Off Towards Cardassian Space

Posted on Mon Apr 23rd, 2018 @ 10:02pm by Major Hailey Weston & Staff Sergeant Nyx'e'Trixe Valentine & Lieutenant Cor Cordale & Ensign Felicie Rivero

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Shuttle Waterloo
Timeline: While Wellington is in-transit

Five minutes since they'd gone into warp and Hailey finally had the pilot and copilot leave the shuttle in autopilot and come back to the main cabin where the rest were. five other marines, she'd added two as an afterthought, the two pilots and the two engineers. Ten officers and NCOs to rescue one long-thought-dead Commander and to help a resistance cell fix their ship and then to escape. And in the last hour, she'd come up with and planned what would hopefully be the perfect plan to do so, or at least what might do it.

"Thank you for coming on this all expenses paid dream vacation with me to a destination unknown." She gave a wry smile as three of the marines gave grim laughs at that inside joke, "But now that we're away and cut off communication with everyone for the time being... We're on our way to Draxis Eight, a Cardassian-held world here in the Delta Quadrant, in order to rescue Commander Olivia Bowman and to attempt repairs on their ship. They were on their way to bring the Commander back to us when they suffered an unspecified engineering casualty. Wellington was the closest ship with the right people in place, or at least enough of them, to go in and handle the situation." She'd punched up a hologram of the world in question, then a portion of it flashed yellow, "This is the general location of the ship, we know where it is to within ten kilometers, but once we're down on the ground, we're going to actually have to search for it. They are under complete emissions control because if the Cardys find them, they are all dead. If they find us with them? We're dead too."

She tapped another button and a Condor-class ship came up, the iconic image of a Maquis Raider repurposed, "Ensigns, are either of you familiar with one of these?" She looked to both Felicie and the one she only knew as Carter. "I know they're old, but well..."

"Daaaamn..." Felecie muttered under her breath. "Yeah, I'm familiar, I tinkered with one a bit when I was at the academy." She shook her head quickly. "Any idea how much damage the ship had sustained or how long it's been inoperable for?"

"No idea and about three days." Hailey answered, glancing towards Carter as well in case of any other question.

Carter looked at the specs for the Condor. "I suppose they didn't have anything older to offer." the Engineering ensign offered. "I've studied these, but never had any actual hands-on. Shouldn't be a problem to get one up and running though." Carter mentioned with a confident nod.

"Excellent." Hailey gave a slight smile, We just don't have any specific problems to prepare for. It made it into the system and just had some sort of failure. But that is what you two get to work with." She smiled, "Now, here's the hard part. Before we left, I grabbed a bunch of civilian clothing, something scientists would wear. We are officially the shuttle Waterloo off of the science vessel USS Belgium, which just happens to be in the general area, on a survey mission of their wetland areas, complete with an official-ish document with the right endorsements. That should get us on the ground with little or no harassment. If that doesn't work? Plan B goes into effect. That's a bit more... Energetic, to say the least. On the ground, we make our way to their ship, fix it, then return to the shuttle with our extra passenger and probably wait a few hours before taking off."

"So, basically, we lie about who we are, pretend to be something we are not, to try and find a hidden vessel that may or may not be repairable and a crew who may or may not even still be alive and hope we don't get found out along the way... Gee, what could possibly go wrong?" Felicie shook her head slightly. "What's our ETA?"

"It's like playing Pretend, but professionally." Carter mentioned with a nod.

"It's about nine and a half hours away, so I'd recommend getting a nap in if you have the opportunity to do so." Hailey smiled slyly, then glanced at the pilots, "I'll be up there when we arrive and make contact and should be able to get permission to land without too much trouble, or at least that's the plan. We land, you stay with the ship with Martinez and Jeffers and the rest of us head out on 'safari' to catalogue the local flora and fauna. Valentine will take the point, Me, Rozhev and you two ladies in the center, Chavez on rear guard." She glanced around again, "Any other questions?"

"Nothing I think I actually really want an answer to," Felicie replied with another shake of her head. She turned her mind toward the vessel they were going to have to repair. Before they land she was going to have to do a bit more homework to make sure they were as prepared as they could be. Nothing like a 'mess up and die' situation to truly encourage one to be on point.

***Just over nine hours later***

The shuttle reverted back from warp and immediately began to transmit it's identity code to the expected beacons, the purloined letter approach. Within ten seconds, a face appeared on the screen and immediately noted the two pilots, one in civilian pilots attire, the other in the red of a Starfleet officer, then the civilian-clothed woman standing between them wearing a loose white coat and glasses that perched elegantly on the nose. His eyes narrowed and focused more on this one, "Who are you and what do you want?"

Hailey smiled brightly, "We're the shuttle Waterloo, off of the USS Berlin. We are from the Galactic Astrographic Survey Society and are here to perform the survey of some of your forests and rainforest areas to make scans and catalog the flora and fauna of Draxis Eight for inclusion into the database. I assume you received the itinerary we sent ahead of us?"

The Cardassian, a Gul's rank badge on his armor, sat back, "The what and what?"

"Flora and fauna." Hailey repeated slowly, "Plants and animals. We will, of course, be requesting to take some samples of the plants back with us to study in order to see if they have any potential medicinal purposes, but that should have been covered in the itinerary that was sent about three weeks ago. You did get that and are expecting us, right?" She was playing the part of a head scientist, had to have the right mixture of excitement and authority.

The Gul looked off to the side, "No, we don't have any record of a request by the Galactic Astrographic Survey Society in our files. You are out of your area... He paused trying to determine what to call her, then shook it off, "You must leave the system now."

Hailey rolled her eyes, "Look, I don't know how or why it didn't get into your system, but I swear, it was sent and I have confirmation of it." She reached over and punched a couple buttons, "I'm transmitting the copy I received to you now."

On the other end, the Gul looked down and sighed, I suppose this does look real. However, I'm going to need to contact your Society to confirm this." He reached for another screen.

"That'll take days!" Hailey objected, "And the Berlin is expecting us back in three days! Look, I know it's a pain in the ass, but give us twenty-four hours. That's all. If we don't do this survey, even just a partial, the Society is going to revoke my credentials and I've devoted the last eight years of my life to this project.. Please, just twenty-four hours, I promise that's all."

The hand stopped in midair as the plea from the desperate looking woman went through the Gul's mind, then a look of disgust crossed his face, "Fine. Twenty-four hours. If you're not gone by then, you and your shuttle will be detained and investigated. You are being monitored, Waterloo."

"Thank you!" Hailey exclaimed, then patted the civilian pilot on the shoulder, "Go to the first spot we figured on, we're in a hurry." She looked back up to the screen, "Thank you SO much! I promise, we'll be out of here as soon as we can!"

The screen went black and Hailey took the glasses off, "That IS the alpha site, book it." She then turned back to the main cabin and the smile left her face, "All right, we're in. We all know the plan, any last questions? Anyone want to back out?"

Felicie shook her head, remaining stoically silent. The bulk of the last 9 hours had been passed by intermittently napping and cramming in as much information as she could about the raider they were going to have to repair. Now she just felt nervously sick. They had 24 hours, after that the Cardassians were going to come looking for them and there would be very little hope they would be getting out alive. She gripped the water bottle in her hands a little tighter before replying "Lets get this over and done with, I'll feel a lot better when we're well clear of Cardassian space."

"No questions here." aside from that, Carter kept quiet and went over the specs for the ship in question one last time. Trying not to think about it was hard when you were an Engineer. Like Cordale said, an Engineer's brain couldn't really turn off.

Hailey nodded and stripped off the civilian clothes and re-donning her camoflage uniform, the one that would actually aid her in remaining covert in the jungle.She'd decided that Nyx would take the point with Chavez taking the rear, leaving her and Rozhev in tight with the engineers and one of the pilots. She'd debated that last point, but if...

A few minutes later, the shuttle was coming in for the final approach to the minor clearing she'd decided on after a look over the map for the most likely hiding spot for a downed ship, then hit the omni-directional comm pulse that could be covered by the increased engine power for landing. If the other ship were within a hundred kilometers of this point, there would be a directional pulse in response. Of course, more than ten kilometers would make the mission difficult, forty would make the mission one-way out, assuming they could fix the Condor-class vessel. Almost a hundred out? Mission over before it even began.

The shuttle didn't even land before the comm pulse came back. Someone out there was rather on a hair trigger. Hailey tapped the map and patted the pilot on the back, "Take us twenty klicks in that direction first, there's another clearing that direction." The pilot confirmed, then boosted a bit of power and started the shuttle moving as she kept an eye out for anything that might indicate something out of the ordinary. "There." She pointed at a bit of greenery, slightly more than ten kilometers away from the new clearing, a bit that just looked slightly out of place as if cut to cover something. "Orient the ramp that spot. Wagner?" The copilot nodded and stood from his seat and followed Hailey.

They entered the cabin space and Hailey gave a grim smile, "We've got a bit of a hike, but it's only ten kilometers if it's the right place. I figure we can be there in a less than four hours while staying a bit quiet. That'll give you two about twelve hours to see what the problems are and fix them. Sarge, you've got point, if it's hostile, deal with it. If it's Cardassian? Avoid it if we can, otherwise handle it. No phasers, nothing with an energy signature." The Tialan nodded and withdrew an honest to god collapsible bow from a round container off her back and checked to make sure there were arrows ready at hand, pulling one out and nocking it on the string as the bow expanded with a button push. With a gentle bump, the shuttle landed and the ramp went down. Nyx stopped at the doorway, glanced around, then set out carefully.

"Chavez, take the rear." Another nod, "Carter, Rivero, Wagner, you're in the center with me and Rozhev. This should be a rather simple trip, we're just ready for the unexpected. According to the survey, there's a predator species out here, but if we keep moving it shouldn't bother us. It's an ambush hunter and you have us around to deal with it. You're in good hands."

=/\= END =/\=


Ensign Felicie Rivero
Engineering NPC

Ensign Carter Samson
Engineering NPC

Major Hailey Weston
Marine CO/Second Officer

Staff Sergeant Nyx Valentine
Marine