Mission 2: The shipment

[Deleted]

It was a quiet day on the Hope, the previous mission had been rounded off, and the ship had returned to Starbase Conqueror for supplies. Lack of mission orders had provided time for some much-needed R&R. As a result, most of the crew of the Hope were on the base, but that was not the case with John Wood. Accompanied by a stack of PADDs and a warm cup of Tarkalean tea, he sat in the messhall, overlooking the many shuttles and workpods tending to the Nebula class ship.
Sadly, the PADDs did not contain any form of fiction, but the harsh reality of cargo reports and personnel files.
Was this the true life of a Commanding Officer? Filling out forms and tending to administrative duties?

In an unexpected stroke of luck, the overfamiliar comm signal sounded.
=/\=Bridge to Commander Wood, there is an incoming message from the starbase, code 42.
Perhaps the answer to his previous question, Wood thought, remembering the code as a signal that the transmission contained new orders.
=/\= Thank you, bridge, patch it through to my quarters.

His quarters were only a short walk from the mess hall, so Wood wouldn't have to keep the starbase waiting.
The doors opening, the incoming transmission sound already greeted him, luring him in.
"Hello, Admiral, what can I do for you?" Wood tried to sound as cheerful as he could, however was barely able to mask his desillusion over taking command.
"Commander," the female on the screen nodded, "we've got a new task for you. I'm transmitting the orders to you now, at the usual frequency. Conqueror out."
'That dragged me all the way here?' Wood wondered, as he opened the file and read the text. Sighing, he turned off the screen and reached for his commbadge.

=/\=To all crew of the USS Hope, your shoreleaves have been cancelled. I suggest you return to the ship by tommorow morning, 0600, since we'll be leaving dock then. Senior staff, mission briefing at 0500.

After making the necassery announcements and preperations, Wood returned to the mess hall, carrying an even bigger stack of PADDs than he had before. And he hoped that the nature of this mission turned out to be less administrative work than it seemed.

<Tag all>

[Deleted]

Jonathon sat atis desk and and red thru the last pad and realzed he was lat he got up and ran to the door and out of the door into the corridor and into the ligt it went up and let im off on the bridge he went paseed all the consols and went to the big door at 1 end it opened and he went in there was the new cpatian

Jonathon Williams Doctr reporting he annouced proudly ready for action

Thankyou dr pleae take a sit and we ll start wen others are here Captain wood said

eye eye sir Jon relpied and tooj aup a seat near t the top of the table and stared our inrto space

[Deleted]

Joanna uncurled from the couch and laid down her book on the desk. Whilst not the greatest work of literature this latest thriller from a new Andorian author had caught her attention and she had been working hard to read through his back catalogue a matter more complicated in the fact that finding hard copies of foreign novels was difficult and not all replicators could translate the file work to a good copy of a book.

She stretched and pushed her head to either side working the tired muscles free.
"Computer increase lighting" she commanded and reached for her tunic. Zipping it up she checked the fit in the mirror and then straightened the cuffs. With a quick sweep of her hand through her long brown hair she wound its long locks in to a curl and fastened it neatly at the rear in a small tight bun. Feeling presentable she felt ready to meet whatever lay outside her doors.

It took a surprisingly short time to reach anywhere on a starship even more so on one this size. She had been on the Hope for nearly a year now and felt she could traverse its corridors and lift ways blindfolded.
"Bridge" she commanded of the Turbolfit as the doors hissed closed.
The lift hummed into life and the melodious and rhythmic thump of it in action filled her ears as it wound its way at incredible speed up the ship.

Alighting at the bridge Joanne cast a subtle glance at the Operations Console, her console, and was reassured to see Ensign Ramirez diligently monitoring the ship in its now dormant and docked positon. She had trained her staff well... perhaps, she pondered of Lieutenant Eccles, too well?

She crossed the broad raised platform at the rear beside the currently unoccupied tactical console and down the gentle slope to the Conference Lounge. She paused barely a beat, taking a breath and entering.

Inside were two men, one - Dr Williams the youthful new doctor to the Hope and the other... Commander Wood just recently First Officer and now Captain.
"Sir" she nodded in greeting and moved around the desk to take up a seat in counterpoint to Jonathon.
"Commander Merit, You didnt happen to see any of he others on your way up?"
Joanne shook her head,
"I am afraid not Sir. Shris wasnt at his station when I came past. I assume he is off duty."
"Thankyou Commander - We'll give them a few... " he stopped as the doors opened and admited Chief Tork the CEO and Lt Hughes the Science Officer.
The each greeted those present and took up seats.

[Deleted]

Kuragh grunted as he despatched the last of his opponents and watched in glee as it vanished.
"Compute End Programme"
The calisthenics programme ended revealing the traditional yellow cubed walls.
He dashed from the room, not waiting to change and ran to the conference room.
"Kuragh is here. You may begin" he growled as he took a seat.

[cptjeff]

Jeff was ready to meet the new captain. The day to day command functions had been up to him until now, but those were hardly exciting. When the captain arrived, he closed up what he was doing, and headed to the breifing room. It's 0500. he thought. this had better be good.

he arrived in the breifing room 10 minutes ahead of time, and waited until the first few walked in.

[Deleted]

Wood welcomed every crewmember as they came in. After everyone had arrived, the brand-new CO raised from his seat and started to speak.
"Good morning everyone, I apologise for the late notice and the early hour of this briefing, but Command was quite urgent.
The reason for this urgency eludes me somewhat, as the mission were about to commence is... convoy duty."

"But why would they need a Nebula class to guard a convoy?", Wood continued while he activated the main monitor, "At least that's what I had been wondering myself. Appearently, the situation is quite tricky." He brought up a starchart of a trade route. "This is the Andures trade route. It runs from Kalemma, a relatively new Federation member world, to Andures II, with which we've recently opened diplomatic relations. Andures II, however, is strategically important, as it resides near the Andures nebula." Wood pointed at a nebula, crossed by the line which symbolized the trade route. "This nebula has vast amounts of several valuable substances."

"It may be clear that this trade route is of vital importance to the economy of neighbouring Federation sectors. We need to get permission from the Andures' government to start mining operations in the nebula, and to strengthen our diplomatic relations, the Kalemma, as representatives of the Federation, have been supplying them with Corellian and Bozomite, relatively cheap and common resources... for us. However, for unknown reasons, the Andures need those materials.
For the past month, this trade route has proven to be beneficial for both parties. However, recently, there's been a problem."

Wood noticed it was quite a long and complicated story, so he cut to the chase. "Every time the Kalemma convoy is in the nebula, the convoy is being attacked by unknown and powerful raiders. We don't know who they are or where they're coming from. All we know is, they're not from Andures II, and they're raiding our convoys for relatively unvaluable material. It's our job to protect the convoy from these raiders, and if possible find out who they are, and why they are going through so much trouble just to steal rather unvaluable resources.
Are there any questions?"

<Tag all>

"Right, we're leaving at 0600 hours. Lieutenant Kuragh, please contact the lead ship of the Kalemma convoy and plot a course which will give the least chance of us getting attacked.
Commander Merit, Lieutenant Zaksh'ris'zhen, please work with Chief Engineer Tork on our tactical and technical readiness. Make sure both the Hope and the convoy are fully able to withstand attacks. The information we have on the weaponry has been downloaded into the ships computer.
Ensign Williams, in the event we are attacked, I need sickbay to be ready for casualties. Let's hope we can minimize the number.
And Commander Pudlo, I am appointing you as our main liason between the convoy and ourselves. We need to be able to communicate effectively if we run into tight situations.
Dismissed."

<Tag all>

[Deleted]

williams grined at the thought of puttin his skills to us he wa sna ecellent doctor and looked forard to being able to treat any battle injuries that appeared.
I l l do it sir. No won will die on my watch i dont have time for it he laughed at his own joke and got tup ad returned to sickbay to check in the nurceses

[Deleted]

Joanne listened intently to the briefing reflecting with interest on the dynamics of the local area. It amazrd her that in the Federations essentially money less societies that trade routes were as vibrant and busy as they were.
She supposed regardless of being paid people still needed resourses and there were plenty of pirates out there willing to plunder and pillage.

The Captain closed off the meeting and She rose to join Trok and Shris at the rear of the room.
"Upgrades then" she mused
"So it seems" Trok replied, "My engines are at peak performance"
Shris shrugged,
"Weapons could always be improved."

Joannae shook her head,
"I think our efforts should be more into boosting shield power, then if we run into trouble we can extend our shields around the trade ships"
"Weapons" Shris insisted,
Jo smiled, she was well used to Shris's violent tendancies.
"Perhaps we should consult the CO and XO"
"Sure" shris agreed good naturedly.

[Deleted]

YOU WHAT?

Is it only me or do Jons posts make very little sense. No offence but English is the first language of this site.

Pull it together mate.

[Deleted]

OOC: Calm down, Mr Kuragh. Even though English is the language being used on this site, it's always perfectly possible that one's not very good at writing it, for a great number of reasons. We cannot really blame anyone who has trouble writing in English.

Mr Williams, there are several options to improve your writing:
The third button from the left in the post menu is a spell checker. It may be beneficial to use it when posting. You won't have to worry about spelling then, for the forums will do that for you then
Also, on the Conqueror boards is a thread (the 'English Academy'), which may be helpful if you have further trouble with the English language.

I hope this may be helpful, regards,
Wood.

[cptjeff]

Are there any questions?"

"yes, I have one. What is the material? it might help us figure out the motives of the raiders."

<wood>

---------------
Jeff was interested in this mission. It was a mystery, and he didn't like them unsolved. He would crack this one. for sure.

he sat in his chair on the bridge and swung a computer monitor over. In spacedock, he had had the yard engineers put a replicator in between the captain and first officer's chairs, along with a little table in front of it. He punched up A cup of prince of Wales Tea and started researching all the possible uses of the cargo of the convoy.

[Deleted]

Kuragh took the conn and powered up the engines. On clearing the outer perimeters he slipped the ship into warp and plotted a simple but effective course to the rendezvous.

He spent the intervening time at his station monitoring the warp field and ensuring they kept good time.

At 0800 hours the Hope arrived at the rendezvous. The waiting freighters hung like great hulks in the sky. Old and decrepit.

"Captain, we have reached the Freighters."

TAG Wood

"Aye Sir. Plotting course for Kalemma"

TAG All

[Deleted]

Joanne spent most of the day with Shris working through various defence methods. Commander Pudlo had come down and supported her idea to work on boosting shield strength. Shris wasnt happy but accepted the decison and actually came up with some fairly good ideas of how to achieve their aims.

They were just starting to reconfigure the deflector emitters when a ship wide comm came through stating that they had reached the frieghters and that they were preparing to start the potentially dangerous journey to Kalemma

"We better get a move on" She urged as she connected up the new pathways and reallocated the necessary power from reserves

Shris shrugged,
"Sorry but you'll have to finish up down here, I ought to be at my station on the bridge just in case."

"But I need help down here."

Again Shris shrugged,
"Sorry but we all have our jobs to do" and left.

Jo thought a moment and then tapped her commbadge to request some help.

OOC Any one wanna come down and help out?

[Deleted]

Jon taped his comm badge.
=^= sorry but i cant help u, Ive got to stay in sickbay in case any1 gets heart. sorry! =^=

he smiled to himself, he want haf been much help to her anyway, he was terrible with anything engineering lick. with them now in the dangerous bit of the mi shun, he new that he wud haf to be more alert.

[Deleted]

OOC: I must apologise for not posting, I've been busified.

IC:

Are there any questions?"

"yes, I have one. What is the material? it might help us figure out the motives of the raiders."

"The convoy is hauling Corellian and Bozomite, which are rather common, unvaluable, yet important substances in the Federation. However, the material is strangely enough absent from Andures II, and it's hard to replicate.
Regarding the motives of the raiders, herein lies the mystery. We don't know why anyone would go through so much trouble to attack a Federation convoy for this material."

The briefing went on, and preperations ensued, while Wood was immersed in heaps of status reports. The ship had left spacedock and was travelling at warp for several hours, and the bridge had been forming the background for a busy scene of officers entering and leaving, when Kuragh reported from the helm:

"Captain, we have reached the Freighters."

Wood stood up from his chair, and straightened his collar. "Excellent." Wood looked around to see who was actually manning the bridge, he hadn't noticed much of the busy traffic, let alone keep tabs on where people were performing their duties.
"Hail the convoy." The familiar sound of a channel being opened was heard throughout the bridge. "Kalemma convoy, this Commander Wood of the USS Hope. Are you ready for the journey?"
"Ah, greetings. This is Prime Lieutenant Gualanor, in command of the 3rd Kalemma trade fleet. We are prepared for the endeavour, Commander. We hope you will be able to protect us." The somewhat musical voice of the Kalemma officer sounded somewhat soothing, possibly a common trait of the species.
"We will do our best, Prime Lieutenant. Our helmsman will transmit the finalized flight data to you now, stand by."
Wood nodded to Kuragh, signalling him to start transmitting the flight plan.

"Transmission recieved, we are standing by." The Kalemma officer stated, after which, rather abruptly, the channel was closed.
"Right, it seems they are eager to get underway. Lieutenant Kuragh, best speed to Andures II."

"Aye Sir. Plotting course for Kalemma"

"Estimated time to arrival?"

<Tag Kuragh>

"Excellent." Wood straightened his collar again. "Commander Pudlo, the bridge is yours. I'll be checking up on the progress of the suggested shield modifications."
Wood used the computer to locate Commander Merit, Commander Shris and Chief Engineer Tork. After all, the three of them had been working on the project, and Wood needed a briefing. Taking the turbolift, both Shris and he arrived rather quickly in engineering.
Walking towards the group, Wood noticed Shris wasn't there. "Status report?"

<Tag Merit>

Suddenly, the ship shook, followed by the red alert klaxon.
"Wood to bridge, don't tell me we're being attacked already?"

<Tag Pudlo, Shris>

[cptjeff]

"Wood to bridge, don't tell me we're being attacked already?"

"alright." Jeff answered and stayed silent for a half second. "what do you want me to tell you? there Are two of the raiders- I don't know what they are- off the port bow. fortunately enough we're in between them and the freighters, and I've also figured out their motives. Unfortunately. We're moving in to respond, you might want to get up here."

<Wood>

"they have been using the minerals in a chemical reaction that turns them into a very tiny particulate that can be flushed with phaser energy. If we were to be hit with that, it would be pretty nasty. the chemical is highly reactive on some alloys, including tritainium."

"how do you know that?" the science officer asked.

"Engineering background. We use it to cut precision pieces."

Wood Arrived on the bridge just then. "fire control is at your order sir." Jeff nodded, moving to the executive officer's seat.