| Stardate: 89659.7 | | Report submitted: Commander Athini - USS October | |
Commander Alegro, Chief Engineer: At approximately 09:00 hours, OSC, Engineering began to notice that the starboard nacelle was fluctuating in and out of regulation readings, which was the initial cause for us to request that the ship come to a halt. It didn't seem anything major, and the actual visuals of the nacelle components were looking fine, so it was only as it was a quiet morning in the sector that I figured it be best to take a look at it now rather than later. As I felt the ship come to a stop, myself along with the two ensigns who were shadowing me at the time went up to inspect what was causing the strange fluctuation in the readings. I must have walked up and down the entire length of that nacelle three times in the four hours we were stopped - and let me tell you now, they are pretty long nacelles. After checking all the major conduit postings and safety cutoff enclosures, it came to my mind that there was nothing wrong with the damn thing. But yet - something was still causing every built in monitor linked to the warp section to fluctuate.
After contacting the bridge on the chevron section, who reported there were no such readings, I was a bot lost at first. The chevron sections runs on a completely separate power supply, and only briefly contacts with the main hull's computer systems twice a cycle, at 12:00 and 21:00. It was becoming clear that there was clearly a slight problem with the computer systems in this portion of the ship. This was even further backed by the fact that the '
Shrewsbury also wasn't reporting the same fluctuations as the engineering section - which similar to the chevron section, runs on it's own power and computers. Well, it would if we'd have actually got round to setting up the ship properly yet.
The next sequence of events happened in a rather quick pace actually, it was purely by chance that I discovered a rogue code segment hovering in the central computer. It was obvious at first glance it had been put there, and my guess is when we lowered our shields to beam the away team up from Triophon Four. It was super simple to remove, a lock down of the pathways surrounding it and a quick reboot of the section it was hiding among - which by a lucky chance again was only internal lighting aboard all port docking hatches. I think once they new the game was up, they decided just to go all out. We were suddenly hit with another attempt to launch the code back into our systems, except with our shields now up it merely reflected away from the ship.... And that's when the first few disruptor shots slammed into the shields.
Commander Athini, First Officer: After the first couple of disruptor bolts hit the shields, it was certainly clear the vessel, or vessels for that matter, had hostile intent against us. With our shields continuing to take the sustained fire, the Captain kept attempting to open a communication exchange with the unknown vessel, but it was growing clearing who they
might be. All of the hails and transmissions we sent at a local range went un-answered, and thus with shield power continuing to drop, we then returned light fire, targeting the location of the initial firing. The
'October fired two of her port nacelle phaser arrays, striking the vessel twice out of five shots. It appeared to sustain minimal damage, but had ceased in firing against us. The phaser shots were only on low power, and it is Mr. Alegros impression that the vessel must have been damaged prior to the encounter with us for them to feel the need to stop firing on us after such a low level shot struck them. Soon after a brief silence on the bridge, we began to receive a hail from a masked signature, though I don't think anyone who was there believed it wasn't the attacking vessel. Suddenly our sensors picked up the vessel, revealing it to be a rather dated Orion corvette. This is the exchange that occurred.
Orion Captain: Federation vessel, power down your weapons and lower your shields. We will board and take control of your vessel, if you do not comply you will be destroyed.
Captain Morton: Sorry, I don't take threats on my vessel likely. I take it - it was you who transmitted the data code to our engineering section?
Orion Captain: Federation vessel, power down your weapons and lower your shields. We will board and take control of your vessel, if you do not comply you will be destroyed.
Captain Morton: Captain Morton, commanding officer - USS October. I refuse your request.
Orion Captain Uh-What? You.. - Uh- Federation vessel, we WILL destroy you, power down your weapons and lower your shields. We will board and take control of your vessel, if you do not comply you will be destroyed.
Captain Morton: That maybe, but you have attacked a vessel unprovoked on the border of Federation space, it is my duty to my crew to reject your offer, and if you continue your attempts to disable the ship, you will be met with an unbelievable amount of force, yours courtesy of the Federations state of the art technology. I wish no harm to come to you or your crew, but I certainly wish the same fo-
Orion Captain: How dare yo-
Captain Morton: I haven't finished. I certainly wish the same for my crew. If you continue to fire, we will have no choice but to disable, or even worse destroy, your ship.
The vessel cut communications with us almost instantly after that. Though no further hostile action was taken for the moment, this silence of firing soon ended with a disruptor beam striking the aft section of the shields, causing a slight shake over the entire vessel, the Captain sighed and order shields be put to maximum. Following the order, the strikes from the craft were unnoticeable to the ship unless you actively glanced through a window and saw the ship attacking. The second order came through slowly, and the tactical section began to power main phasers on the port nacelle once more, only this time on a more forceful level. Several shots were fired from the array, all striking the corvettes main engines repeatedly. The shields of the corvette were stripped away instantly, and the vessel ceased firing. Notable damage could be seen from the engine section. We then began to receive another transmission from the vessel, this time- text only.
Federation vessel, we surrender. Cease firing, we surrender.
As the Captain jogged down to the turbolift to main engineering, I had the bridge and gave the order for three runabouts to head over the corvette and detain the crew of the vessel for questioning, and punishment. The two security teams assigned to each runabout transitioned over to the corvette with ease, and carried out the arrests smoothly. The only anxious bit was lowering the shields to let the runabouts exit and re-enter as we were all unsure if the corvette was alone. None the less, no other vessels appeared on sensors throughout the ordeal, and we promptly returned to Outpost Argo to transfer the prisoners for questioning.
The report goes on for a further three pages, with a fourth describing the prisoners of the corvette.
Commander Athini Aeregon
On behalf of Captain C. Morton
U.S.S. October