Into The Night

Posted on Fri Feb 12th, 2021 @ 1:45am by The Narrator & Major Tatiana Skobelova & Lieutenant Commander Amie Cerys & Staff Warrant Officer Blaise Birch

Mission: S2:3: Snow Drift
Location: USS Necromancer, en-route
Timeline: MD1: 18.20

Commander Eddington, no relation to the infamous Eddington of the Maquis as he was quick to point out, stepped out of the turbolift and into the Necromancer's mission prep section. Unlike a lot of the Steamrunner classes that had been designed from the keels up to torpedo barges with a paint job, his ship had been outfitted to play nice with the Marines.

An entire deck was dedicated to them, allowing for mission-specific modular pods to be added into the spaceframe when needed. Back in the Alpha Quadrant, those modules had been swapped out from carrying hanger space for a quartet of Gryphon starfighters to a 'well deck' that had allowed them to airdrop two Badger ground effect infantry fighting vehicles from low orbit.

That had been an interesting deployment.

Eddington cleared his throat.

"Good evening. Just thought I'd come down and tell you in person we've jumped to warp and are on course for the target system. Commodore Grissom transmitted his compliments and good hunting," Eddington said. "I have long range sensor data on our target system if you want to go over it, and the team science advisor-"

Eddington realised he'd stepped out of the elevator without the egg head.

"Dr. Birch?"

The Corvan scientist swaggered forward in tow behind Eddington. When he'd first come to Messier 4, it had been with timid apprehension for his differences. But after his lapse into feral dhampirism at the Sleepers' Bazaar, he'd come to insulate himself with interwoven layers of practiced indifference toward the dodgy looks and hushed whispers of others. Reputation was something beyond his control, so he no longer lost sleep over it. People would simply think what they wished, and Dr. Blaise Birch would revel in their fearful ignorance.

"Yes, Commander?" It was as much of a challenge as it was an acknowledgement. Blaise counted off the seconds of direct eye contact Eddington would maintain. The black-within-black was beyond unsettling for most of his colleagues.

"As I was saying," Eddington said, slowly regaining momentum from the taciturn response. "Dr. Birch will be the lead scientific advisor for the landing team. Sample collection and highlighting areas of scientific interest on the target world will be his job. Military and intelligence targets will of course be yours."

Nothing really startled Amie anymore. Though, she was situated with a bunch of marines, which was most of the time outside of her job description. However, this was a different type of mission. She'd mostly been keeping to herself, for, why not? She really didn't know anyone, and she was focused on her part of this. The eyes of Dr. Birch didn't bother her either, having been in the field for as long as she had been in the past. "Glad to have you with us, Doctor."

If a career in Starfleet had taught Tatiana anything, it was to be flexible. A scientist, a intelligence officer, and a marine beaming down to a planet sounded like the beginning of an off color joke rather than a mission briefing. It was an odd ensemble. Normally the subtle scalpel of security would handle this kind of mission rather than brutal sledgehammer of marines. None the less, they were professionals and would make it work.

"Not as glad as I am to have you here," Blaise said. It wasn't a compliment so much as a statement of fact, though he did not mind if the others felt complimented. "Our last venture into this sector was under drastically different circumstances. A little Intelligence and muscle--" He nodded at Amie and Tatiana respectively. "--would have gone a long way."

Somehow his pitch black-within-black eyes turned even darker as he recalled what passed for memories of his fall to temporary insanity. In some ways, this mission would be cathartic for him. "I hope to find something of value this time." Such as the part of his soul that had been left behind in the Mire.

"Don't we all Doctor?" Eddington asked. He gestured to the holoprojector and sent the mission brief from his wrist unit to the machine. A partially transparent globe appeared, forming into a fuzzy long-range picture of a dull tan coloured world. "This is our target world, code-named Tripwire. L class from the long-range scans, so barely habitable by Federation standards. Optical spectrometry has detected a moon, the presence of liquid water on the surface, and an oxygen argon atmosphere compatible with Federation standards. The subspace wake traffic we've detected show mild traffic to and from the system over a six month period, but on the lower end of the scale. Possibly an outpost, or mining colony instead of a major hub. Which isn't saying much given we'll need to get a lot closer before we can tell for certain what's actually there. We're still too far to pick out any orbital installations or accurate ship traffic data."

Amie watched the display. "I hate Class-L planets. Been there, done that, and am not a fan." She got up from where she was and moved closer to the display. "It wouldn't be too major if we're barely picking up any traffic. Then again, who knows out here. That could be considered heavy traffic for them."

"I agree Commander." Tatiana told Amie. "We aren't going to know what is down there until we have a look-see. Given everything else in Messier 4, we can expect just about anything."

"I can help with that."

The voice came from the turbolift. A tall, almost spindly looking humanoid stepped out. Those assembled had seen a Xilosian or two walking around the station, but this one wasn't wearing a civilian jumpsuit. She was wearing Marine BDU's, lacking in salad dressing and rank pins. The onyx black skin, threaded here and there with gold striation that radiated out from the eyes, had a dulled texture to it. Even the colourful and oft illuminated head fronds were dimmed, subdued.

"Force Commander Kle, Miltary Cadre," she said as her eyes studied the world. "Given I'm the only person here whose seen a member of the Concordance up close, your Captain Ingram thought I'd make for good company. You can expect zealotry, suicidal charges, and not being able to reason with them. And you can expect losses in any ground team you send in. The Concordance is good at turning people to their cause with little effort."

Crossing his arms but saying nothing, Blaise let their guest have the room. Even though he never fought in any ground war against the Concordance, he nonetheless presumed he had seen more than enough up close at the Sleeper's Bazaar to anticipate what was to come.

Tatiana recognized the name. She had been told about Kle from Ingram. True to what he had told Tatiana, Kle did give the impression she was in some way part of Starfleet. If the time permitted Tatiana would confirm that Ingram had sent Kle help. In the meantime, She would politely listen to the Xilosian advisor.

"All advice and information will be welcome, Commander Kle." Tatiana replied. "Can you help clear up what is happening on Tripwire?"

Looking to the newcomer, Amie sighed softly. How many people were actually on this mission? She figured it would be a small group, but people seemed to be coming out of the bulkheads to join them. However, she wasn't familiar with this person, and was allowing Tatiana to speak instead, and was doing her listening thing, gathering information in her mind as she did so.

"First of all, this is not a military action," Blaise finally cut in, "because if it were, then we would have more intelligence data with which to work than what is now at hand. As such, I am not certain what clarity the force commander can bring to the situation."

"I was there when they arrived around my world. I was there when the first waves mutinies ripped through the Military Cadre, and Civilian Mandate. I was there during The Fallback when we hid in our shelters whilst they virus bombed and dropped rocks on our cities. All the while the infection of their faith spread like wildfire. I was there at the Cradle entrance when we closed the doors, four thousand on one side in safety, and most of the southern continent's population on the other side choking on nerve gas, or simply being trampled to death in a blind panic."

Kle looked at Birch.

"I was there until the last of them stopped pounding on the facility's blast doors. Three days. Everything to do with the Concordance is a military matter because everything they touch turns to their side without question," Kle's voice lacked any real emotional tone. She then turned her golden eyes to the Marine and Intelligence officers. "As for what they are doing on Tripwire, that I would need to see more. We had many satellite constellations orbiting Xilos during the Concordance's occupation. Trust me, we made a study of their deeds. The Concordance are not...subtle in their pillaging."

Birch sighed at the tale of woe. The burden of explaining something patently obvious to a mind too impassioned to see it was never a light one. "So you oversaw an unsuccessful siege defense and the ultimate loss of your homeworld. Respectfully I do understand your plight and the wealth of military experience it brings, but I would be remiss not to point out the distracting influence as well. If we do not know what is happening on Tripwire, then I fail to see how your significant battlefield experience will assist us in ascertaining answers that military exercises are not able to provide. I maintain that your vendetta may in fact bring obscurity to the situation rather than clarity, so I must reiterate--" He turned back to Eddington. "--my objection to the fact that the force commander was brought along."

"And yet here I am, discussing politely the death of my world and civilisation without need to make this a military matter," Kle said darkly. She gestured with a long-fingered hand to the hologram. "Your long-range sensors detected large amounts of argon in the atmosphere? Its a byproduct of their ship drives, they use it as an inert buffer when one of their orbital craft make planetfall. Keeps their engine mechanisms from reacting poorly with the atmosphere. Concentration would suggest this world sees a great many vessels making landings, which probably means this world is being consumed. Like Xilos. Strip mining on a planetary scale."

Amie was a bit out of her depth when it came to some of this discussion. So, instead, she did what she did best: listened. It sounded like a lot more was going on here than she originally realized.

"While we do appreciate your input Commander Kle, Mister Birch is correct. This mission is about gathering intelligence. Once we have a clearer picture of what is on Tripwire, then we will decide on the next course of action." Tatiana told Kle.

"Agreed. So moving on to what we can actively plan about," Eddington said. The caramel sphere of Tripwire vanished, replaced by a hoe-hum arrangement of planets orbiting a sun. A few gas giants sweeping the outer system, a belt of rocks banding the mid system, and a lone rocky world orbiting in the goldilocks zone.

"The Necromancer will drop out of warp at the heliopause, and proceed in system under maximum stealth to the asteroid belt. Once we're within the rocky debris your team will be sent to Tripwire in a Marine Javalin. I've got my engineer's applying an ablative foam coating to its hull that should make your atmospheric entry look like random space junk burning up in the atmosphere." Eddington stated. "We can use the cruise phase of the insertion to plan a landing site."

"Maximum stealth is an understatement it seems in this case," Cerys said as she listened. "Hopefully the entry gives us enough time. We don't exactly know what we're flying into."

"Of course we do," Eddington said with a smile. "We're flying into the unknown. We at least know that."