Posted by Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras (First Officer/Chief of Security) in Main Sim: New Orders (Bridge)

Posted by Gamemaster Mal Fet (GMT) in Main Sim: New Orders (Bridge)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Jonathon Pierce (Tactical Officer) in Main Sim: New Orders (Bridge)
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The bridge had been mostly quiet in the absence of the Captain and First Officer. Any discussions were brief and focused on the tasks at hand. Many of the junior officers on watch wondered what the Admiral was telling them and what was in store for the Sentinel.

All were blithely unaware that the Captain was now in Sickbay being treated for a mysterious ailment and that the First Officer was assuming command.

Retrieving the escape pods kept their attention for a while, but once that was done, the officers could turn to bigger questions. Elsewhere in the ship, Engineering prioritized repairs, and Medical handled the overload of wounds brought onboard. Meanwhile, Security and Tactical personnel on the bridge were alert for any threats.

Science officers were working behind the scenes, and everyone on the bridge heard Mr. Stovik’s report.

=^= Stovik to Lieutenant Kross. Science has completed its preliminary review of the battle telemetry. Upon entering the system, significant interference saturated the gravimetric, electromagnetic, and subspace sensor bands, substantially degrading our ability to distinguish genuine vessels from the duplicate contacts. =^=

=^= The interference ceased in stages as the Klingon vessels departed at warp. The duplicate contacts disappeared during the same interval, although their decay pattern did not directly correspond with the reduction in interference. This suggests the two phenomena are related, but not necessarily generated by the same mechanism. We have not yet identified a reliable method of distinguishing genuine contacts from the duplicates. Science will continue analysis. =^=

=^= Understood, Lieutenant. Science will determine whether the sensor saturation and duplicate contacts share a common origin or represent separate, interacting phenomena. I will report when we have sufficient evidence to distinguish between those possibilities. Stovik out. =^=
That battle had been chaotic, and some of the junior officers were surprised by the tactics and technology the Klingons were employing. They wondered if the Sentinel would fare as well if the Klingons attacked again.

OOC: Started a new Bridge thread and provided an opportunity for Lt. Pierce to join the action. The Tactical station was manned by Thraz at first, but another officer had to take his place when he joined the Captain to talk to the Admiral.

The immediate aftermath of the battle is over, so everyone has a chance to look ahead, gather data, or strategize.

Gamemaster Mal Fet

OOC: Thanks, I appreciate the opening :-) , I’m going to assume that Pierce was the officer that replaced Thraz

The battle was now over and Jon breathed a sigh of relief, they were in one piece which for any tactical officer , was the best you could hope for sometimes, he managed to get through his first battle on the Sentinal , now he waited for what came next but for now , he was pushing buttons on his console to see what if any tactical systems were damaged and to what extent

Lt(j,g) Jonathon Pierce
Tactical Officer
USS Sentinal

Lt. Pierce pulled up the current status of the tactical systems, which was less than encouraging.

Shields were currently at 37%. That was significantly better than the 14% they had dropped to toward the end of the battle… but they were still precariously weak. Engineering reported they’d be back up to 85% in the next ninety minutes, but that would be the current maximum barring additional and rather extensive repairs.

The phasers were all online and operational. The crew had focused on those repairs as they warped to come to the Declaration’s aid. The warp core was still operating below optimal levels, and that could be a factor if the battle became a prolonged engagement.

The status of the torpedo tubes was probably one bright spot. Both tubes were online, and the magazines held 42 torpedoes… just 13 shy of their standard allotment.

Jonathon had watched the Chief of Security during the battle, and saw how he quickly adapted to manual targeting when it became clear the sensors were unreliable. If the Engineering and Science teams didn’t come up with any mitigations, Lt. Pierce would be the one developing firing solutions during the next attack.

Gamemaster Mal Fet

Jonathon let out a sigh of frustration as he read all the damage , he knew there was no point contacting engineering about it, they were already on the case, he started thinking about firing solutions as he knew he would need to for the next attack, he had only been on board for a short time but he was impressed with the Sentinals crew.

Stovik
Science Specialist

Lt(j,g) Jonathon Pierce
Tactical Officer
USS Sentinal

Thraz crossed to the tactical station and scanned the numbers over Pierce’s shoulder. Thirty-seven percent shields and a warp core running cold were not odds he intended to fight the next round on. “Engineering, I want that eighty-five percent sooner than ninety minutes if there’s an honest way to buy it. Pierce, start building manual firing solutions now, don’t wait for it to happen.”

He straightened, addressing the bridge at large. “Whatever produced those duplicate contacts bought the Klingons an edge we didn’t expect. I want theories, not certainties - Science, Security, anyone. What makes a sensor ghost that doesn’t decay in step with the interference that made it?”

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

Jonathon glanced toward Thraz as the Commander spoke, then returned his attention to the tactical console.

“Aye, Commander.”

He brought up the available weapons data and began working through the targeting information, separating the reliable returns from those that might have been affected by the interference.

“With the sensors still being unreliable, I think manual solutions might be worth having ready,” he said quietly. “They won’t be as precise, but they should give us something to fall back on.”

His fingers moved across the controls as he worked through possible approach vectors and relative speeds.

“The phasers are still online, and both torpedo tubes are operational. Ammunition’s a little below standard, but there should still be enough for a reasonable engagement.”

Jonathon paused as he considered the figures on the display.

“The shields are probably the part I’d be most concerned about. Ninety minutes to get back to eighty-five percent isn’t ideal, though I imagine Engineering is already doing what they can.”

He returned to the firing calculations, making a few adjustments.

“I’ll keep working through these. Hopefully we won’t need them, but I’d rather have something prepared if those sensor ghosts appear again.”

With that, Jonathon settled back into the tactical station and continued working.

Lt(j,g) Jonathon Pierce
Tactical Officer
USS Sentinal

“[O]Bridge, this is NC Jochi down in Engineering. I’ll do what I can to speed up that timeline. The Chief Engineer is currently looking into the warp core.”[C]

Thraz knew Jochi was a broad-shouldered Saurian, and one of the senior crewmen down in Engineering.

“Commander?” The NE at the navigation station asked. His voice was a little shaky… like he was forcing himself to ask a question he was worried about. “What did you mean ‘you have the ship’? Where’s the Captain?”

The bridge got quiet. Although not everybody turned to stare at Commander sh’Kellirathras, it was clear most of them were keenly interested in the answer to that question.

Gamemaster Mal Fet

Thraz’s antennae stilled at the question, and for a moment the bridge held its breath with him. “The Captain collapsed during the Admiral’s briefing,” he said, flat and even, no attempt to soften it. “She is in Sickbay. Dr. Anu has her stable. Until she is fit to resume command, I have the ship.”

He let that settle only a second before moving past it. “That does not change what is in front of us. Pierce, Stovik — I want those firing solutions and that sensor theory regardless of who is in this chair. Questions about the Captain go to Sickbay. Questions about the ship come to me.”

Commander Thraz sh’Kellirathras
Executive Officer, USS Sentinel

The bridge remained silent as they absorbed the Commander’s declaration. The tension didn’t ease, exactly, but it was clear that many of them resumed work at their stations.

The Navigator looked over at Pierce for a moment. His face still betrayed his uncertainty, and he seemed to be looking for reassurance. The NE glanced forward again and responded to the Chief of Security a moment later. “Understood, sir. I’ll do my best.”

Pierce’s task was a difficult one.

The computer normally created the firing solutions, but until they could trust what the sensors were telling them again, that wasn’t an option. Creating potential solutions ahead of time was partially helpful, but of limited use. A real firing solution needed to factor in the target’s velocity, the Sentinel’s, and a dozen other factors, such as common evasive maneuvers.

Thraz had managed to create manual firing solutions on the fly. He was only partially successful, but the Commander’s aim seemed to be more reliable than what the other ships had managed in the same situation.

The Andorian had used visual reckoning based on the Sentinel’s external cameras. It was not a skill Starfleet explicitly trained, and it relied a lot on instinct and experience.

The new Tactical Officer needed to recreate that success somehow, because another attack was a near certainty. He either needed to find a way to increase his skill in the short term or find a way to improve the data available to him.

Or he could wait to see what the Science Department came up with.

OOC: Kross and Pierce are on the bridge. Stovik is actually in the science lab but has been using comms to talk to Kross regularly.

Gamemaster Mal Fet