Reporting In

Posted on Sat Dec 24th, 2011 @ 5:08pm by Lieutenant Commander Sean O'Connell & Captain Alexander Gunning

Mission: The Invasion of Thane
Location: Deck 12 Commander's office.
Timeline: MD01 - 0600 (Launch minus 4hrs)

[ON]

The Antietam was going to be a nightmare to find staff for at such short notice. The more he went on the more he realised that these officers were all experienced Starbase personnel and, much as they would make a decent fist of it aboard a carrier, they didn't have the experience in orbital combat.

Before Sean entered the office he checked his uniform and then noticed he was still wearing his phaser. He quickly looked around if he could hand it over to a security officer, but then realised he was still on duty so he was expected to drag it along. He checked his uniform and hair. He looked presentable enough for the admiral and entered the office.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Sean O'Connell reporting as ordered,sir." He had walked towards the admiral's desk and stood to attention.

"Lieutenant... O'Connell..." The Admiral said, looking around his desk. He had asked to see the man but with the launch preparations already underway he had all but forgotten and had mislaid the PADD and the box that he had been holding onto. "...yes, I wanted to see you. Sorry. You may have noticed that we have a situation. I don't know if you're up on the region but we have reason to believe that the Ritorian Confederacy are about to attempt to annex the Thane system."

"Security is keeping me busy, sir, but I did notice a few things not right, sir. Just got assigned here, so I have been trying to get up to speed, sir."Sean had noticed a higher alert status on a few decks. His assignment hadn't been affected by it yet.

"How are you on tactical?" The Admiral asked simply.

"Former Chief tactical and Chief Security officer of the USS Eagle, sir. Logged about 2000 hours on the simulators back in San Francisco. Trained about 100 tactical officers currently serving on several vessels,sir. In theory I am probably the most experienced junior tactical officer on this station, sir." He looked at the admiral and sported a grin. "Or what the right answer to your question should have been: I know my way around a tactical console without blowing the ship up, sir."

"Good. You're going to be taking the tactical console on the USS Metis. I'm sorry to drop you in it, Lieutenant but you might be a bit happier to hear the other reason I dragged you all the way up here."

"Understood,sir, I'll report to the metis when I am done here, would like to know why I was dragged here,sir." A soon as he heard assigned to a ship he was already making notes to check the metis weaponry and status of targeting control.


"You may not have noticed that we've had our Head of Station Security reassigned to a vessel on the Metron border. We need someone with experience to replace her and I heard you were previously on secondment at the Academy. That's good enough for me," the Admiral said, eventually finding the small box he had been looking for, "you're hereby promoted to full Lieutenant and granted the position of Chief of Station Security. Congratulations, Lieutenant. I wish we had time to buy you a drink to celebrate."

"Thank you, sir. I'll get wasted later, sir. I need to check the Metis before I get to blow up stuff with her, sir. Also I probably need to start going through shift rotations and have a glance through my security staff."Sean shook his head, it had been a fast track career within a year from Academy instructor to Chief of Security of a starbase. "So who is head of starfleet security for this sector, sir? I probably have to start scheduling meetings and such as well."

Having finished chuckling at the Security Officer's frank sense of humour, Gunning was left with an overriding impression of a man who would get the job done. He liked that. "Currently there isn't anyone responsible for the sector's security officially but as we are the main base in the sector, the tasks will mostly fall to you in terms of 'policing' the sector. At the moment, Commander Von is responsible for the tactical security of the sector."

"I'll have a word with Commander Von about our sector security. I probably need a small patrol vessel to assign which falls under strategic operations. Yet, first we probably need to stop the Ritorians. So what do we have on them, sir, weaknesses, technology , culture, history?" Sean looked at the admiral. "Sorry If I'm being too forward, but the last two might give us some advantage I'd rather talk my way out of a fight or use some honoured tradition as an advantage. "

"Honestly, Lieutenant? Not a lot. We know a fair bit about their armaments etc but some of the reports are years out of date. We could be flying into a fleet of dreadnoughts or two lightly armoured carriers. We just have no idea." He sighed. "The Ritorian Confederacy will not take our 'meddling' lightly. I would anticipate that we'll come under fire the minute we drop out of warp. Unfortunately, we don't have much of a choice."

The Commanding Officer rounded the desk and handed the Lieutenant a PADD. He had been impressed with the man's enthusiasm thus far but he knew the Security Chief would get more information from a full Starfleet report rather than his patchy memories. "That should tell you everything you need to know."

"Not much on the information side. Do we have any Klingon ships in the area,sir? A cloaked BoP sent a head can at least give us an idea what we are facing,sir. "Sean read through the info and found it was basic at best."it seems we are at war so the klingons must send some aid according to the renewed khitomer treaty of 2374,sir. What with the Gorn in our backyard. I would think our klingon friends are closer then you might think or like,sir."

"If only that were true Lieutenant." Gunning replied, his voice tinged with regret, "the Klingons seem unwilling to either assist us or send any assistance at this point. Admiral Sanchez himself has spoken directly with the High Command but to no avail." He looked across the desk at the Lieutenant who now seemed slightly crestfallen. "The fleet can't even spare us more than our own vessels. Even the Vesta is thought to be too far out to help. Our orders are such that we'll be relying on the long range sensor sweeps from the Metis to give us a clearer picture of what we're up against."

"I concur. I would advise a skeleton crew for the Metis 20 crewmembers would be enough to run her and she is the least powerful. She will be out of the running faster then the Jackal. Also we could bolster the fleet if we have some runabouts to add extra cover, sir. And they are small enough to escape notice to so we can evacuate the Metis if it needs to run that course." Sean was already running through worse case scenarios . "I'm sorry, sir, but you needed a tactical officer and this is part of the the job,sir."

Gunning mused over the Lieutenant's suggestions. They were all perfectly reasonable and the thought of running the Metis at reduced capacity hadn't even occurred to him. "Good thinking, Lieutenant. As for the Runabouts, I don't think we'll need them. The Antietam has a full compliment of fighters that we'll be able to use should we need to cover any escapes."

The Lieutenant's words echoed in his head. Worst case scenarios. The worst case scenario was that they were all blown to smithereens by the time they'd dropped out of warp. He inhaled deeply, put on a brave face and looked across the desk at the Lieutenant. "If you put this much detail into security as you do into Tactical then I think I'm going to enjoy having you around, O'Connell. In the mean time, you're dismissed. Go and make whatever preparations you need to and report to Commander Prax on the bridge of the Metis."

As the Lieutenant turned to leave, Gunning spoke quietly. "Good luck out there."

[OFF]

Rear Admiral Alex Gunning
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Sean O'Connell
Chief of Station Security