AAR: Rembrandt Cluster Reconnaissance

Subspace Network Reports
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1
Stardate:
100698.4
Filed By:
CPT Detuggo, G
Clearance:

LOCATION Rembrandt Cluster

MISSION Reconnaissance of neutral territory to assess possible pirate activity by unaffiliated actors.

OUTCOME Recovery of USS Hydra (converted to Gorn nursery at time of recovery) and several survivors.

KEY PERSONNEL

  • CPT Nimitz, A
  • CPT Mirazuni, A
  • CPT Detuggo, G

NARRATIVE The starships USS Ain Jalut and USS Endeavor had been tasked from Starbase DS13 to perform anti-piracy reconnaissance operations along the border between Federation and Klingon Space in a region known as the Rembrandt cluster. Our mission was to investigate the region for possible pirate activity. In the event we had discovered a significant pirate presence our orders were to retreat and summon additional forces, but primarily our purpose was to ‘show the flag’ and repel hostile actors in the region while monitoring unaffiliated actors legally permitted to be there.

Upon arrival in the cluster we were met with a large amount of debris. Due to the possibility of hostiles but not wanting to initiate conflict both vessels were set to condition yellow. As CPT Mirazuni had more experience with the 38th fleet I deferred to her judgement and leadership on this mission. She led forward with the USS Endeavor while the USS Ain Jalut held back to perform wide angle sensor sweeps. Shortly after arrival tactical sensors detected weapons fire and I ordered my ship to Red Alert status and began investigating the source of the weapons fire. As we detected no distress signal intervention was not required but I wished to investigate due to the possibility of an allied ship being under fire. CPT Mirazuni was in agreement and the Ain Jalut was ordered to investigate.

I ordered the launching of sensor probes ahead of my vessel that we might go in with additional information and received telemetry indicating an Excelsior II-class vessel under fire from a Gorn Destroyer. Once we had confirmed telemetry the Ain Jalut made its way towards the encounter and hailed the Gorn vessel - warning it off. The Gorn disengaged and retreated while we focused our efforts on the unknown Excelsior II.

After running scans we determined the vessel to be the USS Hydra - reported missing on Stardate 79338.4. Our scans also found the vessel to have an unusually high concentration of organic matter. Communications were disabled and we were unable to shut down engines remotely. After exhausting ideas for getting on board the ship and slowing it down, CPT Mirazuni opted to make use of a tractor beam in an effort to slow the vessel. This caused damage to the engines resulting in a complete shutdown which, combined with the tractor beam, brought it to a stop.

The unknown organic material prevented use of transporters, so we deployed away teams via shuttle craft to determine the nature of the contamination and search for survivors. We made use of EV suits and I ordered the Ain Jalut’s detachment to include both medical and engineering personnel to treat survivors, deal with damaged ship systems as necessary, and to immediate diagnose any contagions that might be in the environment. CPT Mirazuni opted to lead the team personally, while the Ain Jalut contingent was led by my chief of security LT Teneck.

Investigation of the USS Hydra revealed the ship to have been converted to a Gorn nursery. While it is my understanding the Gorn had largely abandoned the practice of using living hosts to nurse their young, it would appear this ship has been taken over by a sect that still continues the practice. The away team would proceed to investigate and make use of CPT Mirazuni’s telepathic abilities to pinpoint the location of survivors. The survivors included a member of a currently unknown alien species (for ease of reference referring to species as “Axolotl” until official name is established), a Starfleet officer (Lieutenant Junior Grade Helk), and a Gorn that the officer referred to as his “son”. The officer had fully lost one of his legs and one of the Ain Jalut’s medical personnel immediately began triage and quickly determined that the injury was not immediately life threatening.

From there, CPT Mirazuni ordered the immediate evacuation of the ship. After confirming no additional survivors on the ship LT Teneck recommended scuttling the USS Hydra for security reasons but CPT Mirazuni gave no response. The Lieutenant repeated the recommendation to myself on the shuttle ride back during his initial report which I rejected. I have spoken privately with LT Teneck since then to remind him that Starfleet regulations and Federation law protecting sapient life apply even if the lifeform appears inherently monstrous or threatening.

After returning to her ship and conferring with us, CPT Mirazuni ordered the USS Hydra be towed back to DS13. Conferring with engineering confirmed that the ship, despite its state, could be towed safely back to station as long as we limited speeds to Warp 5.

As of the filing of this report we are en route back to DS13.

RECOMMENDATION Full quarantine of the USS Hydra pending recovery of Gorn young. Contact representatives of the Gorn Hegemony to arrange for safe recovery and transport of their young to facilities equipped for their care. Based on advice of Chief Engineer, the eventual repair and refit of USS Hydra for return to active service.

Also recommend assembling and dispatching a first contact party to locate and reach out to newly discovered species. Strong probability that the homeworld is within hostile territory and planning should take that into account.
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RECOGNITION Lieutenant Junior Grade 's actions prior to arrival of our party showed remarkable calm and clear thinking while under extreme stress and suffering from severe injury.

OOC The complete log for this event can be found here! Thank you @Nimitz for running!
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2
Stardate:
100703.5
Filed By:
CAPT Mirazuni, A.
Clearance:

ADDENDUM There are a number of questions raised by this encounter. There is no doubt that we would find the answer to why the Gorn vessel was firing upon the USS Hydra within the ship itself.

Lieutenant Helk mentioned other survivors; at present it is uncertain they were referring to other crew of the Hydra, or if they were referring to her sister ship, the Manticore.

When the Lieutenant is medically clear, they should be questioned about the events of past 22 years. This should be cross-examined with logs taken from the Hydra.

Finally, the Gorn on the ship should be removed and relocated to a safe environment.

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Stardate:
100708.6
Filed By:
CAPT A.H. Nimitz
Clearance:

ADDENDUM Following a lengthily debriefing with Lieutenant Halk, his ‘son’ Salas, and the ‘Axolotl’, who had adopted the name Jones. The full details of events are vast and stretch almost a full century prior. In short, during the turn of the 22nd and beginning of the 23rd century, the Rembrandt Cluster had become a host for members of the criminal underground operating within the regions of the Federation and the Klingon Empire, including but not limited to the Orion Syndicate, members of the Gorn, and various bands of Nausicaan pirates.

At this time Lieutenant Halk believes that there may have been at least one civilization within the cluster that had discovered warp flight, however the six known species within the cluster were all pre-Warp civilizations. For most of the 23rd century they were left alone by their guests. However during the last years of the 23rd century, due to the Klingon Empire’s annexation of the Gorn Hegemony, as well as the vassalization of the Orion Syndicate, the Rembrandt Cluster was transformed from a pirate cove into a weapons factory. In the process most of the inhabitant civilizations were conquered and enslaved for the factories, mining and other resource exploitation operations. According to Salas, much of these operations while subsidized by the Klingon Empire, were supplied to privateers and freelance organizations, as well as pirates, rather then being supplied to the Klingon Defense Forces.

In 2402, the sister ships, USS Hydra and USS Manticore, both Excelsior IIs, attempted to chart the Rembrandt Cluster unaware of the occupation. Hours after their final dispatch to Starfleet, the Hydra and Manticore arrived at the ‘Axolotl’ home system which was in the process of having several heavy metal mining outposts being built in the outer rim of the system. The Hydra took heavy damage just after entering the system, rendering her navigation systems destroyed. With aid from the Manticore, they were able to withdraw from the ‘Axolotl’ system and hide in a nearby debris field. It was decided that the Manticore would attempt to exit the Cluster and get reinforcement from Starfleet to get the Hydra out and left behind a number of personal onboard the Hydra for repairs. The Manticore’s fate after departing the Hydra is known, it was last seen by Syndicate forces near what was assumed to be an unstable wormhole being pursued by a pair of Nausicaan Destroyers. This data was obtained by Salas while working undercover.

The Hydra remained in the debris field for a week until she was discovered by the Gorn, and was overtaken. Lieutenant Halk states roughly five hundred people were alive when the Hydra was taken the the Gorn. The Hydra and surviving Starfleet personal were taken back to the ‘Axolotl’ system with the intent of being added to the workforce for the factories. After arriving in the ‘Axolotl’ system, Halk was separated from the Hydra and implanted with a Gorn parasitic egg, resulting in the loss of his right leg and the birth of his son Salas. At first Salas was taken to be raised among the other Gorn, and they would later reunite after Salas had reached maturity.

Due to his injuries, Halk is unclear of the following timeline, but he states that he was put into a group of other slaves and surviving officers to be transported elsewhere in the Rembrandt Cluster for the other factories when his transport was liberated by the local resistance cell. At this point, Lieutenant Halk and other Starfleet officers joined in with the resistance cells and started to build networks across the Cluster, they were successful in freeing about three hundred of the remaining Hydra crew, today they estimate around two hundred are still alive however that is based off information dating a year ago. Halk would remain on the ‘Axolotl’ homeworld to help their resistance cell.

Information from here is based on correlation with recent political events between the Klingon Empire and the Federation; Sometime roughly ten years ago the Empire ceased their subsidy for the occupation forces in the Cluster, at this point the remaining occupation forces decided to organize themselves into underground empire and tighten their control on the Cluster, upping their demands for resources and production in factories to fund themselves through black market trade with other pirate and privateer groups throughout the Quadrant. While exact details about this organization is still fuzzy as the ‘Axolotl’ system is more of a frontier outpost rather then a main HQ. After this reorganization, Salas reunited with Halk and was converted into a double agent to pass along information to the resistance cells.

According to Salas, within the last three weeks he was exposed as a double agent, but he was able to retrieve the location of the Hydra and pass it along to Halk, with aid from the ‘Axolotl’ resistance cell, they were able to get Salas out of the Gorn hands, steal a shuttle and make it to the Hydra. Jones came along in hopes that the Hydra would be able to make it out of the Cluster to request Federation intervention for the Cluster. Leading to the events where the Hydra meets the Endeavour and the Ain Jalut.

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4
Stardate:
100712.4
Filed By:
LCDR Khet, Mossic
Clearance:

LOCATION U.S.S. Hydra Quarantine Zone, V774 Tau

MISSION Secure immature Gorn without harm and recover biological remains of nursery victims.

OUTCOME The Gorn young are confined to a quarantine habitat with basic biological needs met. Recovery work is underway.

KEY PERSONNEL

  • CMDR Pohl, Maximillian
  • LCDR Khet, Mossic
  • LT Morgan, Edward
  • LT S’Slaask
  • ENS Lanat

NARRATIVE On the advice of Dr. S’Slaask, we planned an away mission where he would transport onto the Hydra alone to gather the Gorn young and lead them to a safe and secure habitat module which we docked for this purpose. Dr. S’Slaask gave reasonable assurances that this plan would pose no significant risk to himself or the Gorn young. The habitat module was customized meet the biological needs of immature Gorn by Drs. S’Slaask and Pohl, including supply of replicated food formulated for a healthy and balanced diet.

Precautionary measures, including pattern enhancing gear and destination quarantine measures, were taken to ensure that if necessary, we could transport Dr. S’Slaask away from the Hydra at a moment’s notice, previous biomass interference issues notwithstanding. However, those measures proved unnecessary as everything went smoothly as promised. Dr. S’Slaask was able to take charge of the situation on the ship and guide the Gorn young to their new home without any problems.

After that, a security team lead by Ensign Lanat conducted a deck-by-deck sweep of the ship to ensure no stragglers remained behind. Upon their return, while the security team was undergoing decontamination, Lt. Morgan began the remains recovery process by transporting the remaining biomass aboard the Hydra to secure storage. This work is still ongoing at this time, and is expected to take 2-3 more days before the ship is ready for dismantling and decontamination.

Early analysis of the DNA in the recovered biomass indicates only a small amount belonged to the original crew. Based on new reports files since this operation began, it seems likely that most of these remains belong to unfortunate victims of the criminal organization described there. With a variety of different species represented in just this small sample, it’s going to be difficult or impossible to give each victim’s remains properly respectful treatment.

RECOMMENDATION Maintain quarantine measures for the Gorn habitat until its occupants are collected by the Hegemony; for the biomass storage until it has been cleared by further detailed analysis; and for the U.S.S. Hydra until its decontamination is complete. Research and consult on the most appropriate means of disposing of the recovered remains, given the circumstances.
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RECOGNITION Dr. S’Slaask deserves commendation for his part in this strange situation; he made a difficult task much easier and it turns out he’s very good with kids.

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