Training Day

Posted on 21 Apr 2020 @ 3:23am by Captain Ricardo (Rico) Montoya & Klingon Lt Commander Kreval of the House of Torath & Admiral Ayana Varon & Lieutenant James Barnes & Lieutenant Kragg & Lieutenant JG Christi Love

2,650 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: M-17: Blood Moon Rising
Location: USS Phoenix
Timeline: MD 1 - 1200

Kreval walked the back of the bridge as the Phoenix moved out throught the stations massive space doore and into open space. He was task with evaluating the crew on this little training exercise. The XO sat in command and though vacant in several key areas, the mission had to continue.

He halted his pacing and stepped up to the command dais. Glancing back to the MSD he nodding aprovingingly.

Cevel looked around at the crew that was on the bridge. They were still missing someone at the science station, and there was a junior officer at the Helm. But for this training exercise the limited crew they had would be sufficient.

Jim had handed over the bag to an Ops runner to take to his quarters while he turned the other direction and headed out to the bridge. Just transporting aboard he wanted to see how things were already going and in what ways he could observe and get a feel for those working the security station on the bridge.

Hopefully his transfer was completed and his access to the ship was established, otherwise it might get somewhat boring pretty quick.

Kreval glanced betewwn his padd and the new arrival as the doors to the bridge opened. "Mr. Barnes, glad so could honor us with your presence. Station."

Jim merely nodded as he continued moving from the turbolift to the security/tactical station, waving that the officer there should remain.

Christi Love stood at operations, carefully monitoring communications. She was nervous, even though it wasn't her first time on the bridge. She didn't like feeling as if she was being evaluated.

"Mr. Kragg, how's the ship looking?" Cevel asked as he glanced towards the engineering station.

Kragg had just dropped of his gear in his quarters and he quickly ran to the engineering station and looked everything over. Impulse engines are at 75% and phasers are at 95% I can get more speed at of the impluse engines and we will be moving much faster in a moment. Once this exercise is done and I can inspect engineering the ship will run much more smoothly."

Cevel nodded, "Good."
He made a mental note and then looked over at the young junior officer at the helm station. He looked a little nervous.

"What's dropping the phaser output?" Jim asked, standing next to the tactical station.

Kragg saw and said, "The coupplings are misaligned at the moment. I'll have someone go down and align it. Some how the power isn't flowing like it should." He would have to make a list of things to look over what issues the ship was having and to get the bird flying like she should be.

"We'll be watching from up here," Jim said as he turned back to the tactical panel and the junior officer working it. "You'll need to keep an eye on the thermal disregulators and output. If the couplings are misaligned it could lead to explosive malfunctions."

"Explosive malfunctions?" the ensign asked.

"Yes, the 'oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die' type of explosive malfunction that takes out a large section of the ship."

He waited until color started coming back to the Ensign's face. "But no pressure, well, hopefully no pressure. Orders, Captain?" he said turning to the XO.

"Seeing as we are about to enter into some wargames, we will just have simulated phaser fire for the time being. That said, lets switch to simulation mode." Cevel said turning to the ensign at the helm, "Set course. Two-eight-five mark three-seven-four and engage at full impulse. We'll know when the games begin. Sensor station, keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary."

Kreval made a few notes on his padd as he continued in his role as observer. He was curious to see how everyone was going to react when everything got started. Looking over the the new security officer's shoulder he made sure the ships weapons were set properly.


[Operations]

Heather was there, but not, she had been tasked to make sure things went wrong at the proper time and to see how the junior staff operated under pressure. Personally she felt unannounced execrises were a better measure for crisis testing but she wasn't the one calling the shots. Letting Kreval know things were ready on here end.


[Bridge]

His mouth curled as he received the notification form operations it was only a matter of time now.

"Captain, I have ship entering sensor range. Minimal power, it appears to be adrift."

Cevel nodded, "Okay, lets try hailing them see if they respond. Helm, set a course to intercept the ship."

Kragg was working on getting the impulse engines more power. He saw that the secondary relay was operational, but never tested, he ordered the computer to slowly move the flow to the secondary regulator. The process started and he hoped that it would allow the engines to operate with full power.

Jim watched as the ensign began running passive scans looking for ship damage, lifesigns and - most importantly weapons status. He'd also preset the yellow and red alert systems so all he needed to do was hit the correct control to go into each mode. He watched the display as the results of the scan started returning.

Kreval noted the preset of the ships systems satisfactorily, but wondered if that was a standard precaution on his part or just because he know the were headed into a fight at some point.

"No response from hails," Christi reported.

On the edge of sensor range a Klingon convoy dropped from warp. The dilithium barges continued on course towards DS5 while two of the smaller, bird of prey class, escorts broke away.

With no responses to the hails from the ship and their interception imminent, Cevel started getting a bad feeling, "Lets set yellow alert, I don't want to be caught off-guard. Sensor station, is there anything else on the readout?"

There were technically three sensor stations. Looking for other ships was security, so Christi continued to monitor communications.


[Bird of Prey]

Commander Grulav sat as they approached the set of vessels. "Run scans of the disabled ship. The Federation ship?"

"They have just increased their alert status."

"Raise ours"


[USS Phoenix]

Kreval had come around the back of the bridge and looked to Commander. The order was too general and no doubt had many confused as who was to reply. His left hand reached out popping the new security office in the shoulder to let him know he should respond.

Jim glanced at the other officer, realizing there was going to have to be a very serious conversation - soon - regarding inappropriate physical contact. "They've raised their shields and alert status," Jim said, sensing that there was something definitely amiss. There was too much casualness in the captain's voice regarding this situation. He sighed. He always hated 'pop quizzes'. But he nodded as the ship went to yellow alert. "Let the targets locks float," he murmured to his security officer. "It'll keep their sensors from detecting a weapons lock but allow us to respond quickly in the case of attack."

"We need to keep hailing them. While we try to raise them on comms, lets start scanning that derelict ship. Is there anything off on it? Is there any indication of what kind of weapons damaged the ship?"

Christi continued to monitor the comms, with no success.

Kragg was trying to hack the other ships's computer system. The computer of the Phoenix was far superior one of the best of starfleet, so he felt very confident in being able to get a look inside the ship and the computer system to see who was controlling the ship, be it the computer itself or someone remotely. He was also looking to overide any external control of the ship.

"There is something," Barnes said, stepping over to the panel, replacing the young ensign that was working it. "Power systems are being concealed but, when we look at thermal imaging, weapon systems are still hot and active. Unknown if they're using passive targeting systems since those generally don't generate an alert on the sensors. But, if they're trying that hard to hide active weapon systems..." Barnes looked at the XO, having given his report.

Before the XO could respond a third Bird of Prey decloaked and the first two jumped to full power and opened fire.


[Birds of Prey]

"TARGET THEIR AUTOMATION CENTER. WE HAVE TO KEEP THEM FROM SEPARATING!"

"Ready!"

"BAH!"


[USS Phoenix - Deck 2]

The concentration of fire was enough to overload the several systems Heather was in the main Ops trying keep things together. Her console erupted and sent her flying into the ops holo display table snapping her spine.

One of the noncoms ran to check on her. "Ops to sickbay, emergency. Lieutenant Montoya is injured." He didn't dare move her in case he caused more damage.

Dr. Williams was playing his role in this whole mess and replied to the call form help. =^=EMH is offline! A medical team will be there as soon as they can. =^=


[Bridge]

Even as the ship rocked from the weapons impact, Kreval was moving to what would have been the XO's station.

"Shield's up, weapons ready," Jim said evenly, having enough experience in his career that the 'excitement' of the moment had to be kept under control. Screaming and shouting wouldn't accomplish anything. "They're targeting our seperation modules. Medical on the way." His fingers flew across the board as he spoke, making sure things were ready and resources were in place and also setting the ship to red alert status. "Damage reports incoming."


Cevel leaned forward in the command chair, "Return Fire! Target weapons and propulsion."

Both Birds of Prey were concentrating their fire on a single point.

Kreval took his station and began reading off the damage that had taken. "ODN conduits have erupted in operations, separation systems are offline. Commander! Dorsal shields are collaps…"

As the aft shields failed several systems overloaded. The Master Systems Display at the rear of the bridge blew out as the overloads spread. Kreval was thrown from his station and he didn't rise.

"Everyone away from the consoles!" Ceval managed to get out that one last order as the command station of the highly automated vessel overloaded.

"Helm," Barnes said, keeping his voice even, if slightly raised to be heard, "keep us alee to the attacking ships. Concentrating fire on weapons systems," he said, targeting the closest ship. The problem was that they were already damaged and that was affecting them much more than he'd like. Which meant time for more creative pursuits. "Take us at the lead ship," he said. "Within their shields."

Christi was doing her best to keep power to critical systems. "Moving personnel from damaged areas to consolidate power," she said. Reports of damage sent to ops scrolled across the side of her console.

The young ensign manning the helm looked away from the charred Andorian and executed the order. "Aye, adjusting course, increasing to full impulse. But with their shields still up..."

"Which is why we'll be dropping our shields right before connecting with theirs," James said as he worked the control panel. He 'felt' the confusion around him and ignored it for the moment. It was a risky manuever, and he hoped the helm was as good as pilots always thought they were because for a second or two, with their shields down and until they're within the enemy's shield they'll be extremely vulnerable. One other thing, he cancelled the target lock on the enemy vessel. It would through them off for a moment and, well, once they got there, a target lock would be unnecessary anyway.

The Klingon birds of prey seeing an apparent collision course initiated evasive maneuvers with one moving in and strafing across the already exposed upper nacelles.

It was then the Intruder alert klaxons sounded and call came in from multiple locations:

=^=Engineering to Bridge we have Klingon approaching Marines moving to hold them off! =^=

=^=Bridge there are Klingons moving on the auxiliary bridge in the upper dive section! =^=

Klingons on the ship? Christi checked her controls, afraid they would be elsewhere. "Another group is heading for life support," she announced.

"Consolidate shields to cover undamaged parts of the ship, then drop all life support, stasis fields and structural fields in the non covered parts," Barnes ordered. "Helm, execute my original plan, get us inside that ship's shields." He turned to the junior officer that was originally at the security station and called him back over. "Once we've got inside their shields, unload everything we have at them."

Christi allocated more power to the shields.

He went to the aft panel and tore it open, revealing the phaser rifles and pistols. He took one of the former and two of the latter. "Security, prepare to repel intruders." He was headed to the turbolift when he stopped and looked back.

"We got Marines onboard this fake ship?"

A disembodied voice came from the lift, "Freeze program." Stepping out from behind the hologram of the lift came the Captain who looked about at the damage his bridge had taken.


[Outside Engineering]

Several Marines came out from their positions at seeing the Klingon attackers frozen in place and looked to eachother as an all call chime sounded from the comm.


[Bridge]

"Crew of the Phoenix, this is the Captain speaking. What you have all been experiencing has been a drill. One of the benefits of the Prometheus class is integrated holo-emitters throughout the ship, allowing for...elaborate training scenarios. Unlike the the academy or scheduled drills you know you are safe and will live to see another day. Out here things are real and any of you could face a life or death decision or situation at any moment."

As he moved about the bridge he looked from officer to officer and even placed a reassuring hand on a shoulder as needed. "We are going out into the unknown and I apprived this simulation to see just how each of you would react when faced with such a situation. Computer, end program and save." At his command the bridge was returned to pristine condition and the bodies of the senior officers that had died faded away.

"Senior officers to the bridge. Each of you will have you performance evaluated and I also want each of you to submit a report not only on your opinion of the simulation but you review of your fellow shipmates. Once you have filed your report all crew are granted 24 hours shoreleave on the station before we depart. Montoya out."

With his shipwide address over he looked to the current allotment of bidge crew.

"Great," Jim said with a shrug and a smile, "Homework on the first day."

Ayana had been damaging systems in operations. She walked onto the bridge and smiled at Christi before taking a position at the back where she could observe everyone in person.

Rico looked to Lieutenant Barnes and then to the offer officers. Each would have there time to feel the heat that came with an evaluation but that would come later. The door on the opposite side of the bridge opened and the rest of the senior officers stepped through. "Commanders with me. Lt. Varon, you have the bridge."

With that the Captain, XO, and Strategic Ops officer disappeared into the ready room as the ship headed to DS5 for for the last time in what would probably be a long time.


Captain Ricardo Montoya
CO

Lt. Comm Cevel Th'raran
XO

Lt Comm Kreval of the House of Torath
Strat Ops

Lt. James Barnes
CSEC

Lt. Ayanna Varon
COPS

Lt. Heather Montoya
OPs - NPC

LTjg. Christi Love
OPs - NPC

Lt. Kragg
CEO

Robert Williams, MD
CIV CMO

 

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