Posted by Lieutenant T’Pris (Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim: Priority One Comm

Posted by Colonel Jackson Quade (Captain) in Main Sim: Priority One Comm

Posted by Gamemaster The Bard (Game Master) in Main Sim: Priority One Comm
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<SNIP>

The admiral muted the call as he once again spoke to someone off-screen. When he returned his full attention to the call he was less formal. “Look Colonel, my assistant will send over the full files for your people to review, but as you know The Drift sits outside of our jurisdiction and the rumors of a captured Starfleet asset have caused all of the ears in the region to perk up. Our other assets have sent final updates before going dark. Apparently there’s talk of a new faction gaining traction after supposedly capturing what they’re calling ‘a Federation spy’. No one can confirm the how or why this faction was able to pull it off… but the bigger problem is that The Drift has operated in large part due to a balance between the three dominant syndicates running the show, this new group has destabilized that delicate balance. Needless to say, given its location, we’re not the only power with eyes on the place. That wasn’t a problem… but there’s apparently talk in the streets about, ‘The Federation not abandoning their people’… and ‘they’ll be coming for sure’.”

Gral took a long pull from a mug on his desk before speaking again, “I don’t have to tell you Colonel that we absolutely don’t abandon our people… We have no way of substantiating any of these rumors as our people have had to go to ground and lay low… but you need to be aware that you may now be walking into a scene where there are parties actively looking for you.”

The Bard

“Sir” he finally said, “We should probably go in undercover, are there any frieghters we could us and get valid paper work for hauling work?” he asked, the crew would have to split thin but going in the wolverine now was not an option, with a starfleet officer in trouble. “Do we know the name of this captured officer or is it someone posing as one?” He asked.

Colonel Jackson Quade
Captain U.S.S Wolverine

Gral’s head cocked to one side at the suggestion of foregoing one of Starfleet’s foremost clandestine vessels in favor of a freighter and paperwork. “If you review the intel my assistant is about to send over and still feel that there isn’t a better course of action, I can look into it… but to be blunt Colonel, the Brazen class was designed with this kind of thing in mind. To use an old Earth maritime term… she’s built to fly ‘false colors’… the colors you choose to fly are up to you and your crew…”

The admiral took another drink from his mug before continuing. “Starfleet Intel cannot confirm the identity of the supposed ‘Federation spy.’ However, the timing of Straum’s disappearance, the information from multiple independent sources, and what little is known about the captive have caused Intelligence to assess that Straum is the most likely individual being referenced.”

“I’m afraid I have to cut this short. I’m about to walk into another meeting. If you have any further needs, let my assistant know. Be smart and stay safe out there, Colonel Quade.”

Having said his piece, the Admiral left the call and the viewscreen was left showing his assistant, a brunette human female who appeared to be in her thirties. “Colonel Quade, I’m sending over the intel now. Good luck and stay safe out there.”

There was a ding at the comms console and NE Miravel said, “Information received Colonel. Patching it through to you now as well as sending the departmental indexes to their respective recipients.”

There was a chirp at Quade’s console indicating receipt of the information.

When Quade opened the information he would find…

The message that scrawled across his screen was short and to the point.

Since your initial briefing, here’s how the landscape has changed… We’ve been unable to confirm this but have multiple sources saying…
- Straum is no longer believed missing, it’s believed that she is captive.

• It does not appear that one of the three major syndicates have her.

• A relatively unknown syndicate known as The Gallows Boys have come into money recently, and have been flexing their newfound prominence. The disruption to the syndicate balance has made things on The Drift less predictable.

• Interest from the other regional powers appears to be increasing.

Mission priorities remain unchanged (Find Straum/Confirm her status, Find Dorwin)

There were also links to each department’s intelligence annex.
Navigation Annex
Comms Annex
Science Annex
Engineering Annex
Security/Tactical Annex
Medical/Counseling Annex
Ops Annex*

• The Bard

Quade reviewed the information, the wolverine was still a Federation destroyer, and while it was possible to for the ship to mask at a distance, one direct look at her would giver here away, we could claim salvage, no matter the crew would figure it out.

=^= All command staff and department heads to the main conference room =^= he stood from his desk, looked at the model of the ship for a moment and stepped out of the ready room. His thoughts were focused as he entered the ready room and found a chair.

Colonel Jackson Quade
Captain U.S.S Wolverine

Mal’athar had been on the bridge and when the call went out she was already standing, handing over the center chair to the watch officer. She had moved toward the opposite side of the bridge by the time Quade left his Ready Room. She paused to let him pass and then stepped into pace behind him. She took a chair to Quade’s right. She was eager to know what was going on, but asking now would either annoy her new CO, or cause him to repeat himself when the others arrived. So, Shedda waited patiently for the rest of the senior staff to arrive.

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

Shortly after the arrival of the CO and XO, they are joined by the Wolverine’s senior communications watch officer NE Nalia Miravel as well as the ship’s senior pilot and navigator NLt. Tasmin London. The two women nod to the senior officers before making their way to the far end of the table.

• The Bard

Dr. Astor made his way into the conference room and nodded to the other officers already there before taking a seat and settling in. Having read through some of the medical files available already he was excited to get some coordination done with the rest of the departments.

Dr. Astor - CMO/CNS

OOC: I was watching for a Briefing Room thread! My apologies:)

IC:

T’Pris entered the room quietly, nodded to the CO and slid into a seat.

~Dr. T’Pris

Quade looked around the table, the staff was strong he knew he would have no prblems from any of them. “Intelligence, in thier wisdom has apparently got another officer captured on the Drift. It is currently unconfirmed.” he said sending the information to each of them. “Our primary mission has not changed, however, we need deal with this new situation at the same time” he noted the relayed everything he knew about the mission.

“Any Questions?”

OOC: Please read the briefing between my character and the admiral. There are a lot of docs up. please read ;)

Colonel Jackson Quade
Captain U.S.S Wolverine

Shedda paused, her face blank, not showing the sudden spike of anxiety that surged through her. They were going into Syndicate territory. The place that her father had fled away from to save her. To save them both. The place that she had never wanted to go, and had adamantly expressed she never wanted to be assigned there. She was a scientist, not a spook. Now though, now she understood why she’d suddenly been sent to the Wolverine. Why command had pushed through to have her father and daughter allowed on board. She was taking her daughter, HER INFANT DAUGHTER, into the middle of the Syndicate. Shedda thought she might be sick. It was too late to send her father and Maava away. She shook herself out of her personal dilemma and turned her focus back to the table.

There was a lot of information there, and Shedda hadn’t had a chance to read it all. But this was what the Department Heads were tasked to do. She turned to senior communications watch officer NE Nalia Miravel and the ship’s senior pilot and navigator NLt. Tasmin London. “En. Miravel, Lt London, can you start us off by giving us a break down of the Annex reports you received from Command?”

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

NE Miravel looked to London, yielding the floor to the Wolverine’s flight specialist.

Tasmin looked around the table at the accumulated officers before meeting the XO’s gaze. As she spoke, her attention moved back and forth between Mal’athar and Quade.

“The Karthos Drift is a dense and constantly evolving asteroid complex. Gravitational interactions, mining operations, industrial traffic, and natural collisions continually alter the navigable landscape.” She paused a moment, letting the officers digest the general situation.

“There are two primary approach options, neither of which is ideal.” Her tone was matter-of-fact. “The primary approach into Karthos follows a well-established navigational corridor used by commercial shipping and local traffic. It’s stable… continuously traveled… compatible with heavy commercial traffic if we choose to present that way… we’d have easy access to docking authorities and facilities… and if we lost power there’d be a reliable avenue for help to get to us…” She paused as the air in the room implied the ‘but’ that was coming.

“The biggest problem I see with this approach is visibility… it’s constantly observed, traffic is monitored… our discretion would be limited… it’s ‘safe’ but predictable.”

The blonde woman pushed her right braid behind her shoulder before continuing, “There are alternative routes through The Drift, but they’re unstable. Local navigation services periodically publish temporary orbital drift charts… predictive models of asteroid movement generated from continuous sensor observations throughout The Drift. They’re good for roughly thirteen minutes, which is enough time to get in or out… but we cannot generate them independently, we’ll have to get them from one of the local authorities. Think of it like an old maritime guest pilot providing their expertise in a specific port of call… they know about blind spots we wouldn’t figure out until we were on top of them.”

London caught her breath before finishing her initial rundown, “The drift chart route allows us to exercise more discretion and decreases our direct visibility, but we’ll have time constraints and must rely on a local source.”

• The Bard

“Lt. T’Pris, can science shed any more light on the situation we are flying in to?” Mal’athar asked the CSO.

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO
“Maybe we go in as mercs with a captured ship?” he said looking around the table, “we would all get a unitform change and some attitude” He looked around the table at his officer, they seemed ready enough. He did not like the idea of taking a small child in such proximity to a place know for trafficing.

Colonel Jackson Quade
Captain U.S.S Wolverine

“Obviously the story we choose to tell will dictate our approach. Mercs with a captured ship should solve our visibility problem… though I’m afraid it may create more unforeseen questions… a Brazen class would be a hell of a prize and I’d imagine it would make us very popular…

T’Pris inclined her head toward Mal’athar. “Science can add several considerations, Commander. The Drift’s mineral concentrations, ionized particulates, gravimetric instability, subspace scattering, and industrial activity will significantly affect our sensors. Long-range sensors should remain functional, but their readings cannot be considered consistently reliable.”

She glanced toward London. “The temporary drift charts are therefore our most practical means of navigating the less-traveled routes. Wolverine could attempt to generate its own predictive model, but intelligence indicates doing so would require considerably more time.”

“There are additional hazards, including gravimetric shear, radiation, plasma venting, mining explosives, abandoned reactors, and unstable structures. Sensor interference may also work to our advantage by making Wolverine more difficult to detect.”

One eyebrow rose fractionally. “However, concealment should not be mistaken for security. Within the Drift, a missing sensor contact does not establish absence, nor does a contact necessarily establish authenticity.”

T’Pris folded her hands upon the table. “Science can continuously map local environmental and gravimetric conditions and compare them against the drift charts to provide Flight Control with the most reliable information available.

~Dr. T’Pris

London met T’Pris’s eyes and responded, “If science can determine the reliability of the temporary charts and keep me abreast of the changing telemetry… I can get us in and out of tight spots. Once we’re through to the slightly more stable interior of The Drift, all of those factors could become potential benefits.”

• The Bard

T’Pris nodded to London in agreement,” Science will endeavor to do so, Lieutenant.” She said briefly.

~Dr. T’Pris

Bump

Quade frowned slightly, “So go in the normal way and get spotted, or go in the secret way and risk getting hit by asteroids. “Thoughts?” he asked the crew, they new the ship better than him, and thier capabilities.

Colonel Jackson Quade
Captain U.S.S Wolverine

T’Pris considered the Captain’s question for a moment before responding. “Given the available information, Captain, I recommend the less-traveled approach utilizing the temporary drift charts. The navigational risk is greater, but it is a risk we can actively mitigate through continuous scientific observation and Flight Control adjustments.”

She inclined her head slightly toward London. “The primary corridor presents considerably less navigational risk, but detection there is effectively unavoidable. If discretion is necessary to the mission, accepting a calculated environmental risk is the more logical choice.”

One eyebrow lifted fractionally. “Asteroids, at least, are predictable for approximately thirteen minutes.”

~Dr. T’Pris

Nalia Miravel had remained quiet through most of the discussion, listening as London and T’Pris worked through the navigational problem. When T’Pris finished, the Betazoid comms specialist finally spoke.

“There is another consideration, Captain. The asteroids may be predictable for thirteen minutes, but in order for us to obtain those thirteen minutes… we’re going to have to talk to someone.”

She glanced toward London. “We can’t independently generate the temporary charts. We’ll have to acquire them from someone locally… navigation authorities, traffic controllers, local pilot, dispatcher, broker, or another source. That means before we take the route that makes us harder to physically observe, we have to identify ourselves to someone well enough to convince them to give us the charts.”

Miravel paused. “And whoever provides them may remember who asked, when they asked, and what identity they were using at the time.”

She shifted her attention back to Quade. “Once we’re deeper inside, communications aren’t going to be particularly sanitary either. The same conditions interfering with sensors and navigation will scatter subspace signals. We should expect delays, distortion, intermittent contact, and periods where authentication becomes more difficult.”

“On top of that, the environment won’t be the only thing listening.” Her expression tightened slightly. “We’ll be operating around criminal organizations, information brokers, local networks, and, more likely than not, other intelligence services. We have to assume someone may try to intercept our traffic, spoof legitimate transmissions, compromise a local connection, or gain access to information we’re carrying… and that’s all without them pegging us as a Federation intelligence vessel…”

“Encryption can protect the contents of a transmission, but it doesn’t necessarily hide the fact that we transmitted. Authentication can tell us whether something is what it claims to be, assuming our systems haven’t been compromised. And isolating ourselves completely from local networks would protect us from some threats while making it considerably harder to operate as whatever we’re pretending to be.”

Miravel glanced around the assembled officers. “Which brings us back to our cover. Whatever identity we choose has to survive electronically as well as visually. Our encryption, authentication, transmission patterns, and how we interact with local systems all have to make sense for the vessel we’re claiming to be.”

She gave Quade a small nod. “The less-traveled route may reduce who sees us, Captain. It doesn’t necessarily reduce who knows we were there.”

• The Bard