AAR: Training Day

Stardate:
98076.3
Filed By:
CAPT Tungsten, Drake
Clearance:

After Action Report

LOCATION U.S.S. Dragon, Deep space, Aldebaran Sector

MISSION Routine patrol, and transport of Federation scientist along route. Additional personnel aboard for training opportunities and observation.

OUTCOME En route to Federation science station, USS Dragon is sabotaged, and attacked/boarded by Naussican pirates.

KEY PERSONNEL

  • CAPT Tungsten, Drake
  • LT Reyes, Miriam
  • LT Niraj, Alexandria
  • ENS Thyzee
  • ENS Murphy, Adelaide
  • Liasvarnu (Vorta Observer)

NARRATIVE The mission plan was a routine patrol of the Aldebaran Sector, with several legs in deep space for sensor sweeps and to show Starfleet presence, with a planned stop in the Aldebaran system to drop our passenger, Dr. Albert Jorgenson off at the science station there.

Things began well enough, with ENS Murphy assuming duty at the helm for her first time outside of simulations and smaller craft, and performing her duty at or above expectations. ENS Thyzee and LT Reyes also joined our bridge crew, and performed their duties well, as expected, to be joined on a later shift with LT Niraj.

Early on, our guest, Dr. Jorgenson, was found to we wandering the ship widely, noticed by the particle signature he was spreading across the ship as he went, matching that of his equipment in the cargo bay, but while lighting up our internal sensors, levels were deemed harmless. Suspicions were raised, particularly by ENS Thyzee, but even upon further inspection, we could not find anything else, alarming or innocuous. In retrospect, this had obviously blinded our sensors to explosive devices he was planting throughout the ship. Later analysis has shown that the devices were in fact his supposed terraforming equipment, and the wide swaths of particle scattering of the same type masked their presence to internal sensors, and created a search area the size of most all internal corridors, preventing us from physically finding the explosives even had we known to look, or by accident. The Dr. clearly had a very deep understanding of Starfleet technology.

As we approached about 2hrs 15min from his destination for departure, a heavily modified Naussican freighter, moderately armed, but normally no match for the Dragon was spotted on sensors on an almost indirect intercept course, gently sloping towards our location. They were likely trying to “act natural” to delay detection. We hailed their ship, but received only a characteristically terse reply professing to be moving cargo to the Aldebaran system.

At this point, yellow alert was called, despite them appearing to be a minimal threat, and our Peregrine fighter compliment put on standby, out of what seemed to be at the time an abundance of caution.

Next, while mid-sentence trying to give the order to increase speed and put some distance between us, a transmission was detected from Dr. Jorgenson’s quarters, also his last-known position, to the freighter, and a moment later, explosions occurred all over the ship, doing only minor to moderate absolute damage, but destroying numerous key data and power junctions, disabling the ship. As we dropped out of warp with no helm control adrift, ODN relays severed, meaning effectively main computer offline, no shields, environmental control, internal forcefields, weapons, shields, transporters, spotty sensors, and damage to primary external communications, the enemy vessel fired phasers, landing a direct hit upon the section of Dr. Jorgenson’s quarters, venting that room and the adjacent hallway to space before emergency bulkheads could be lowered. This officer will give his thoughts on that later in the report.

Boarding parties beamed in throughout the ship, cutting personnel off from armory lockers, making most repairs impossible by restricting our movement, and attempting to exterminate all personnel as they pushed towards engineering, leaving the bridge alone for the time being, probably because they already knew most of our systems were disabled, and we had little control from there.

At this time, we confirmed that the tactical communications array for the Command Room, which we utilize as Flight Operations for our fighter compliment as we are not tasked with coordinating any task forces or fleets like the ship was designed for, was still online, due to being on a separate circuit from the main communications. Order was given to launch fighters with instructions they would proceed visual only, as a distress call was sent through the tactical comms array, followed by full-spectrum noise to jam local sensors and communications. This was done to disable enemy weapons targetting, forcing them to fire manually at us or the fighters, lose precision targetting of transporters as well, or call for reinforcements, if they had any. The fighter engagement had the desired effect of forcing them to raise shields, and prevent further beam-ins of boarding parties.

With most systems disabled, this officer made the decision to assist the rest of the crew with repelling boarders, as we were able to determine both sides were fairly well pinned down in most locations, and the enemy knew our initial locations, even if they were likely intent on sending further personnel before we stopped them. CMDR LaSalle, ship’s first officer, and LT. Niraj, and ENS Thyzee and Murphy accompanied this officer to make a push for the nearest armory locker on Deck 2. LT. Reyes, as well as our Vorta observer opted to stay behind on the bridge with the rest of the crew still stationed there with the few hand-phasers stored on the bridge to defend it, in case the situation changed.

The group with this officer managed to engage the enemy, often from behind as they were occupied in shootouts with other members of the crew initially, such that we could sweep through the deck to the armory, gathering more officers and crew as we went, and finally passing out phaser rifles, and carrying extras to reinforce those we would further link up with. From here, it was a sweep and clear operation to remove enemy forces from the ship. It should be noted at this time, several enemy and starfleet crew could be found dead along the corridors from the inital assault, before we arrived.

As we were able to gather a large group of the crew, get them armed, and keep a large main force pushing towards Engineering, our numbers were more than sufficient to send off teams to sweep further and flank the enemy as we reinforced our security personnel. That likely would not have been true if we had not prevented further inbound transports.

Upon reaching Engineering, the Chief Engineer confirmed that most systems were disconnected from power and/or controls, but that he had managed to sneak a few crew through jeffries tubes into cargo bay 2, where we have an industrial replicator for replacement parts. They had already begun replicating large coils of power conduit to bypass the damaged lengths to get some of our key systems operational quickly. We agreed that we’d have the engineers don EVA suits both for radiation shielding near the phaser arrays, and because we could have them disable grav plating as they went to both handle the weight of the long power conduit, and make use of the suits RCS thrusters to speed through Jeffries tubes or a few necessary hallways.

Shields were restored first, which allowed us to recall our fighters and prevent further inbound transport. It was determined visually by one of the crewmen at this time that one of our fighters was destroyed by enemy phaser fire some minutes ago, and reported to tactical, bringing our compliment down to 5. The pilot, LT Armin, did not survive.

At this point, we were able to return to stations, on the bridge and elsewhere, and power was restored to our port-facing phaser arrays one by one, and personnel in EVA suits sent to fire torpedoes manually. Targeting had to be input into the phaser arrays manually as they were being connected to power on-site, hence the EVA suits, out of caution sending people to the inner-side of them, despite the shielding plating around them. We were able to get a firing solution about as maneuvering thrusters were restored, and call out to a person at each utilized phaser what directional alignment they needed as they were connected to the power cables run from engineering.

The enemy vessel was destroyed, thus ending the threat they posed to this and other ships in the Aldebaran sector, and perhaps beyond.

In conclusion, from the evidence gathered, it is very clear that our “esteemed” Federation scientist guest was behind the sabotage that enabled the deaths of some of my crew, and near capture of my ship. I am forced to make an educated guess as to why his quarters were hit by enemy phasers, exposing the room and a little beyond to space. That guess is that either his Naussican friends decided to cut him out of whatever deal was made, or he set that up to make it appear he was the object of attack, and deflect suspicion. The behavior of the boarding parties certainly does not support the latter, as they were not searching for anything or anyone per se. Their tactics clearly supported capture of the ship, whether for salvage, to wage a false-flag campaign, or to keep as a trophy, we can only speculate at this time. Protecting the crew, and keeping a Federation starship out of enemy hands took priority over having anyone to ask about that, and the Naussicans are not known to be chatty, anyway.


RECOMMENDATION Recommend armed security detail on any future passengers across the fleet, no matter what their credentials.
​
RECOGNITION I would like to recognize LT.s Reyes and Niraj, as well as ENS Thyzee and Murphy, for helping my crew defend this ship on top of performing their expected duties admirably. They are welcome aboard U.S.S. Dragon any time. I would also like to posthumously recognize the 17 crewmen and officers who lost their lives during the attack on this ship, especially LT. Armin, who I am told managed to steer his fighter into the enemy vessel and detonate his powerplant when it was clear he had only seconds to live, doing considerable damage to their shields. A list of further casualties is attached.


OOC Mission Brief. Yeah, holy crap, this AAR is long. And the event itself was certainly long, even though I felt like I could run through the chain of events in less than 20 minutes in my head beforehand. I cut out quite a few scenes as we went… I even initially planned for there to be a funeral service at the end for the crew who were killed. Yeah… chopping block! Anyway, since it still ran quite long, I want to thank everyone who joined for bearing with me!

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-- Delete this line if you don't want one
Stardate:
98109.6
Filed By:
Liasvarnu, IV
Clearance: dominion eyes only

LOCATION U.S.S. Dragon - Aldebaran Sector

MISSION Level 3 observation during a routine patrol assignment.

OUTCOME Unsuccessful internal sabotage and deep space ambush.

KEY PERSONNEL

  • CAPT Tungsten, Drake (F-D-1)
  • LT Reyes, Miriam (F-E-83)
  • LT Niraj, Alexandria (S-O-74)
  • ENS Thyzee (S-S-93)
  • ENS Murphy, Adelaide (S-O-13)
  • Liasvarnu

NARRATIVE

Following my formal request to personally observe Starfleet operations, one Captain Drake Tungsten - commanding officer of the U.S.S. Dragon, psychographic profile F-D-1 - presented such an opportunity when he extended an invitation to be present during a routine, class 7 patrol assignment.

This first overture was deemed a promising step to solidify the foundations of my primary mission, especially in light of the undocumented irregularities surrounding the activities of the last Dominion attaché - subfile 63 - and that Neema Perim - Federation Ambassador, Deep Space 13, psychographic profile S-D-4 - implied during our initial encounter.

I am content to say, however, that the approach I have selected for this posting, heavily influenced by my predecessor’s success on Vastria VI, seems to be proving effective, thus far. As I suspected, a genuine inkling of tolerance and respect allowed me to observe Starfleet officers unchallenged - as well as unescorted - even during unscheduled combat situations.

Moreover, the personnel of the U.S.S. Dragon did not seem to mind my presence or timely intervention during the crisis regarding the vessel’s peculiar guest or the ambush that unfolded, presumably, at the hands of Nausicaan raiders - subfiles 78 and 79. At the moment, I am content to remain true to my mission and leave the details of so large security breach, and its implications, to Starfleet itself.

Obedience is victory. Victory is life.


RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Update psychographic profile of Captain Drake Tungsten: subject is rumoured to have ventured into battle seeking close quarters combat wielding some manner of ancient blade (yet to be confirmed).
  • Renew repertoire of Vorta-related anecdotes: Starfleet officers seem overly, if rightfully, curious about my species - see psychographic profile F-E-83, Lieutenant Miriam Reyes. It may be intriguing to explore this, as it may redirect curiosity from other, more problematic topics.
  • Continue developing simulations to ensure that our assets remain acquainted with current Starfleet technology. My recent training allowed me to navigate several terminals on the U.S.S. Dragon with ease.
  • Propose permission to deploy, at least, one Jem’hadar sentinel during class 4 assignments and above.

RECOGNITION

It is worth noting that, although the U.S.S. Dragon and its crew encountered a highly unusual situation - I believe the Ferengi might say that the “odds were stacked against them” - its personnel, including its commanding officer, performed admirably. It only confirms the wisdom in pursuing peaceful dealings with the Federation, regardless of past incidents.


OOC Well, that took a while! Bloody vertigo episode.

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