OOC: Okay I didn't get back until the 16th and have been catching up on RL. Here we go.
BIC:
Within a couple of minutes of your new assignments you hear the hiss of air refilling the decks and gladly shed your spacesuits for the added maneuverability. After about 20 minutes more of repair work the crew on the engine deck manage to get some of the engines on-line providing enough thrust and maneuverability to resume your deceleration towards Pale (1 ADF & 1 MR). Almost as soon as gravity kicks back in, Malcom and Gren notice the energy sensors light up with new contacts at extreme range in the direction of Pale. The computer classifies the contacts as two pair of Class A and a trio of Class B atomic engines. From their relative spacing positions, you guess a pair of assault scouts and a frigate or destroyer. As they close within radar range the larger ship is positively identified as a UPF frigate.
A few seconds later the radio crackles to life. "TSSS Morning Glory and escort, this is the UPFS Invictus, we have you on sensors now. Please provide vector towards the Rampage". Lee responds giving the trio of UPF ships as much information as he can about the cruiser's last known direction and speed. "Good hunting," he adds as the trio of ships flashes by with the frigate under full thrust and the assault scouts matching its acceleration.
Shortly thereafter a report comes in from the Courage. "Morning Glory, this is the Courage. There is nothing left of the Excalibur, very little of the structure even remains and there are no survivors, not even bodies. As far as we can tell, it seems the port engine failed and detonated, ripping the hull to shreds and triggering a failure of the starboard engine which also detonated incinerating whatever was left. I'm sorry. We've lost some good friends today." The announcement is followed by several minutes of silence the ship as the crew come to grips with the details of their friends' passing. One by one the crew return to work getting the Morning Glory fully on-line once more.
Another hour of hard work and the freighter is as fixed as it will be until you get to port. The masking screen launcher is functional but useless as all the water was vented in the torpedo hit and one of the laser batteries is still off-line but the engines are fully functional, the computer is fixed and the hull patched up. After all the work is done and you've had a chance to clean up and stow your gear again, Terl asks you all to come to the large conference room.
Once you are all gathered he begins. "Okay, that was most likely not a random attack. The two corvettes bore the markings of a new pirate organization we've been monitoring for the past few years. This seems to be their logo and was painted onto the wings of the corvettes." He brings up the following image on the screen.
- carlson-logo-sm.png (18.91 KiB) Viewed 25435 times
"They call themselves the Star Storm Society. They have remained fairly low level but with recent events in the Liberty system, StarFleet presence has shifted slightly away from this end of the Frontier towards White Light, Theseus and Liberty and the pirates have gotten a bit bolder. In fact they've gotten quite bold to have made off with a UPF Light Cruiser. I intend to get to the bottom of
that when we reach port," he says with more than a hint of steel in his voice. "We don't know where their main headquarters are but the have at least one major base here in the Truane's Star asteroid field. A raid on that base was and still is your planned second mission. We only located it a couple of months ago and have been monitoring activity there to try to determine the size and scope of the base.
"Just about the time we were finishing up repairs here on the Morning Glory, we received a distress call from our mining operation on New Pale. It seems they have come under attack as well. At this point that makes the message about two hours old and we haven't heard back. We have to assume the worst. Accordingly, your first mission has been changed from a simple cargo delivery and pick up to Search and Rescue. We want you to go to the base, find out what happened and locate any survivors. Your original cargo was an explorer, a pair of combat robots, a pair of security robots and a pair of mining robots. The mining robots have been replaced by an additional pair of security robots. You can find specs on both the combots and secbots in the ship's computer. You may still want the explorer or we can swap it out for another vehicle or vehicles, it is up to you.
"The Dart is ready and waiting at Pale station. We'll be arriving in 35 hours at which point you will transfer directly to your ship and head out. No rest for the weary," he adds with a grin.