Conferring Information

Posted on Thu Mar 31st, 2022 @ 4:27am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant JG Jenna Jade & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Lieutenant Mark Valleroy & Lieutenant Jason Beauvoir & Lieutenant JG Faith Vianelli & Captain Natalya Markova

Mission: Pirates! (Or Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum)
Location: Conference Room

Ensign Jenna Jade stepped into the conference room with some nerve on her face. She'd been informed by the Captain that since she'd co-opted Commander Espersen as the XO, that she, a freshly branded by-god ENSIGN, was going to be acting as the Chief Engineer for the time being. No, not with the title and with Espersen constantly watching over her, until the Commodore came up with a new face... Again. This had been her third Chief Engineer in what? Two months on board the Chimera? First was Laura Davenport, Olivier Maurnier had been just a temporary fixture anyways, and about an hour or two of Alexander Espersen before the Skipper had taken him away.

So here she was, early to the senior staff meeting to tell them about the new mission. Rumor was that they were going to run escort for a convoy before they were pulled in for a full refit. Boring. But it'd give her a bit more of a chance to get the warp core into proper shape. She pulled out a PADD to make notes on as she sat in the seat furthest from where the Captain would sit, being the most junior officer that would be there.

Jason entered the conference room, a cup of Vulcan mint tea in his hand. "Good day, Ensign." He said to Jenna.

"Good morning, suh." Jenna replied quietly

Richard came in with his PADD under his arm. He found a seat and took it waiting for the briefing to start.

Mark walked into the conference room and took a seat." Morning, everyone," he said with a nod towards the others.

Alexander was next, a cup of ginger tea in one hand and a PADD in the other, containing the personnel list for the ship. He knew the schematics of the Chimera inside and out, but the people...there were a lot of them. "Lieutenants, Ensign," he said, nodding to the others as he sat to the right of the head of the table.

Natalya Markova entered the conference, coffee in hand, and a look of someone who was a thousand miles away.

The very last one to walk in (this time) was Calypso herself. And she did walk in, though her motions were stiff as she still recovered from her wounds. She took her seat at the head of long table as the chatter died down, then gave a very slight smile, "Thank you all for getting here before I did, that should make this a bit easier."

She glanced to her right hand side, "With Commander Driskell on his way back to Earth for recovery, I was in need of a replacement and after reviewing his record, decided to bring our new Chief Engineer into the command fold. Lieutenant Commander Espersen, if you'd introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you."

"Yes, Captain," Alexander replied. "I've met some of you already, but for those who don't know me, I'm Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen. I'm new to command, but prior to coming here I was an instructor at the Academy, so I'm hoping some of that translates nicely."

"Thank you." The solemnity that came from Cally wasn't quite normal, but she continued on, gesturing to Jason, "That brings us to our new Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Jason Beauvoir. Lieutenant, the same, if you don't mind?"

"As the CO said, I'm the new Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Jason Beauvoir. I've been in Starfleet for nearly 20 years. In that time I've served as a Science officer, Linguist and on occasion I've even manned Operations." Jason said. "I've not always agreed with Command, and have broken the regs, more than once, hence the fact that I'm still a Lieutenant." He gave a brief smile. "But I assure you I am loyal to my crew and I perform my duties to the best of my abilities."

"And because we're once again without a ranking engineer, Ensign Jade is joining us as the provisional Chief to represent the section." Calypso managed a brief smirk as the young Ensign blushed red, "Only until we can get someone of sufficient experience, but I'm sure she'll do just fine." She tapped a sequence of buttons on the table in front of them, a map of the sector springing into life.

"So I'm sure you're all wondering what our next assignment is. The Starbase is still working on pulling together what they need for our refit, so we've been asked to play the role of a hunter of pirates. The basic situation is that independently routed freighters have been getting jumped by a pirate group that has made itself at home in the area, so the Sector has been utilizing Fleet units to escort convoys around rather than trying to hunt them down. Lieutenant Wayne, I believe you had a visit with Fleet Intelligence about this, if you wouldn't mind giving us a briefing on what we're up against?"

Richard nodded as he stood pushing some buttons on the PADD that activated the wall monitor. On the map on the wall there where many red dots. "So marked on the map are known incursions by this pirate cell. They are running four ships that we know of. All of which are ex-fleet vessels. Their typical MO is to have a ship damaged and needing help then when the freighter goes to investigate the others swoop in, engage, and make off with the cargo." He passed before continuing. "We have no leads as of yet as their origin or base of ops is located. We have some unconfirmed reports on who is running the show but we need to figure these things out so we can put a stop to this. Much of what they have taken is food stuffs, and medical materials that are needed for nearby systems.". He finished as he sat.

"Seems to me," Mark said, "that the items they take would suggest some non-aligned colony that is unable to procure food or medical supplies through more legal channels. What do we know about non-aligned colonies in the sector?"

"I'm aware that there are a handful along the northern border and beyond, human and non-Federation." Calypso said, giving Richard a curious look, "But the use of ex-Fleet starships is concerning. You said, Richard, that there are unconfirmed reports on who it is? Are they a known factor, like an ex-Fleet officer who could have gotten their hands on the ships, or what else is known about them?"

"Sorry, to interrupt, I'm no engineer, but if we examine the attacked vessels, we could find out if the damage was inflicted by Starfleet phasers. If so, that would point to the fact that they are ex-Fleet vessels, as it very difficult to fit phasers to a vessel that is normal constructed to use disruptors, it requires a Starbase or Shipyard facility, as you have to strip down and practically rebuild the vessel." Jason said. "I'm certain Ensign Jade would agree."

Jenna merely blushed a deep red at the mention of her, "Ah, Ah'd think so, suh, Ah've not seen anythin' about the damaged ships myself, suh."

Faith had slipped quietly into the meeting and slid into a seat, just sitting and listening to the discussion around her. "The obvious answer isn't always the correct answer," she finally said softly.

The Intelligence officer went on to talk about the ships, how one was an Intrepid, another Steamrunner, a Miranda and finally the scout ship of the Venture-class. Only one more modern ship, but the rest could hold their own in a fight.

"Thanks Richard." Cally gave a soft smile to her Intelligence officer, then gestured at the center of the table, "So the mission is to go hunt down this pirate band and restore order, as the orders from the Commodore state. The question is how we want to do it." She smiled broadly, "As Richard was telling us, these pirates use hit and run tactics, which means they're never in one place long enough for one of the Fleet units to respond to a distress call. I've asked the Commodore if she could make some older freighters available to us to use as bait. In fact, to use as bait for us to pounce on and capture. If we throw a new paint job on Chimera, then go hunting for prizes of our own, these old freighters, we may find ourselves in contact with this group and get invited into the fox's own den and take them from there. Anyone have any other ideas?"

"That sounds like a 'fun' plan, but we could in addition chart the sites of each attack to get an approximate location of their lair." Jason said.

"Another option is to put ourselves out there as bait," Alexander suggested. "Starfleet surplus vessels have been used as civilian transports before. The Chimera's history being what it is, we could truss it up to look like a transport, draw an attack, and then reveal ourselves to be better armed than they think. Destroy a few pirate ships, capture enough to get a lead on where they are." He looked at the Captain. "This also has the advantage of not requiring the pirates to invite us to their base of operations. If we pretend to be them, they may just see us as competition."

Faith raised an eyebrow slightly. "Is being considered competition really any better?"

"No, and that's my point," Alexander answered. "One option is to pretend to be pirates, as was suggested. We go after some decoys and let the other pirates see us engaging in piracy. Maybe they welcome us into their fold, or maybe they shoot on sight. Coin flip odds, I think. If it works, it will work well, but if it doesn't, then we're in a fight we can't easily control. My idea is to be seen as prey. As a target. We'll expect to be attacked and maybe we can better control how, when, and where we're attacked, and turn the tide a little easier." He looked at the Captain. "One is a guaranteed firefight, but maybe an easier one. The other has the potential to get what we want without being attacked, but if we are, it might be a worse fight."

“If we were to go with being a Q-ship,” Cally began, using the term for a warship disguised as a merchantman, or a really upgunned merchant ship, “We’d be able to suck them in close and blow them away, at least once, maybe twice, but finding their operational base might be more difficult unless we can get a good read of their database.” She spoke along the lines of Devil’s Advocate on the idea, not being against it, “But a valid idea. Anyone else have a third alternative?”

"Any reason we can't just capture one of these ships outright?" Mark asked. "Usually, a lot of these pirates rely on old, outdated ships that are armed with whatever weapons and shielding they can get their hands on. Even though we aren't in too great a condition ourselves, if we can catch one or two of them alone there's little reason why we can't incapacitate them, especially if we have the element of surprise, and simply take the information we want from their computers."

"You're the ship's Tactical officer, Mark." Calypso nodded, "If you think we can disable them rather than destroy them, you're the one with the targeting data. Pirate crews, however, do come in over-large, so we'll have to hit them hard once we do disable them. "Natalya, you and Mark here will have to coordinate an assault plan if we take that path."

"Yes ma'am." That assumed they'd live long enough to engage on a boarding action, one way or the other.

"All right, so we've got two different ideas to suck in our pirate friends close enough to either destroy them or capture them, or even to try to ally with them." She glanced around the table at her senior officers, "While it's my responsibility to make the final decision, I'd like to hear from each of you which one you'd prefer, lowest ranked first." She looked at Jenna by the foot of the table.

Jenna swallowed hard at the sudden attention in her direction, then gave a nervous smile that fell immediately, "Ma'am, It'd be easier to um..." She swallowed again, her voice very soft, "Ah'd rather go with the cargo conversion, ma'am, as Commander Esperson said, we'd be more in control of any combat."

"I don't think either is a good idea," Faith said simply. "We're one ship and we're going to be easily outgunned if we aren't careful. if they think we're Starfleet, they'll attack. If they think we're competition, they'll attack. It seems that attack is inevitable, it's just how big of an attack, and when. We can't control any of those options." She shook her head. "We're in trouble no matter which option we choose."

"With all due respect," Nat nodded to both Jenna and the Commander. "You don't control anything when you're being ambushed. They choose when, they choose how, and they choose how much fire-power to bring to bear. The point of an ambush is to hit the enemy hard, fast, and don't give them a chance to fight back. You don't walk off a punch to the face. Been there. Got the broken nose." Her gaze turned to Richard. "You said they have four ships that we know of. If they have more? Could we hold in a fight? They'll see this is a Starfleet ship - merchantman or no, it's still a Starfleet design. That will tell them the threat we could pose. They ain't stupid, at least not if they're good. They'll come at us with enough to take us down."

Alexander simply listened and nodded. He wasn't a combat expert, and was learning. His idea had been to draw people to them in a controlled setting, but if the people who knew better thought that was the harder approach, he wouldn't speak against it.

Calypso raised a finger to Richard to forestall his comments, face turned in a slight frown, "I understand this is dangerous, we're not going up against the pillow-people from the Feather empire. I've seen the projections on their four starship and individually, we could handle them pretty easily. Together, if they have all four? We'd probably be in over our heads, but they tend to operate solo or in pairs, only once did they ever show up with three and that was when they were taking down a pair of unescorted merchants." She made a 'so-so' gesture over the table, "If I choose the Q-ship path, there are ways to disguise ourselves to indicate that we had most of our weapons taken out. If I choose the faux-pirate-ship route, I'd actually be courting an attack on us by a singleton or a pair of them. My point is that this entire job in Starfleet can be dangerous." She used her speech to meet everyone's eyes one by one around the table, "No, they aren't stupid, Nat, but neither are we. I made the last few years of my career hunting down bastards like these, I'm not about to let one of them outwit me again."

"I've tangled with pirates too, Nausicaans in my case, though they can work alone, non Nausicaans often hire them for muscle. They're not overly intelligent, but they are ruthless and crafty. Whichever plan we choose we've got to leave space for contingencies." Jason said.

"Well, I really don't have much else to add," Mark said to Commander Skyie. "But no matter what decision you make, I'd like to ask to be provided what information is available on these pirates so that I can prepare for whatever the plan is."

“We’ll have the ship ready, in whatever configuration you order,” Alexander said firmly. He was still learning, but he knew enough to support whatever decision was taken. And he would support it to the best of his ability.

Cally reached up and ran one hand through the front of her hair as she considered each officer as they made their opinions known. The only one that had really made a statement in favor of either option had been the first, thank the Four for Ensigns... The rest hedged one way or the other, pointing out the obvious danger of both plans while not committing their observations to either. Of course, Faith had thought both plans were less than optimal, which even Cally agreed with. She brought her hand down as she made the decision.

"All right. I appreciate the input and thank you all for pointing out the dangers involved. As I said, none of us chose the Fleet because it was the safest place to be, because a good part of our mission is to put ourselves into harm's way between the bad guys and the people needing protecting." She gave a slight smile, "I myself would prefer the more aggressive stance, but we all know fighter pilots are a bit crazy.

"But being aggressive and turning ourselves into what we're hunting, while a fun idea, does put us in more danger than the other method. So we are going to become a Q-ship instead." Cally glanced at Alex briefly, then at Jenna, "Engineering will turn our forward section into a blacked out area, obscure the windows except for a few that will show storage space. Window lighting will be reduced to the bare minimum, perhaps ten percent of what would be considered normal to simulate a heavily reduced crew. We're going to have the starbase install some external cargo connections and load us up with cargo pods everywhere we reasonably could be expected to put them."

Her eyes then went to Mark, "We're going to install ejectable plating over the primary phasers, but emphasize the secondary arrays while making them appear to be a couple generations behind the current upgrades. Torpedo tubes will be covered with obvious fake 'tubes', also easily discardable." She gave him a slightly feral grin, "If we can look like a defanged cat trying to look like we've got a bigger bite than we should, it'll keep them distracted while they move in closer."

Her gaze turned to Jason, "Jason, I want you to work with the sensors. Anything we can do to find them before they find us will only help us, even if we don't react until they're in our trap. Start looking for potential hidey holes that they might be in as well. Likely asteroid fields, abandoned star systems, rogue planets, nebulae that reduce sensor capability. I've found that these people tend to use natural formations for their bases."

"Natalya, you'll work with Mark on a strike team. If we can disable one of these bastards, I want that ship. Database intact if at all possible, prisoners for certain. Faith, I may need you in on interrogations of said prisoners." She swept her eyes around the table, "Does anyone have a problem with this plan? Now is the time to speak up."

Looking around the table, no one said anything for a few seconds and Cally nodded, pushing herself to her feet, "All right then, you're all dismissed. Let's be about it."