bevin, feels better already." He rubbed his forehead.
She smiled at him, "Tha's nae priblim, Cammandir."
AEGIS said, "Rerouting power from auxiliary weapons, transporters, and ion displacement would be enough to get the impulse engines back online ... but, I am unable to access the ion displacement field due to the Ablative Generator. It will require manual wiring."
Bevin put away the medkit and faced Patterson, "Sair, I'll naid tha skaimatiks tae dae tha rawirin."
Just as she said this, another massive lightning bolt struck the installation, way too close to the Cerberus, but . the energy was quickly absorbed by the installation itself! Still, the shockwave nearly deafened the people within the small craft, especially the Vulcan with his sensitive ears. Relok cried out, "Great Sehlat! We have to get out of here!"
Hangar Bay:
Ens. Lea Kalawai'a was in the main Hangar Bay of the Penumbra working to upgrade the armor of the six remaining Delta Flyers. She was sitting inside one of them running a final diagnostic when she glanced over at one of the Crewmen helping with the task, "We just have to make sure the computer's compatible with all the new tech. We just had a problem with structural integrity 'cause the systems weren't updated for slipstream."
After a few minutes, the diagnostic report came back clean, so she moved towards the next one on her list, tapping her commbadge as she walked, "Hey, Captain, we've finished working on the first shuttle, moving on to the second."
The Captain responded, "Excellent, Ensign! You're making good progress. Only 5 more to go!"
Lea answered, "I thought we already did the two that are out right now?" She lowered her head and got to work on the next one.
Several minutes of hard work later, the ship suddenly rumbled. Startled, Lea tapped her commbadge, "Bridge, what the hell's going on up there?"
The Captain called her back, "Lea, get to Engineering's design room. We might be needing super shields in short order."
She responded, confused, "To the what?" But she immediately rushed to the turbolift, headed for Main Engineering, assuming this "Design Room" would be near there.
As she rode the turbolift, a klaxon sounded and red lights flickered all through the ship. They were at Red Alert!
Sickbay:
Dr. Shadow Wind K'Trevala, the Tayledrian healer with the long silver hair, was in Sickbay, working to manufacture more of the Bug Bombs and the like to use against the Kyrathian insectoids and their deadly plant. He was running tests to determine the safety factors for exposure of the chemicals on non-Kyrathian plants and lifeforms.
Eventually he had the chemical weapons tested as far as he could with the limited database he had on hand. They needed to be tested against the Kyrathian insectoids and plants directly. He called the Captain, "Sickbay to Bridge, I have the herbicide and insecticide bombs I've been working on ready, if you want to test them someplace."
While he waited on a response, he tweaked the chemicals with an extra touch that should make the bombs produce what he hoped would be a deadly fog that would drift throughout their ships or stations.
Just then, a call came from Tabeshk Tibris on the Bridge, "Shadow, I'm gonna need power, hope you don't mind."
Shadow responded, "Give me three minutes then take Sickbay offline." He started up the emergency generator for Sickbay.
With the commlink still open, Shadow heard MAX, the Artificial Intelligence, on the Bridge saying, "We have 6 Delta Flyers on-board... transferring all power from auxiliary craft to auxiliary batteries."
He heard Tabeshk grumble, "Fine, what about the living quarters? We don't need power in there, right?"
Shadow responded over the open commlink, "Have everyone go to their designated emergency spots. That way we can shut off the power to individual cabins as needed."
Tabeshk answered, "Understood." The open commlink closed and was followed by a general Public Address, "ALL HANDS, we will be shutting off power to living quarters. Please get to your emergency areas and remain calm."
Shortly thereafter, the ship rumbled, a subtle reverberation throughout the ship. A second or two later, a klaxon sounded and red lights flickered all around the ship. They were at Red Alert!
In Attendance:
Capt. Z. Taylor, Dr. K'Trevala, Ens. Lea Kalawai'a, Ensign Denovan Hawke, LtCmdr. J. Carter, LtCmdr. MacArdry, LtCmdrRelok, LtCol. T. Patterson, Ltjg Tabeshk Tibris, Ltjg. T'Lin, MGySgt. Hines
NPCs:
MAX (Reconnaissance AI, played by Hines), AEGIS (Cerberus AI, played by Patterson)