Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Main Sim - Bridge - Arrival To Vok III

Posted by Ensign Kovan ch’Sirhc (Engineering & Communications Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - Arrival To Vok III

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Main Sim - Bridge - Arrival To Vok III
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[snip]

The NL considered, “..Well it would be near impossible to launch probes and not get noticed, whether by the local colonial ships or that asteroid or whatever. It stands to reason they would likely have some manner of scanning at least within a close area of their ‘ship’. Hence their maneuvering to avoid the earlier asteroid we saw. Long as we kept the probes though further away and not obvious in scans we might be able to slip them by the intruder depending on cagey they are though..” He said.

GM CockRoach

Rand looked at the woman. “I know they will see it. What I am asking is if there is a way to deploy them to make our mysterious visitors think we are monitoring for pirates rather than watching them. Send out 4 or 5 of them, make it look like we are trying for N early warning system. They will see it, we don’t have stealth tech. I just don’t want them to think we are watching them, but further out.”

Yeoman Rand

Kovan leaned back, “Maybe we’re thinking too hard. When you think about it, we caught them through sheer dumb luck. The odds of us happening to be looking the moment they made that correction and to be paying attention enough to notice it odd? I don’t think one in million would quite cover it. They have the perfect disguise, why would they ever think we’re on to them? Hell, for all we know this isn’t their first attempt at this. They could have pulled this multiple times right under everyone’s nose.” Keep focused, he told himself.

He turned in his chair to lean forward with his elbows resting on his knees. “What if instead of sending probes or watching them. . . what if we set a trap for them? We know where they’re headed. Look at their ship, to make a disguise like that they must have sacrificed something and I’m guessing that cost came in power. I’d wager they could only afford impulse in that thing. Another ship could wait outside scan range, hidden by the curve of the planet and once they make their move that ship and us will spring the trap.”

Ensign ch’Sirhc COMMO/ENGR

Rand could see the theory in it. “But what other ship? One of the colony ships? You saw how they reacted to our comms. They aren’t likely to help, and if they do, make us compensate them dearly for it, and who knows what other political drivel they would stir up. Plus we can’t exactly comm them with the plan. It would take them too long to figure out your encryption. We need an exact plan and a way to convey it to Cmdr Alden.”

Yeoman Rand

NE Lessie back by one of the secondary security stations spoke up, “..Um....well maybe we should watch to see what happens? I mean there is still plenty of time till they got to do one thing or another before approaching Vok III. If there is a ‘mother ship’ likely it is a ship out past the system’s edge and normal patrol routes. Maybe we could do normal sensor sweeps under the disguise of ‘mapping’ the local area on short and long range scans at all ranges to fully ID local regional things? Like um....say other outer-system asteroids or comets? We could flag any that might be big enough to conceal a much larger ‘mother ship’ and follow up once we get an idea of what this intruder is up too?” She said.

GM CockRoach

Kovan groaned, long and loud, then snapped, “Anyone ever tell you, Lessie, that treading water never gets you anywhere? And ‘local regional things?’ I would love to know how you manged to skip every single one of your stellar cartography classes. That seems to be the only feat of success you’ve ever achieved.” He sneered at his console screen. Was that really the best they could do? That without the captain or the XO all they were qualified was to sit still and pretend to look busy until something happened? Screw that. Kovan stood from his station and strode over to Rand’s side. She was the only person he trusted in this room and he’d hold her opinion high above anyone else, captain included. “What’s your take on all this?” He asked, bluntly. Honestly.

Ensign ch’Sirhc, COMMO/ENGR

“I think that someone who is sneaking around like that is up to no good. We can’t leave orbit though…” Rand sighed, or could they? Leave the landing team on the surface without warning? “We could just launch a probe right at them and see what they do. They are moving too slow, and don’t seem to have the ability to move faster, to really pose a threat. They probably have another ship out there somewhere. I don’t like the idea of sitting around waiting. I personally don’t feel that someone sneaking around and hiding like that is benign. If they were peaceful why are they hiding? Maybe we should launch a few probes into the astroid belt and see what happens?” Rand didn’t like it at all, and if they weren’t going to blow the thing up, they could try for more information. “I just don’t see the colonial ships helping us out.”

Yeoman Rand

Kovan nodded in agreement. “And even if there is a mothership out there,” His gaze slid briefly to NE Lessie, “Then they can do jack all for that asteroid ship. Even if they have a long range telescope trained on their position at all times they couldn’t communicate with the other ship or move to defend them without revealing themselves. That ship,” He motioned to the disguised ship on their screen, “Is all things considered, all on its own with very limited means to defend itself or be defended in turn.”

His hands clenched into fists as he seemed to come to a decision, “Then let’s launch a probe at them. Learn everything we can about their ship, and maybe who is piloting it. See how they react and, if neccessary, interviene and capture with a tractor beam. At the very least we can prevent whoever is out there from trying this again.” If these really were Orion pirates. . . There would be no interogating the crew. Their best chance of learning about their operations and goals was to study their ships and computers. The thought of dealing with Orion pirates made Kovan’s blood turn cold but with so many eyes around him he couldn’t show weakness.

Ensign ch’Sirhc

Rand nodded, “Get me a signal to Cmdr Alden.” She looked at Morgan, “Prep a probe and let’s see what we can find out. Launch when it’s ready.” Morgan nodded and called down to the torpedo room to start prep of the probe to be readied and prepped for launch.

Kovan returned to his station and with a couple key presses sent a hail to XO on standard frequencies. If he tried to jazz it up with extra security then it’d only look suspicious. “Hailing XO Alden. Line open. Speak when ready.”

Rand stood next to Kovan’s station quietly considering. When Kovan had Alden on the comms, she took an ear piece. =C=Cmdr you wanted me to informat you when we received word. Roberts is in Florence and Rogan has confirmed delivery.=C= she quietly prayed that Roman would understand what she was telling him.

Yeoman Rand

Kovan glanced over at Rand, “Have you and the commander been working on your secret communications skills?” It sounded like a code but it must have some kind of meaning to the two of them. Either way, Kovan was impressed by Rand’s ability to think on the spot and quickly make decisive decisions. “Either way our day is about to get very interesting.”

Ensign ch’Sirhc COMMO/ENGR