| SUBMITTED: Stardate 94827.2 | FILED BY: ENS C. Rivett | SECURITY: Level 1 - Open |
LOCATION: Holodeck Five - Deep Space Thirteen
MISSION: Training Simulation - The USS Valiant was to deliver medical supplies to a mining colony.
OUTCOME: Elachi satellite accidentally destroyed which provoked an Elachi attack on the USS Valiant. The Valiant withdrew from the sector and the simulation ended. The supplies were not delivered and the fate of the colony is unknown.
KEY PERSONNEL:
ENS Charlie Rivett (First Officer)
CDT Henry Jarnefelt
CDT Rianni Tierno
CMDR Mischa Leveson-Scott (Simulation Overseer)
NARRATIVE:
The simulation began with the USS Valiant warping into the system. After hailing the colony and receiving no response, we began to suspect that the colony was a victim of an attack. Our detection of a drifting freighter seemed to only confirm what we knew. We also noticed a small satellite in orbit around the colony. Our efforts to scan this were futile, as it emitted some sort of jam. Cadet Jarnefelt worked to cut through the jam in order for us to scan the satellite. Whilst this took place, we hailed the freighter to ascertain more information about the status of the colony. The freighter was crewed by some Tellerites, who were having trouble with their poorly made ship. From them, we managed to learn that the colony was attacked by the Elachi.
Meanwhile, Cadet Jarnefelt was successful in his attempts at getting through to the satellite. We immediately noticed a build up of energy from the planet's surface and the satellite trapped us in a tractor beam. In order to break free of the beam, we blew the satellite up. The energy from the planet was revealed to be an Elachi armada. We withdrew away from the colony and hailed the Elachi. It was through this discussion that we learnt that our intelligence from the Tellerites was suspect, and that the Elachi were merely on a trading mission with the colony. Our attempts to explain our mistake was met with silence and the Elachi armada prepared to attack. LCDR Kermit ordered our withdrawal from the sector and when it was clear that the Elachi were not in pursuit, the simulation ended.
ANALYSIS:
The simulation revealed many things to the crew. Firstly, my placement of the Cadets upon stations that they were not trained in proved to be both positive and negative. The positives were that it forced the cadets out of their comfort zone and forced them to improvise and adapt based on what they knew. As the simulation went on, they grew in confidence at their new positions, before I ordered them to return to what they knew. The negatives were that it meant that the start of the simulation was handled very poorly, as everyone adjusted to their new roles. This led to some critical mistakes and assumptions being made that hindered the rest of the simulation.
On my part, I assigned myself to a command position, that of the First Officer. This was my first attempt at Command. I too, made my share of errors that ultimately led to the result outlined above. I believe the main reason for this was my initial orders were not at all focused and jumped about the place. Had I taken the time to stop and think the situation through, I believe the outcome would have been more favourable.
Another cause that was picked up by CMDR Leveson-Scott, who was overseeing the simulation, was our instant assumption of an assault on the colony when out hails were not answered. I still fail to see how this assumption was a direct cause of the outcome, but I will not deny that it most likely led to some of our more hostile decisions. I would put this down to inexperience and hopefully, we are able to learn from this in our coming missions.
I would also place one of the causes down to a distinct lack of intelligence on this mission, though this is partly down to my own failures than anyone else's. I realised that we had no prior intelligence on this system before arriving, no idea about the nature of the colony, or what the supplies were other than the fact that they were medical supplies (they could have been urgent supplies or could have been minor - they were the latter in this scenario), or even the specifications of the ship we served on. Whilst most of this was merely down to the confines of the simulation we ran, it underlined to me the importance of Intelligence on a starship and the need to know a wide range of information before undertaking a mission so that every possibility is covered.
Overall, however, I commend the cadets for their rather quick adaptability to the situation, though recommend that they revisit "Bridge Console Essentials" so that they know more than one area of bridge stations fluently. I would also like to highly commend LCDR Kermit. His command style and level head prevented the destruction of the ship and I believe his breakdown and analysis of the steps needed upon learning that the colony was not responding was excellent and well explained, which helped to clarify my confusing orders from the onset.