101085.7
CMDR M'Grora, C'Roren
LOCATION neutral space, near former Azedi territory
MISSION Provide a Starfleet Escort for the first shipment to Citali, as part of Treaty Agreement
OUTCOME Overall Successful
KEY PERSONNEL
- Captain, Sh’ow, H.
- Captain, Tyrstoc.
- Captain, Sh’Ysjana, N.
- Captain, Carter, B.
NARRATIVE To start with, please note I as the former first officer of the U.S.S. Defender is filling this out due to the Captain’s injuries and his own black spots with what happened on the ship, after the order to abandon ship was given, I have my own black spots of information of what happened but have done my best to collect information.
To start with the Defender, Heimdall, Delphi and Opportunity, arrived at the convoy starting location, departing in formation with the Freighters to help provide escort to ensure delivery of the high value cargo. After departing the trip was uneventful until we reached a point around four hours from our destination, this was when the ships of the group picked up a group of incoming warp signatures, which was made up of a Ferengi marauder with a plasma leak, and three civilian ships, with the group slowing to match the speed of the convoy once they where in hailing range.
After focusing the sensors of the ship on the group, all ships in our group raised shields and moved to Yellow alert, after a brief stand off where one of the ships a Ferengi Marauder that seemed to be suffering a plasma leak was asking for assistance, all Captain’s in the group felt this was likely a trap, as it met with standard piracy tactics, Captain Carter of the Opportunity offered to provide remote support once it was found that the case of the leak was an an open injector port.
When we offered this, the comms between the ship and our group disconnected as the ship sudden span out of control at warp and exploded, with the two remaining civilian ships and the Ferengi marauder dropping from warp and sending out a broadband SOS, along with a heavily armed Raider which had been hiding in the plasma leak, confirming that this seemed to be a trap.
As the ships of the escort group attempted to work out what had caused the damage to the Ferengi marauder, Captain Sh’ow suggested that given the damage was now proven real we should now provide assistance, after slowing the whole convoy to a stop, the discission was taken by Captain Tyrstoc, to split the escort group, with the Heimdall and the Defender returning to aid the ships sending out the SOS, with the Delphi and Opportunity remaining to protect the convoy.
Once the Defender and Heimdall arrived to the location of the SOS, the ships found that the marauder had a large hull breach, with the two Civilian ships that remained and the newly discovered Raider ship, where all trying to rescue crew from the damaged marauder class. After a few scans, both ships started to beam crew from the damaged ship onto the Defender and Heimdall, with the ships beginning medical treatment of the injured.
The Civilian ships had no idea what caused the explosion and destruction of their lead ship, however data, collected by the Delphi showed a small object travelling at high sublight speeds struck the ship and caused the damage.
As Rescue efforts continued all ships detected a massive buildup of neutrino particles from within the Ferengi ship, emanating from the hull breach, we barely had any time to react before the Ferengi ship was suddenly bisected by a plane of blue - the telltale swirling vortex of a wormhole aperture, with a colossal vessel emerging from the wormhole and rammed its way through the battered remains of the Ferengi ship as though it were wet paper, reducing it to dust.
The ship was soon identified as Azedi Etnoziroh-class Dreadnought, it is most likely this is the same one that has been encountered by other members of the 38th, Captain Tyrstoc sent out a message to the non-Starfleet vessels, to clear the area at best speed , however before the Defender and Heimdall had a chance to attempt any type of defensive or offensive action, the Dreadnought opened fire, Captain Sh’ow relied a message to the Heimdall to focus on getting what Civilian’s they could, as the Defender had the Dreadnoughts attention.
As soon as the beam from the Dreadnought hit the Defender, our shields quickly collapsed, data showed at most only a second or just over of operation before the beam then cut a hole through the Defender’s stardrive section, and vaporized one of the pirate ships that was trying to use the Defender as cover, This shot also resulted in the loss of Warp drive for the Defender, damage control teams attempted to contain the damage, after reporting this to the group Captain Tyrstoc soon gave orders to get the convoy moving again, with the Freighters, Delphi and Opportunity complying.
With the Defender unable to retreat, Captain Sh’ow gave the order to clear the bridge and report to the Battle bridge, as the Dreadnought ship barreled towards the Defender, with the Captain being the last one to attempt to leave the bridge, however he was not fast enough and as the Dreadnought made contact with the Defender’s saucer, taking a large chunk from the saucer, a console exploded on the bridge, causing the Captain to get flung against a nearby bulkhead and lose consciousness, had myself and Lt Nightingale not noticed the Captain was not behind us, it is possible the Captain would have been left behind.
As the Heimdall drew attention from the Dreadnought and with the Captain unconscious, I gave the order to abandon the Defender, with what shuttles we had being used for transporting what injured they could away from the ship, with anyone that could packing into escape pods, with myself and Lt Nightingale returning to the bridge and dragging Captain Sh’ow to an escape pod just in time to avoid the ship being destroyed by a final shot from the Dreadnought.
Once the Dreadnought turned it’s attention to the Convoy that was getting further away, the Heimdall collected all survivors from the Defender and quickly exited the system, attempting to catch up with the Convoy to provide support however possible.
However it turns out the Dreadnought had attempted to target the Convoy group, with the intention of opening a wormhole and attacking it, however thanks to the efforts of the Opportunity firing a phase-conjugate graviton beam into the newly forming wormhole, it collapsed and was unable to allow travel for the Dreadnought keeping the Convoy safe, where delivery of the supplies continued without issue.
RECOMMENDATION Personally I recommend we find this Dreadnought and find a way to put an end to it, clearly some group with-in a Azedi faction doesn’t like Starfleet helping former Azedi worlds, I am in no way suggesting we stop the diplomatic relationships we have already built up, the Captain wouldn’t want all the work everyone has done to go to waste over a few bad apples, but this ship ripped a Sovereign class to pieces in seconds, giving us very little time to react and poses a great and real threat to all traffic in the area.
I also recommend pending investigation into this matter, that Captain Sh’ow be granted leave to Cait, whilst Starfleet medical staff are expertly trained, I feel both him and myself could benefit from specialist Caitian Medical staff back home, to assist with skin repair and fur regrowth.
RECOGNITION I can not sing the praises of Captain Tyrstoc, Captain Carter, Captain Sh’Ysjana and their crews enough. They not only went above and beyond but in the case of the Heimdall, they put themselves in harms way to attempt to save the scattered remains of the Defender Crew.
I also want to mention the efforts of the Defender’s crew as much as this will sound like patting us all on the back despite the loss of life and ship. However all crew preformed valiantly under extreme pressure, in attempt to save as many lives as possible from none Starfleet ships, as well as from the Heimdall by holding the Dreadnoughts focus despite the risk following the Captain’s and my orders professional and with great skill, this includes Commander Coyez Kaseex, the Defender’s Chief engineer who lost his life during attempts to keep the Defender operational during this difficult time, along with a number of his engineering staff.
OOC Please let me know if I have missed anything, as from an IC point the remains of the Defender crew would likely have missed a few things, and like C’Roren I am writing this on a few hours rest lol. Thanks to @kermit for GMing this and thanks for everyone that attended.