Carthage Departure

Posted on Mon Mar 11th, 2013 @ 9:32pm by Captain Liarra Von & Commander Brian Ratchford & Lieutenant Commander Sean O'Connell & Lieutenant Commander Le Austin & Major Alexandria Somers & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D.

Mission: Reindeer Games
Location: Bridge, USS Carthage
Timeline: One day after "Finalising the Plans"

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The bridge of the Carthage was a much different sight to the Jackal's bridge she was more used to. The cramped stations and corridors gave away to wide open spaces. In addition to her ready room, the Excelsior class ship had a real observation lounge, and not just a crowded table in the captain's office. The crew had their own rooms, and no longer had to double up. There were even holodecks and lounges. It almost didn't feel fair that her team seemed to be living in the lap of luxury compared to the conditions on their much smaller counterpart. However, she was not going to complain.

Commander Von made her way to the center of the bridge to the command chair. From there, she was to lead this crew into acts of terrorism against the Federation, in hopes that something could be learned from this exercise. What was going to happen was yet to be seen. She glanced around the bridge to take note that her senior staff was standing by. Captain Griffiths found her home at the science station, using it as a makeshift mission advisory station. The new engineer had found his place at engineering station to her right. Doctor Daniels was sitting immediately to her left. Her acting first officer was doing double duty from the tactical station. She turned to address him first.

"Commander O'Connell, what is our status?"

"Everything seems to check out. Weapons are okay. Now checking with all departments."Sean tapped a few button on his console.

"This Is O'Connell, will all departments please report in."

"CONN's ready," Exeter replied - first one in for once, though his tone hardly said that he was brimming with excitement. His interaction done, he simply waited for the other departments to report, tapping the odd control on his station casually as time went by.

Working at an unfamiliar station on the bridge of the USS Carthage, Naomi set up some initial plans, then looked back at the Captain "Science Ready Captain, initial wargame scenario prepared, it is only a prologue at the moment to get both crews into the right mind of thinking, before the main course starts" Naomi said.

"Sounds, good, Naomi. Once we are well away from the station, I'll relay our orders. For the time being, once we are cleared to depart, we will be under strict radio silence. We might as well try to get used to being alone out here."

Austin piped up from his station next, "Everything is a-go from an Engineering perspective, ma'am. I intend to make the Jackal work for it," He said, a playful grin on his face. He enjoyed war games. Playing it serious was important, if you weren't taking them seriously it defeated the purpose, but at the end of the day, it _was_ a game and the stakes weren't life or death. And he loved a good chance to outshine a fellow Engineer.

"Alright then," Liarra said as she leaned forward in her chair. "Let's get this show on the road. Mr. O'Connell, open a channel to the station."

Sean shook his head as he slaved communications to the secondary tactical console.

"Comm is open, cap'n"

"Captain Gunning, the Carthage is ready to go rogue. I trust Commander Ratchford has been playing nice and hiding in the Jackal?"

The voice of Captain Gunning was heard laughing on the other end of the channel. "Don't worry, Liarra. I made sure they were isolated."

"Thank you, Captain. Request permission to depart."

"Permission granted, Carthage. Make us proud, or, er, not proud, I suppose would be better."

It was Liarra's turn to laugh. "Thank you, sir. Once we clear the station, we'll be under radio silence, so I'll talk to you when we get home."

"I'll leave the light on for you, Carthage. Good luck."

The comm channel closed and Liarra turned to her officers. "Mr. Le, disengage docking clamps and clear all moorings. Mr. Exeter, once we are clear, thrusters one quarter reverse and falling dock the dock master's instructions."

Austin's hands danced across the console, sending commands through the ship's mooring systems, "Docking clamps disengaged and... Moorings clear, ma'am. We're ready to go." He replied.

"Thrusters answering all reverse," Exeter responded, sounding more alert now that he was actually doing something. Due to the Carthage's position in the docking area there wasn't enough room to easily rotate the ship in place, and so the Excelsior class exited the docking bay doors nacelles first. Once they were clear, he fired the port thrusters on the saucer and used the thrusters on the nacelles to keep the turn controlled as the ship redirected toward open space. Unfortunately, he fired them a little too early, and the side of the saucer section began to move dangerously close to the side of the hangar exit, eventually coming close enough to scrape some paint off of both surfaces. John could feel the vibrations through the helm controls, could practically hear the high pitched scraping sound, and could definitely imagine the grimaces on the face of anyone watching as he tried his best to act as if it didn't happen. "We're clear," he reported in as usual a manner as he could.

Looking from her Console at Von "Captain when both ships are out of dock I would like to speak to the other ship, it will be about the Wargame exercise, plus in light of what I am here for I have set up the start of the exercise and will need to speak to the Captain of the Jackal, with your permission?" Naomi asked.

"What do you need to talk to them about, Captain. The exercises won't officially start until after the Jackal leaves spacedock tomorrow. I haven't even revealed our objectives yet."

"I meant after the Jackal leaves spacedock Captain, I would like to add a little twist to your objectives, if we are to play the bad guys, we need to add some spice. Yes I have seen your plans Captain and they are excellent, but there is an event I would like to add. But we will not tell the Jackal that bit" She said giving a sly wink. "The only info I will pass onto the Jackal is the basic actions the bad guys do, to allow them to get into the mindset of the Wargame.

Liarra shook her head. "Request denied, Captain. We are hereby under strict radio silence. If we give them hints, then that spoils the point of the exercise. I need us to think creatively to make it difficult for them, not to make it easier. After we're underway, we'll review our objectives, which have been given in no set order. Ratchford knows the nature of three of them, but he doesn't know what order. We are to come up with a couple on our own that they will have no warning about. We can discuss your plan at our briefing. I have no doubt that Commander Ratchford will be getting them in the wargame mindset."

Melissa emerged from the turbolift, catching half of the Conversation. "I've got a ward full of people who's sex drive is on... well... overdrive, and I'm here for wargames. If all goes well, I hope to be patching up egos." The Doctor quipped.

"Let's hope that's all you need to patch up, Doctor," Liarra said with a smile. "Mr. Exeter, set a course for these coordinates," Liarra ordered as she typed commands into the console in the arm of her chair. "Warp Four."

Austin always loved this part. To the outside observer, it looked like the Captain gave a command, the helmsman punched a button, and the ship magically rocketed forward. But that command sent a flurry of action into play. As soon as the warp level was announced, Austin immediately began raising power from the warp core to the nacelles, while the Ops console handled passing that power to the necessary systems and relaying it in such a way that nothing blew, some of that was automated, but not all of it. Meanwhile, the helmsman plugs in coordinates in three dimensions, that last glorious button mash was the crescendo in the symphony of activity that set a starship into motion.

Austin smiled as he began to dial up the power, knowing that he was just the conductor tapping his music stand.

John saw the coordinates appear on his terminal and immediately transposed them into the navigational computer. The location it gave was definitely intriguing, but he knew that he couldn't trust himself not to start asking about their destination if he spoke up, and so allowed the report that they were on their way to be left to the fact that the stars stretched and then started streaking past on the image of the viewscreen.

Melissa spoke, "Looks like everything is under control here. I'm going to start up a holonovel in the Holodecks. Buzz me if you need me, Commander."

Sean shook his head as he observed the whole departure and stations reporting in. Normally he would have called Exeter on his mistakes, but he was also tactical and flying a ship in combat needed good teamwork between the helmsman and tactical officer.

"Captain Griffiths, if you have any ideas or suggestion I am assigned as First officer and tactical officer on this little excursion. Any ideas on how to make it difficult for Ratford, Roquefort or what ever his name is, I would like to know. This counts for the whole bridge crew any ideas let me know or save it for the staff briefing." Sean said from his station at tactical.

Standing up and beginning to pace as she thought "I would advise doing a simulated attack on this automated Freighter at these coordinates" She said walking over to the console she was at and typed in a few things. "Sending the details over to you. Its an old freighter unmanned, but has current ID and IFF transponder codes and a pre-programmed response to whatever questions the Jackals CO asks. Adjust Carthage's Weapon signature to match any Pirate groups weapons, also alter our ID and IFF to a hostile ship, this will likely make the Jackal CO wonder *shrugging* its a start" She said.

"That's not a bad though, Captain," Liarra said with a slow nod. "He'll be looking for a Federation ship. We may be able to mask our signature. Lieutenant Le, what do you know about masking a warp signature? Was there much opportunity for that during the occupation?"

Austin thought about it for a moment and shook his head, "Very little need although... It wouldn't be uncommon for Bajoran cargo haulers to be out in this section of space. I could probably mask our warp signature to look like one. It wouldn't be hard, but it could destablize our core a bit," He replied. "Nothing life threatening, it'd just make it... a bit more difficult to manage." He explained.

"Let's do it, Lieutenant. Just keep an eye on our core. Mr. Exeter, when Mr. Le's modifications are complete, then lay in a course for Garus IV, at a speed slightly slower than the freighter's top speed. Hopefully that will help throw them off our trail. Other than that, I want the senior staff to meet me in the observation lounge in one hour. We'll discuss our objectives then. For now, you have the bridge, Commander O'Connell."
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Commander Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
USS Carthage

Lt. Commander Sean O'Connell
Executive Officer/Chief Tactical Officer
USS Carthage

Lieutenant Le Austin
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Carthage

Captain Naomi Griffiths
Mission Advisor
USS Carthage

Lt. Commander Melissa Daniels
Chief Medical Officer
USS Carthage

Lieutenant JG John Exeter [played by Lt. Cmd Ratchford]
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Carthage