Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Stella Gagnon (Communications Officer) in Main sim - Bridge - In Orbit of Unity System

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Hercules Kahuna (Weapons Officer) in Main sim - Bridge - In Orbit of Unity System
[snip]

Cara replied to the shuttle, “The quality of the video feeds and the lack of other evidence means that MABEL 2.0 can’t determine a meaningful answer to the question. In other words, we just don’t know if the the two ships and their occupants are the same, or not. No one has ever seen either of them.”

The Bridge began receiving telemetry from the underwater probes and a security report from the landing party in the village.

=/\= Bridge here. Kahuna speaking. Please bring the rescued miner, Michael Duck, to the Bridge. The teams are sending back odd reports from the planet surface, and I need him to answer some questions. I’m not sure the planet is safe for him to return. =/\=

Kahuna contacted Captain Glen.

=/\= Bridge here. Kahuna speaking. Captain, we’ve been following your movements and monitoring the comms from your lapel pins. You should also be aware that the meteorite appears to be some kind of unmanned spacecraft. We have no records that match a spacecraft of this type; it isn’t metallic, but Guy Fleegman and Miriam Cross think it looks like something they saw once before. Probes sent by the shuttle were downed and it just powered up and scanned the shuttle. Lt. Mullins is getting the shuttlecraft out of there. I’m getting Michael Duck back up here to see if he knows anymore, but I believe he was uncooperative earlier. I don’t think it is safe to send him home any longer. =/\=

=/\= Glen here. I agree with you. I think I know the ship they mean. It was never determined where it came from or who they were, but it was dangerous and well armed. Mullins is correct to pull out. Tell him to return to the Merrimack. We have found this village to be abandoned. I just want to dig around a little more, but if this is the same planet-wide, then we don’t have the manpower to deal with this, whatever this is. I had a suspicion right from the off, that this wasn’t something a single ship could deal with. Glen out. =/\=

Michael Duck joined them on the Bridge with Faith Hopkins. Kahuna described to him what the landing party and shuttle had found, but he knew nothing to explain it.

“Lt. Gagnon,” Kahuna told the Communication Officer, “Please, make to Commodore Stone at Starbase Deep Space K-5. Inform him of the current situation here and ask that he advise us.”

Stella had been told to get to the bridge by one of the passing crew as she had waited outside the office of the captain. So far, she had thus far nearly fallen three times in her hurry to get to the bridge. As she came off the lift on to the bridge, she did just that. Falling sideways and sliding in a most unladylike fashion. As she rose up her face was a deep crimson in color and anyone near to her could tell that her fall wasn’t the only thing unladylike in that moment. Her speech could have peeled the paint off the ship.

She dusted away at her uniform furiously and tried to catch her breath.” Hi y’all, I was told I was needed up here? I was getting ready to ..” ” here she left off and asked the man at the helm as she got a stern look on her face and sat at the comm station. She then turned to Kahuna and asked him.” Well, what is it tall dark and handsome? I hope you got something for me to do.”

“There is no problem with Communications is there, Lieutenant Gagnon?” Kahuna asked her.

At the Starbase the comm from the Merrimack came in the Command Ops center, an Ensign Michaels picked up and responded, took their request and it was a few minutes until Commodore Stone came on the comm.

|o|Stone here, Merrimack, what can we do for you?|o|

=/\= Lt. Kahuna here, Sir. a mission status report: I’m sending you video feeds from what we thought was a meteorite that fell into the ocean but turns out to be a unidentified spacecraft. The spacecraft contained only drones but was powering up weapons and scanning the shuttlecraft, so the shuttle left. Some of the crew thought it bore a resemblance to a craft that appeared out of subspace and attacked the Merrimack a few years ago, but the computer has insufficient evidence to confirm such a link. Captain Glen is still on the planet surface but it appears that villages and towns have been deserted, all about the same time as this craft arrived. That’s the same time that all the Comms went down. We rescued a belter who was left abandoned with his brother while they were out mining at that time. His brother died unfortunately, but he has heard nothing from anyone else since… Sir, our best analysis is that this is some kind of incursion by a first contact race. We think it is likely that the whole colony is now compromised, and that the Merrimack doesn’t have the manpower for conducting an armed conflict or even for breaking a siege. Captain Glen wants to try to locate a lone life-sign we have located in the hopes of learning more. =/\=

Stella’s long fingernails started to dance across the comms board. She placed her earpiece in her ear and her long multicolored acrylic
tipped finger flew. She found the latest video file and as the weapons officer was speaking, she located the source of the people they were speaking to and sent the video feeds. It was then she reported to Kahuna in a hushed voice. ” Files sent. and we have confirmation of receipt.” Stella then went to work locating old files and sorting them by importance. Cleaning up her system for better speed and efficiency. Her purple acrylic nails decorated with silver stars and planets seemed to go at light speed as she finished up and waited for Kahuna to give her something else to do.

While they waited for the advice from Commodore Stone, Kahuna said, “Lt. Gagnon, the lack of any Comms is something that makes little sense to me? Do you agree? An armed invasion requires communication. Even ancient armies had flags, radio and signal corps. Please continue to monitor subspace for unmodulated continuous waves or other signal sequences and patterns of an alien origin.”

• Kahuna, Weapons

“VLF sir.” Stella answered immediately. ” Or perhaps ELF waves. I would bet on the VLF though. When I was cleaning up old files I came across several odd sets of background noises. Two were very slow-moving waves of the type that are sometimes used for communication. Along with these I have several odd background noises that sounded a bit out of place. I have them all recorded individually and tagged. Who would you like me to send them to for study?” It was at this point as Stella was sounding very professional that a large growl came up from her stomach area to remind her how long it had been since she had last eaten. ” Oh my! ” She giggled. Sorry about that Mr. Kahuna sir!”

Stella Gagnon Lt. jg

=^=Received and understood, Lieutenant. If Captain Glen believes it is safe to check out the last life sign, tell him by all means as long as he keeps it short. If there is any active signs of the alien invaders he is to abort. I will contact Starfleet Comnand and we’ll get proper team out there to deal with it.=^= The audio paused for a moment while Stone peered down at a data pad.
=^=We have a situation brewing over in the Hromi system. We are trying to clean up the distress call from them. Tell him to be ready to head over there. Stone and K5 out.=^=

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare