SD242007.15 - Joint Log - CO & SCO - "What A Mess"

Posted on Thu Jul 16th, 2020 @ 9:46pm by Lieutenant Yarinna "Fanthom" Hawkins & Brigadier General Jonathan Grey

1,472 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Sincerest Form of Flattery
Location: Versailles Hanger Deck

ON:
Yarinna had just landed her fighter, after doing a reconn of the area and checking the station over from the outside. It was a mess definitely and it looked almost like someone decided to rip it apart. She had no idea a black hole could do this type of damage.

After checking her fighter, she took the recording device and headed for Grey's office to make her report. He was going to have a freaking fit and so was De'Lenn. Hitting the door chime, she waited.

"Come!" barked the General, imperiously.

The door made a spirited attempt to retract into the wall, as the doors around here were meant to do, but jammed half-way. It shuddered with a grinding noise and closed again. This repeated three times, until a thick hand from the other side caught the edge of the door and rammed it open.

"Not a word." he cautioned her, having long since lost his good cheer today. Everything was broken, or almost broken, and too many people thought he could motivate Engineering to be everywhere at once. De'Lenn could just ignore the fools, but a CO had to be *nice*.

"So, report." he added in a slightly calmer tone, gesturing to a seat as he made for a jug of water. With hands that shook only a little, he filled a cup and emptied it, belatedly offering another cup to his guest.

"Thank you sir, but no. I can tell you're right about what the Chief told you was not good. Well my news is little better. The station is a mess outside. I made a visual recording of the damage. How she stayed together is a miracle in itself. As I flew, I noticed that several pieces of external plating are missing; large gaping holes in the lower part of the habitat ring. While the emergency force fields are holding for now, it appears that several docking latches have been twisted out of position. I saw umbilicals partially locked in place and in operable. Two of the docking ports are severely damaged and well, the ones that do work have ships tethered to them. I do not know if their power is coming from the station or the other way around. Also, the fighter bays are bad but not as bad as it could have been", Yarinna said, feeling bad for the General. "It could have been worse sir..." she said softly not wanting to add insult to injury.

"Mmm." said the General, setting down the other glass of water and making his way over to her. "If it were much worse, we wouldn't be here discussing it." he said bitterly. "As for the ships attached to the station via umbilical, did they look like Starfleet ships? We've had a few plugging into the station to provide us with extra power."

As he spoke, the General tugged a portable holoprojector out from under a padd, and gestured for the Lieutenant to plug her data recorder into it.

Yarinna plugged in the data recorded chip and what was seen could only be determined as a disaster. It clearly showed the damage as Yarinna explained it. She could tell that the General was pissed and upset.

Gesturing with his hands, the General manipulated the image floating in the air. First he rotated it, eyeing the damage that had been done so far. A lot of armor plating had been lost, but it seemed that only a few areas were in red, where the scanner hadn't detected any air or life signs.

Picking out the two ships connected to the station by thick umbilical cabling, he pushed his hands apart, causing the display to zoom in. Both appeared to be the Starfleet vessels flight control had told him about earlier, and as such they were almost certainly dumping as much of their ships' power into the station as they could spare.

"So, it's bad, but not much worse than we expected." said Grey, putting a positive spin on things. "I note that your pilots have been out there a long time. Even with pilot rotation, spending that much time in a single place, this close to a black hole, must be tough. How are they holding up?"

"They are handling it as well as can be expected. I am going to set up rotations for them as soon as I can. We all need a few hours of rack time, myself included," Yarinna said chuckling slightly. She knew her pilots needed rest and herself included. Setting up rotations was going to be tricky but they were needed.

"Good, good." muttered the General, thinking hard. There was already a set of beacons in orbit around the edge of the black hole's influence, warning people about it, so the fighters shouldn't have to worry about many civilian ships showing up. Speaking of ships...

"Some advance warning, Lieutenant. At some point in the near future, date to be determined, we're expecting a number of Romulan and Klingon ships to show up. In case they try posturing at each other, I want your pilots not to engage, or even attempt contact. Pass word back to the station and let me talk to them. This is need-to-know." he added, emphasising the point. "So make sure your pilots don't tell anyone else. The last thing we need is to panic the station with reports of opposing fleets dropping by."

"Oh god! Not again? Last time out we nearly had a show down. They are serious hot heads when they want to flex their muscles of power. I will pass the word verbally as you so order", Yarinna said half heartedly.

"Thank you. Unfortunately we'll need their help if we're going to claw our way out of this mess, so try not to rise to the bait if they try and provoke you." the General added, wondering if the Captains they sent would be stupid enough to try aggravating the starbase they were here to save.

Then again, it was *Romulan* mimic agents that had sabotaged the station in the first place...

"All right. Time to cover plan B." he declared, gesturing to the hologram.

"If anyone starts a fight after the Klingons and Romulans arrive, and we lose comms, I need you to break position and engage with extreme prejudice." he instructed her. "Don't react to non-violent provokation, but if they actually start shooting, I need you to do everything you can to buy us time. And one more thing."

Here he expanded the display and gestured to the large spokes that connected the inner spindle of the station to the outer rings.

"If you lose comms with the station during the firefight, one of the YaDallan sector fleet Captains will take command. There is a possibility that they will ask you to fire on the station. I want you to know that this is an approved action, and you are to sever these spokes with minimum collateral damage. Cut and punch, don't fire anything that explodes."

Yarinna almost had a heartattack! "You want me to do WHAT!!!!!", she croaked! "Fire on the station, I mean on those spokes? Sir! One error in targeting of those spokes could mean the difference between achieving the desired affect and destruction" she piped. This means I'm gonna have to get with Ky'la and the specs. Oh hell then get my pilots in the simulators for target practice. Damn it Grey when are we going to get a bloody break around here?', she chimed.

"Damn it *General*, Lieutenant." he stated, not lifting his eyes from the display. "And if it comes to that, your actions may prove the difference between saving the station and destroying it. We'll have power to the spokes cut off in advance, and the civilians will be beamed into the spindle or the supporting ships. Don't worry about damaging the ring, just focus on cutting it off of the station."

"Like I said," he added, "this is a worst-case Plan B. If the fighting starts and the station's thrusters are damaged, we'll need to extract as much of the station as we can save before the black hole eats it. We don't have the ships to take everyone at once, and we won't have the power to drag the entire station. That's Plan A, by the way. Another classified nugget for you there."

Things were beginning to get complicated now and it seemed like a bad scenario in her mind. "Well let's hope it won't come to that" Yarinna said closing her eyes and exhaled slowly. All types of things were going through her head, the main one was how to save the station, her home.

=^= End of Log =^=

Brigadier General Jonathan Grey
Commanding Officer
Starbase Versailles

&&

Lt. Yarina "Fanthom" Hawkins
CAG
Starbase Versailles

- tag 2 -

 

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