Mission Brief

Posted on Tue May 30th, 2023 @ 12:35pm by Vice Admiral Natalie Oban & Captain Lukas Fredricks & Lieutenant JG Jasmine Brooks & Commander Naois Mercy MD & Lieutenant Kod'ar & Lieutenant Chexor Vonn & Lieutenant Amara Naidoo & Lieutenant Faith Hawkins & Commander Emily Knight
Edited on on Wed Jun 7th, 2023 @ 4:05pm

2,282 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Prelude: Getting Ready to Depart
Location: Briefing Room
Timeline: MD5 - 0900 Hours

Captain Fredricks wasn't pleased at the short notice of the mission briefing, only having 30 minutes to call his staff into a mission briefing wasn't enough time in his book and made his objections known to the Admiral's assistant that had contacted him.

He was also surprised to learn that Admiral Oban was back in the Sol system as she was sector commander for the Cardassian aid relief.

Lukas sat at the head of the briefing table and sipped his steaming coffee as he waited for the rest of his senior staff to arrive. He wasn't fussed if they were late, if his senior officers had other matters to attend to then so be it. Admiral Oban would have to wait.

Amara was the first to arrive at the conference room, her own department in full order with the exception of a number of personnel still to arrive.

"Good morning Captain!" the Security Chief chirped cheerfully as she dropped into a chair at the mid point of the table.

"Good morning, Lieutenant." Fredricks replied with a smile.

Next to enter the room was the Britannic's Chief Operations Officer. Lieutenant Chexor Vonn made the short distance from the entrance to Fredrick's right and sat down. Although not privy to knowing everything that was going on aboard the ship, he suspected that as the senior staff was being assembled for this meeting, that the Captain had likely received their orders for their first mission.

A little late to the party, it seemed, was the XO and his surprise was barely controlled when he noticed he wasn't the second or even the first to arrive. He gave those gathered a polite nod before quietly claiming a seat.

With the morning briefing in Engineering over, Faith arrived at the meeting. Her team briefing perhaps deliberately, on Faith's part, overran. Slightly. Faith didn't like arriving first for senior staff meetings, she found it awkward. Thankfully, the meeting hadn't started yet. That would have been even more awkward.

Nodding a greeting to all, Faith helped herself to a cup of tea from the replicator. Then, she sat down. The steam rose from the mug, the pleasant aroma of breakfast tea inviting Faith to take a sip.

Jasmine wasn't sure why she had been summoned to the ship's briefing room only a few hours after arriving on board, however after a brief chat with a yeoman in the turbolift it seemed that she was the rank science officer on the ship at the moment.

The briefing room door slid open to reveal a gathering of what she could only assume was the ship's senior officers. "Am I in the right place?" She asked, a nervous hint to her voice.

Lukas noticed the blue collar on the latest arrival into the room and smiled. "Lieutenant Brooks, you are in the right place and I'm sorry to have thrown you into the frying pan so soon after your arrival. Please, get yourself a drink and make yourself comfortable." The Captain said in a reassuring tone.

Brooks smiled and gave a respectful nod before walking over to the replicator and ordering an extra sweet latte. Once it materialised, she picked up the steaming tall glass cup and walked over to the briefing room table and sat down.

Kod'ar had been manning the flight control console on the bridge, and was awaiting the arrival of his relief officer. The young Ensign, who in her defence had been on break, had been very apologetic to the stoic Vulcan for her tardiness. He had dismissed it and thanked her for relieving him. Shortly thereafter he made his way to the back of the Bridge and took the short trip to the Observation Lounge. As he entered, he proceeded immediately to an empty chair at the far end of the table, "My apologies Captain, I was briefly delayed on the bridge."

"It's fine, Lieutenant. Not your fault, this mission briefing was called last minute. It can't be helped." Fredricks replied.

"Most gracious of you Captain." he glanced at the others sitting at the table and their various beverages, I should have gotten some tea before entering, he mused to himself.

"Feel free to get yourself a drink or something to eat, Mr Kod'ar." The Captain smiled.

Kod'ar politely raised his hand from the desk, to acknowledge the Captain's offer, but to also demonstrate that he was silently politely declining.

The briefing room doors slid open to reveal the red headed Vice Admiral Oban followed by her aide. "Please remain seated everyone and thank you for coming at such short notice." She said as she walked around the table of the gathered senior officers.

"Welcome back to the Britannic, Admiral. It's always a pleasure to host you." Fredricks said in a sincere tone.

"Thank you, Captain. It's always a pleasure to be here." Oban stated with a broad smile. "So, let's get down to business. Lieutenant Hawkins, is Britannic fit to leave spacedock?"

She couldn't quite believe it herself, really. But yes, Britannic was ready. The to-do list had been long. Staffing, organisation was low when Faith arrived. New arrivals had reinvigorated the team, even if they were mostly graduates. Faith was proud.

"Yes, Admiral." Faith confirmed.

"Good. The Britannic will be leaving spacedock in 90 mins and heading for the Cardassian border." Oban explained as she moved towards the screen and tapped a few commands into the panel. This brought up several systems that where highlighted.

"As you are aware, since the peace treaty was signed by all parties involved in the Dominion War. It became galactic law that all battle sites would remain off limits to all except authorised vessels for clean up duties. With the Klingons off licking their wounds and the Romulans sealing their borders. The Federation has also been busy with humanitarian aid for the Cardassian people, the battle sites have been all but forgotten. This in turn has lead to looting of the battle sites. As you can imagine, there are a lot of dangerous technologies out there just floating around.

"Starfleet has received information that someone is actively taking orders on the black market and going to these battle sites picking the items out of hulks which lie there. We want Britannic to go and investigate this and put a stop to this black market profiteering and bring those who are responsible to justice."

Commander Emily Knight stepped through a pair of sliding doors at the far end of the briefing room, gave the Admiral a quick nod and then one to the Commanding Officer as if to excuse her tardiness. She found an empty chair beside the Chief Helmsman and promptly took a seat.

Kod'ar shuffled forward in his seat, "Admiral, Captain - if we are to leave in 90 minutes, I will need to inform the 'Conn' to begin 'spinning' up our engines." It was unusual for a Vulcan to use such a colloquialism, but it was one that Kod'ar was fond off.

Without waiting for a response, he slid his chair back, stood and made a move to one of the computer terminals embedded into the closest bulkhead. He tapped it a few times and then returned to his seat.

"Admiral, am I to assume that the systems highlighted are the systems that we are to investigate?" Captain Fredricks asked studying the graphic.

"You're correct, they're main systems that battles happened outside of allied space. Those systems include Tyra System, Chin'toka system, Kalandra System and the Argolis cluster. All have many hulks of Allied or Dominion forces." The Admiral explained.

Amara had a momentary flash back to the battle of Chin'toka. The Hood has flown into battle during the first battle in that system... the same battle she had lost her leg. "I will begin running security drills and complete a full diagnostic on our offensive and defensive systems enroute sir!"

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Fredricks said acknowledging what his security chief had said. "So, if and when we find who is behind this, what are our orders, Admiral?"

Oban looked at the Captain and smiled. "Ideally we want them arrested and brought to justice. However, if they dont want to come quietly, you are authorised to deal with them as necessary."

Kod'ar tried to hide it as best as he could, but he raised a quizzical eyebrow at the Admiral's admission regarding how much latitude the Captain really had.

It was inevitable this would happen, in Faith's mind. Starfleet resources were spread too thin. Humanitarian missions came first, understandably. The abandoned, unprotected hulks of warships were easy pickings for nefarious types.

"I'd suggest we start in areas with abandoned Galaxy, Akira, Nebula, Defiant class ships. Their components will be of higher value." Faith suggested.

Kod'ar nodded in agreement just as the thrum of the engines spinning up kicked in, "That would be seem sensible Captain. Unless there is a priority target," he spun his chair from pointed in the general direction of the Captain, to the general direction of the Admiral.

"I would also urge caution. Any number of those..." she wanted to say corpses but Amara caught herself in time "Those vessels could still have ordinance on board. I know Starfleet has plans to run checks and recovery but we are still a long way from that objectives completion!"

"Chin'toka would probably be the best place to start, given there were two major engagements in that system. No doubt a lot of vessels are still resting there." Fredricks commented.

"Once in system I can start analysing warp trails through that system, see if any match any known organisations." Jasmine said as she began thinking how to accomplish the task ahead.

"And what of the abandoned ships?" Naois asked, "are they to be salvaged? Marked as graveyard and thus off limits?"

The Admiral looked at Britannic's first officer. "As I said, Commander, all battle sites are off limits as per galactic law. All powers are obliged to recover their ships and technology but everyone has been hit badly by the war that things are taking time to get done."

This mission was going to be a difficult one for many people given that the most recent war was still fresh in everyone's minds. Chex has visibly uneasy, and perhaps even more telling was the fact that he'd been quiet up until now which was most unlike him. Whilst the mission parameters were straightforward, he couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it all than what they were being told. "Admiral... is there anything we should be looking out for... outside of the illicit activity? Anything... classified we should be aware of?" he asked with a little suspicion.

"Any classified technology that might have been in the debris has most likely been recovered by the various intelligence services. I should like only standard technology would be there now." The Admiral replied fo the Bolian Operations chief.

Emily sat taking all of the briefing in, she didn't know these people - with the exception of the Commanding Officer - and wondered how they'd handle returning to such a poignant point in their lives. Chin'toka was likely going to be particularly painful for most.

Chin'toka was painful for Faith. She lost friends there. Arundel survived the first battle, albeit scarred. The second, stuck in dry dock. It undoubtedly saved Faith's, Meredith's lives. Her mood now reflective, sombre, Faith chose to remain silent.

Feeling the mood in the room drop to a sombre one, the Captain moved things along to get people focused. "Well, looks like we have a short window before our departure. Let's make sure we have everything we need for this mission. Make sure all crew is recalled and accounted for. Any questions?"

Lieutenant Vonn shook his head to indicate he had nothing else to had. He'd hoped that the Britannic would have been sent on a mission of exploration, especially given what they'd already been through but alas, it was not meant to be this time around. Just do your job. Keep your head down and you'll get through it, Chex said to himself.

No questions from the Chief Engineer, either. Faith shook her head, raised her cup to her lips. Then, she drank. Slowly. Lost in thought about what lay ahead. The ghosts of the Dominion War and the scars of her past. Faith did not know whether this mission would deepen them, or help them to heal. Time would tell.

Fortifying her out shell Amara simply nodded at the Captain but internally she was in turmoil, the ghosts that had been haunting her now nipping at her memory once again.

Jasmine silently shook her head. She was lucky enough not to see much action during the recent war but it seemed most in the room were veterans of the Dominion war.

Kod'ar slowly shook his head in the negative. He could the sense the meeting would be coming to an end shortly and wondered what the Admiral's next move would be.

Naois shook his head too, he couldn't think of any further questions

"Very well, if there's nothing from the Admiral we have some work to attend too." Fredricks said as he stood up and looked at the Admiral.

"That's all from me. Good luck on your mission." Oban stated with a smile. "Mr Kod'ar, could escort me down to the transporter room?"

Kod'ar nodded pushing the conference room chair back into a position so he could rise, "Yes. Admiral."

The lanky Vulcan walked in the Admiral's direction.

Fredricks wondered what the Admiral's relationship with his new helm chief was. He hoped it wasn't anything sinister. "Very well, you are all dismissed."

 

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