ShiningSector

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

As the I.S.S Prize entered through the wormhole, Gue'rach kept all four of his eyes fixated on his terminal, oblivious the visuals of the trinary star systems they had been deposited in. Briefly, he afforded one eye to look up to take in the local sensory information before withdrawing it back to the tactical readouts. Intriguingly, it had not taken them long to make first contact with an alien species. A single, rather small shuttle-type craft was on approach towards the Prize's vector though Gue'rach had already reported this find to Carabello several minutes prior. It was evident that the craft posed no threat to the ISA vessel.

The same couldn't be said regarding the much larger ship had jumped in from warp-travel and came to meet the Prize bow-forward at about a few kilometers apart. The vessel certainly seemed imposing but after several initial scans completed the assessment of the large unknown with the results appearing on his console, Gue'rach allowed some tension fade away. Despite its size, the alien's power output was notably inefficient in comparison with the Prize. Additionally, comparison scans had also identified a number of design issues that plagued the vessel's key systems; the issues in question were mainly equivalent to outdated technological leaps which have since been resolved nearly a less than a century ago. Despite there being no hostile intent, getting into a fight with the larger underpowered ship would nevertheless be an ugly venture, but one they could surely win.

While the tactical officer didn't approve of Captain Carabello's antics of annoying the escort by straying away from the guided path, the seemingly antagonizing gesture, at the very least, furthered the apparent oddball behavior of the aliens as they continued to speak through broadcasted text and kept their dialogue overly-simple and cryptic. It was quite clear they were religious sorts and Gue'rach had spoken with many religious leaders in the past and gathered a decent view of their practices and how they worked. If the behaviors witnessed were reflective of their culture and religion, he undoubtedly admitted they were by far the weirdest he had yet encountered.

---

Per First Contact procedures, diplomacy between representatives of each group was ideal. Niccolò Carabello would possess the authority to speak on behalf of the ISA and was therefore key to the delegation that would meet with the natives. Gue'rach on the other hand, given his role as a tactical officer and his naturally large and imposing presence, would not be an ideal participant in negotiations. A soldier in the midst of a political delegation and a conceivably scary one at that could give the wrong impression; Gue'rach was all too familiar with previous encounters which either spooked or unintentionally antagonized opposite delegates during such meetings. As such, he sought to bring his usefulness elsewhere.

"Since our current situation does not presently involve any dangers to act against," Gue'rach began, "I would opt to accompany Lan'thar in her studies and provide the manpower and logistical support required. I will also advise our security teams of the nature of our operation and assign members to accompany our two groups should they be required,"

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

I'll have a post up later after work, yesterday ended up being busier than anticipated.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

If there was one thing that was true about Gue'rach, he was a workaholic. More than likely, the thought of looking forward to the end of one's shift had never crossed his mind. Granted, even he knew the importance of a long rest, but that didn't change the fact that the sense of duty had been permanently carved into his consciousness and persona due in part from his rigorous KIDF conditioning regimens. This is why he was compelled to fill in the scheduling hole the late-Rod had left from his passing. Of course, with the Prize having docked with Deep Solar 3, his temporary position would no doubt prove even more uneventful.

Although, the caveat to the job was that it permitted him to explore the ship. His Tactical officer duties essentially regulated him to a single position, which so happened to be the bridge. The only other places that would deem his presence suitable were the multiple areas throughout the ship pertaining to the Prize's weapon hardpoints and shield projectors. However, these sections were usually handled by the many engineering officers aboard and the only thing he could very well do was simply inspecting them and ensuring they were being maintained properly. This was however something he expected the more senior of the engineering staff to ensure. Perhaps in some specific situations, meeting with the Chief of Security and their staff regarding the defense of the ship and away missions would be relevant to his position as well. But all those cases were uncommon for him and thus, it was the bridge where he truly belonged.

Part of his patrol path crossed into the second level of the engineering deck, where upon arrival, Gue'rach would observe an interaction with several engineering officers in a collaborative meeting with the station's maintenance and repair crews. The Tactical officer was not within distance to listen in on the actual conversation, but the holographic visuals projected at the center of their meeting displayed a simple representation of the I.S.S. Prize where several red-highlighted scars appeared over different areas on the external hull. It was probably safe to assume the different staff below him we discussing how to treat and repair each section. With his curiosity satisfied, he immediately continued on his way down the catwalk before eventually exiting the engineering deck.

Addressing: @Xandrya

It wouldn't be too much longer until an anomaly came before him. Or rather, she, had crossed into his path. While entering into a 'T' shaped intersecting hallway that lead to the residential deck which housed all the crew about the Prize, Gue'rach's four eyes were set on a woman whose face he hadn't recognized before. Although with a few hundred souls aboard, it would be difficult, even for him, to remember everyone's name and facial visage. He had just barely scathed by with a victory against Ensign Lorenzo during a team-building exercise-turned-competition where the goal was to match the names to all the correct faces of the crew.

The woman before him appeared dressed in something resembling Starfleet fatigues, something like a causal, off-duty uniform. She appeared legit in that respect, although the purposeful and careful slowness to her walk, along with her presumably curious, or uncertain, facial expression hinted to him that she probably wasn't sure where she was. Or perhaps she was trying to find something. Gue'rach allowed the thoughts to speculate further as he approached the stranger. His large form, paired with his increased pace would have given himself away to anyone in the vicinity as the floor slightly resonated the thumps of his heavy footfalls. Given their individual heights, Gue'rach had to space himself about a couple-feet away, careful not to unintentionally present an imposing or hostile posture while respecting the officer's personal space.

"Excuse me," he began, trying to sound courteous, "I could help but notice you wandering. Is there something I can assist you with?"

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

With the passing of a simple command, the battle was on. The Moray, feigning death, jumped to life as its major systems came to full power; the unsuspecting vessel had repudiated its apparent state of stillness and instead, adopting vengeful purpose through aggression. Despite the lesser grade of its comparatively lackluster armament, the Charon-class transport brought forth a full volley of disruptor beams into the portside of the pirate vessel. At what was practically considered knife-fighting range, the seemingly meager broadside slammed into the shield of the larger and unlawful ship, rocking its hull by the full-powered impact. It was undoubtedly a wake-up for the pirates, having suffered a foundation-shaking blow from an otherwise underpowered foe.

Seeing the threat before them, literally a whisper away, the pirates summoned their own reply in the form of a concentrated broadside of large plasma projectors. The lumbering turrets shifted in-place, setting their sights on the defying transport ship. But the Moray, now propelled by its now active engines, quickly moved beyond the firing arcs of the pirate ship's cannons. Aggression and speed were the smaller ship's only means of preservation as it glided just off the sizzling surface of the pirate vessel's barrier, tightening the distance between it and the blind points of deadly armaments arrayed against it. The Moray fired again, disruptor fire now pushing the ships apart.

With the pirate ship distracted by the impulsive fly that was the Moray, the I.S.S. Prize had then entered the fray, answering the call to battle with a quad-salvo of azure-lighted lances. Despite its shields withstanding the Prize's opening move, the powerful impact forced the offending vessel into a bow-forward dip in orientation. Setbacks aside, the pirate ship corrected is posture and lurched forward, ignoring the Moray's harassment and engaged the Prize. The later and intimidating vessel discharged its plasma cannons and rapid succession followed the dispensing of several ship-to-ship torpedoes. A devastating combination of firepower but repulsed by the Prize's shields.

The three ships were then locked into their attack vectors with the Moray keeping to the pirate ship while it and the Prize exchanged blows face-to-face. The space between the ships lit up with emerald, ruby, and sapphire energized-munitions, displaying a brilliant lethal lightshow while shield impacts gave off dazzling strobing effects that-

Gue'rach stopped writing and placed the datapad upon his desk.

A large frown manifested itself upon Gue'rach's tough and prominent facial feature as he reviewed his own writing. Apparently, he allowed his culture's societal method of recounting recent conflicts into official documentation to run amok. With an annoyed growl, the scrolled up to the top of his written work and highlighted several lines, prompting his datapad's auto-correct feature, empowered by Terran logic, to re-write segments of the colorful literature into cohesive and straight forward descriptors of the battle. Most of the report prior mainly contained time-stamped examinations of each action taken by him and the rest of Beta as they restored the Moray to operational functionality. Technically, the job was more of a literal makeshift ploy than doing any favors for the original crew of the Moray, especially when it involved turning a non-combat vessel... into a combat vessel. How his professional and procedural writing spiraled into a short story was beyond him. Actually, he was surprised he didn't include Commander Pearson's well-executed plan of dispensing a gaseous drug into the pirate ship's ventilation which happened the pirate's in their ability to fight a two-pronged attack against them.

That may have explained while his apparent interpretation of events seemed more, lively, than what occurred.

After going back and making corrections to his report, he continued from where he left off, explaining that at some point during the hostile exchange, the pirate ship's attacks had slowed and eventually ceased entirely, resulting in a victory for the I.S.S. Prize, along with the successful rescues of the hostages. Despite the victory, the hostages had to be treated while Beta team, assisted by additional engineers from the Prize, made the necessary repairs and adjustments to the Moray. Honestly, it would have been bad form to hand the crew back a ship that just saw combat. After a few hours, the Moray was fully restored to proper working order, now at operational capacity with the original crew taking over. With that, the ships left their separate ways. It was ironic though that despite being the more advanced and well-equipped ship between the two, it was the Prize that came out with battle damage that required the entire vessel return to docks for repair, thus delaying the crew's prior assignment. An annoyance for sure, but it is what is it is.

Upon looking through the corrected report, Gue'rach tapped the digital 'submit' button on the datapad, prompting the article to be sent and filed through official management channels. The Auval’kotor rested back into his chair, satisfied with his work. However, he only allowed himself a brief respite and before he knew it, it was already back on his feet. Gue'rach had volunteered to, temporarily, assume Sergeant Jvwuwh'vei... Rod's, responsibilities as a security officer when his main duties were fulfilled for the day. After donning his uniform once more, he headed out of his quarters to make the rounds around the ship.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

<Snipped quote by Raylah>

Banned Encouraged

Just kidding- for real, they would probably allow it off-duty.

@Tortoise

Just as long as that stuff doesn't stink up the ship. Sh!t somehow spreads like explosive gas.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

Is @datadogie still participating with us?

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

The Moray is 500 meters from the pirate ship? Wow, they really let it drift close.

@Zanavy
SO did you just kill Rod, or is Mason expected to save him?

@Randomness

Technically outside that number but pretty damn close. Assuming this universe accepts energy-directed weapons losing effectiveness over longer distances (like due to particle dispersion), shooting something up close with them would increase their leathality, regardless of weapon grade (as what occured with poor Rod).

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

Gue'rach understanding of human language and linguistics was rather standard at best. That's said, he struggled to determine if Astrid's remark either as an insult directed to him or some kind of situational gesture. Whatever it was, he allowed it to slide and kept mind focused on the circumstance as it evolved. While Astrid attended to the bomb, the Tactical officer kept all four of his eyes glued to the display, remotely controlling all the on-board security cams positioned on the engineering deck, looking to find any observation devices that may have been planted. The wait to hear Astrid's report or the explosion that could instead come about if she had failed, assaulted his nerves, and begged for attention. But having been trained as a soldier, he did his level best to remain collected. Worrying about things that were outside of his control was irrelevant; only duty was important now.

Eventually, the former of the anticipated scenarios arrived with Astrid reporting that the bomb had been disarmed, "Excellent work, Lieutenant Faust," complimented Gue'rach.

Almost immediately, he made his way down to the pilot's terminal, which somehow presented a larger and wider interface than the tactical console. After toggling some of the commands, Gue'rach pulled up both the propulsion and guidance systems, which were also elaborate as well; again, much more than the tactical console could ever be. Keeping to the plan as was discussed in their briefing, he kept the main engines off while only using the maneuvering thrusters to fly the ship, using only brief boosts to propel the Moray forward. Of course, this inviting a new weary concern. While the Moray was, more or less, running silent, any pirate that was paying attention to any kind of radar could see the seemingly harmless vessel creeping towards it. It was an agonizing feeling for sure and one that would have demanded a wealth of patience, especially so since that weak jets that pushed and reoriented the Moray were very underpowered. Thus, they would be waiting for quite a while.

Ten minutes in fact; ten minutes of carefully watching the zoomed-in image of the pirate ship and checking to see if any of the main guns were swerving towards the Moray's direction all the while making course and orientation corrections.

Eventually, they had made it. The Moray, still appearing unpowered and unsuspecting, now hovered in space at a standstill, just outside of five-hundred meters from the pirate and broadside on to it, where the transport ship could present a full volley. With everyone now in-position and on-station, Gue'rach patched it with both Cake and the Prize.

"The Moray is now in position and ready to commence the operation," the Tactical officer reported, "I believe the term is, 'it's go time'."

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

I'll have a post up later this evening.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

"Understood," Gue'rach replied before making his way to an engineering console and queried a program that governed the Moray's communication array.

He would have asked Astrid to assist him with this task, but after she had verified the navigational computer was indeed disconnected, Gue'rach allowed her to leave the bridge to try and resolve the problem. Therefore this was an issue he and Korax had to fix. During their initial briefing, he recalled Cake reporting that out of the thirty-seven transmit-receive nodes, only six remained functional after the others had been destroyed. With that in mind, Gue'rach set to work re-building the Moray's communications network with what remained of the six nodes. He started by disengaging the destroyed nodes from both the comms network and the electro-plasma grid, figuring that any - literal - dead weight cutaway would diminish the power drain that hemorrhaged the ship's dwindling back-up reserves. After tapping each crossed-out node visually presented on the terminal, which caused them to darken - indicating they were 'Off'- Gue'rach assembled the remaining nodes and re-introduced them into the communications network, now with a customized program; a setup Cake would have a better time working through.

Although before finalizing his design, he jumped to another terminal that regulated the EP flow throughout the Moray's power transfer network and began identifying any non-essential systems and decks that were deemed unnecessary. Like before with deactivating the power-flow to the destroyed transmit-receive nodes, he began robbing decks of their power and rerouted them to the communications array. Gue'rach however knew better than to disable them outright. Instead, he conceived a method of steadily siphoning power from the unneeded sections of the ship, therefore minimizing the spikes this could potentially generate.

Hopping back to the previous terminal, Gue'rach, now seeing the program identifying the newly established power-flow, established a few additional adjustments to the communications network, such as dictating the EP ratios feeding the communications array and cutting off all but the needed spectral bands, ensuring the only comms traffic was privately between the Moray and the Prize. Undoubtedly, the entire process was a painstaking task, if not an over-complicated one for the sake of subtly and stealth; he genuinely was now wishing Astrid had stayed. At the very least, he was able to re-visit the techniques he previously employed as a combat engineer with the KIDF.

"While it is imperfect, the communications array is back up and running," he reported as he monitored his work between both stations, "at the very least, Cake should be able to communicate and control the Moray now, assuming no further adjustments are needed. Hopefully, Lieutenant Faust is encountering better results on her end."

Just a few minutes later, Astrid radioed in with news of the displeasing kind; a bomb had been planted on the Moray. Despite the disheartening news, Gue'rach didn't show much in the way of physical surprise over his saurian facial features. Having worried about something like this only justified his concerns, enabling him to approach the issue with purpose. Astrid further reported being able to disarm it but she had then pointed out a potential problem; the possibility of them being watched from the pirate ship. Gue'rach thought about this prospect, closing all four of his eyes for only a brief moment as he pondered.

His eyelids swept open, "then we are already dead."

Gue'rach let that eerie line hang in the air for a moment, until realizing he had unintentionally made it much more depressing than he intended.

"Assuming we are being observed, Du-Vos would now have us as his prisoners and as such, are at his mercy. However, if this is to be true, why are we having this conversation right now? Surely, if we had been discovered, what is stopping Du-Vos from detonating the bomb, even as we speak? Assuming, of course, the bomb before us can be remotely activated."

Gue'rach started pacing around the bridge, "granted, we could become additional bargaining chips used against Captain Carabello. Although, given the time we've spent thus far aboard the Moray, I would expect Du-Vos to have raised this fact by now. Building on top of this fact, we would have been appraised of this as well by anyone aboard the Prize on secured channels."

He finally stopped and pulled up a visual sensor and displayed the feed on the bridge's main screen, showing both the Prize and the pirate ship face-to-face nearly thirty kilometers away, unmoving and definitely not shooting each other, "that has not occurred yet either. With these facts in mind, it can be safe to assume we are more than likely not being watched. To support this, I had performed several scans of our visited surroundings, and not once did I detect any listening or surveillance devices..."

Gue'rach's voice suddenly trailed off as his sentence brought forth new meaning. He quickly made his way to the tactical console and queried several security cameras on Astrid's deck and looked through the footage all the while pulling up the floor plans, "Cake, if there were to be such a device installed within the engineering section, where would it be likely installed to keep tabs on the bomb?"