Target Acquired

Posted on Sun Jun 2nd, 2013 @ 10:30am by Commander Brian Ratchford & Lieutenant Commander Morgan Kelly & Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean

Mission: Reindeer Games
Location: USS Jackal - Bridge

Ensign De'Havean, as the ship flew to Garus IV, looked over the various attack/evasive manuevers she would use for the encounter with USS Carthage. She occasionaly made adjustments to the course enroute to their destination. Listening to the general flow of conversation about the bridge.

As one of the two hatches onto the bridge - they were far too different in design to the doors on other Starfleet vessels to really fit the simple descriptor of 'door' - slid open, the commander stepped through onto the compact bridge. "What have we got?" he asked calmly, as he strode into the room, comfortable in the small ship already to stroll around the bridge rather than restricting himself to the command chair.

Kelly spun around from his tactical console. Even though he had the bridge, he still preferred to oversee operations from his usual seat, especially since he was monitoring. "I've been tracking the Bajoran freighter, Captain. It looks like he's been heading towards the Garus system. There's not a lot there other than a small research facility. It's not a place that would normally attract a civilian freighter, at least not normally."

"How far out are they?" Ratchford asked, by now standing in front of the viewscreen, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Not far, maybe thirty minutes out. It will still take us a couple hours at our best possible speed."

Brian stood and considered their options for a few moments. He knew that the crew hadn't detected anything else that may be the Carthage, so Commander Von must be doing an extraordinary job of hiding the ship.

"Adjust speed Ensign," he said, as he continued his way around the bridge, now finally heading for the chair at the centre. "Bring us to warp nine, and put our ETA up on the viewscreen." As he settled into his seat, he turned to tap on the console to the chair's right, bringing up status reports from all of the ship's stations. He had known from the start that much of the time between assignments on this mission would likely be spent searching and waiting, but he couldn't help but admit he was starting to feel a little impatient - especially on a ship this small and without the usual tasks that he could occupy himself with on a ship not assigned as garrison to the starbase. On the Jackal, all of those little distractions and tasks were left behind on SB332.

Morgan turned back to his console. "I'll see what I can find out about the system, Captain. If that is the Carthage, maybe we can figure out what she is up to."

Whilst the bridge fell into a much quieter state as everybody set about the tasks in front of them, Brian called up various reports on his captain's station, checking to see if there had been any notifications sent by and of the other Federation starships in the area. There was nothing so far - a day so quiet that any patrol ship captain would relish it, though the feeling only added to his anticipation of the battle drills they'll be performing. Previous Starfleet drills he had participated in were much more straight-forward; a test of ship-against-ship, with each starting within sight of each other and the only objective to be to win. The Sojourners needed Starfleet to be able to train itself in different ways to deal with ever changing scenarios, and the unknown that was before them sent a chill of excitement up his spine every time he thought about it.

As the Jackal neared her destination, Lt. Kelly monitored the situation. He tried to think of his previous commander, trying to get in her head and determine how she thought. He wasn't sure it was working, but an alert from his console shook him back to the present. "Captain, I'm getting a general alarm from the facility on Garus IV. There has been some phaser fire reported. Reports indicate Starfleet issue phasers, set on stun." He checked another report from the station. A large grin grew on his face. "Visual sweeps indicate the the Bajoran ship is Starfleet in origin. Appears to be Excelsior-class, sir."

"This is it," the commander said confidently, glad that the two hours they had had to wait to reach the system were now over. "Shields up; bring the modified weaponry online. Helm; prepare to drop us out of warp. All hands," he said, tapping the comm panel on his captain's console. "Prepare for simulated battle scenario."

---

Lt. Commander Brian Ratchford
Temporary Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Morgan Kelly [P: Von]
First Officer & Tactical Officer

&

Ensign Erica De'Havean [P: Akiashiro]
Chief Helmsman
USS Jackal