The first plague (Part 2)

Posted on Fri Dec 29th, 2017 @ 9:10am by Captain Landon Mabrade & Captain Darius Cayne & Colonel Wilhelm Baron von Hackleberg & Commander Ashe Rii'Na MD & Commander Raven Adams & Lieutenant Aria Kanzaki & Lieutenant JG Terry Wu & Lieutenant JG Serena Giacomo & Khiy Tal'ehrihn & N'alae t’K’manatran
Edited on on Fri Dec 29th, 2017 @ 9:40am

1,261 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Pirating Typhon resources
Location: Conference room

OLD

Raven gave him a brief smile, glad that he was there.

NEW

Once he saw everyone in attendance Mabrade turned to them. He tried to acknowledge Billy Jo but not to focus upon her at the moment, though she was an attractive woman he had to keep his mind on the tasks.

"I should let you know the official reason for this meeting; I suppose you all get the situation, we have Pirates operating in our shipping lanes." Mabrade started. "Now if we were an outlying system I might expect this but we could have a task force here in well under a day." Mabrade leaned to put his hands at the head of the table. "First we have a Terrorist activity and now Pirates." He gaze to the group. "Why do I get the feeling someone has targeted Typhon since I took command?" He almost chuckled. "There has to be something about these Pirates we can track, I have a few ideas but your views are welcomed on the situation, why are Pirates attacking so close to a base that can bring in heavy hitters, it makes no sense to me?"

"Someone could see the station as a threat to their trade or illegal actions, any timing is probably coincidental to your taking command. I would not take it personally nor consider it a 'jinx', sir." Ashe replied.

"It was a type of Orion craft and some older Federation vessels converted to more aggressive postures thus far. Seems they are typical pirates, salvage or black market ships they modify to work as they need." Mabrade gave the information. 

Terry's demeanor sobered from his usual facade of being the over-confident scoundrel, to something a little more business-like, and he cleared his throat. "Or it could be indigenous peoples that we have not yet established ties with that see the station as Federation imperialism in their territory. But that's just blindly throwing darts at the wall. I may be speaking out of turn here, but I've actually been an associate of a criminal syndicate that engaged in acts of piracy." He let that revelation sink in. "As a juvenile, of course. What do we know of their modus operandi and their targets? What sort of ships and cargo have they been hitting?"

"I've been on this station for eight years. I've visited most of the planets in the Tiberius system. They aren't native and they have nothing here." The only thing that would be of real interest was the little venture Khiy and Morticia were working on. Or maybe something to do with the colony on Tiberius V. Raven would definitely check with some of her contacts to see if they'd heard anything about Typhon or Tiberius.

N'alae tried not to smirk at Terry's confession and looked out the corner of her eye over at Khiy. Some of them in the room had had association with criminals and pirates not even that long ago. Some of them still might. N'alae certainly wasn't going to ask too many questions of Sonos as he procured parts and materials needed for the Wake's retrofit, although she did not fool herself into believing that had been using 'official sources'.

"Khiy," she sent on a very tight telepathic band. "Are they after your operations?"

Khiy, who had been brooding over the latest damage reports given to him by N'alae, looked over to Raven. He gave the briefest of nods to her.

"I'll pull in some favors and see what I can do." Raven added.

"The station represents the military presence in this sector of what, from an outsider's perspective, might seem to be a very violent, imperialistic power. I mean, ask a Cardassian why they only took interest in the systems in the DMZ when Federation citizens began to terraform and colonize them." Terry replied with a shrug.

"We ware mostly commerce and we have a Ship yard." Mabrade put in. "The fact we have been here this long and only now they are trying things is a new kink in all of this." Mabrade pondered. "Since they are targeting escorts rather than shipping it might be ; to the observer, they intend to weaken their target. Which seems to be TGT for the first round, a strong ally in this sector and well outside Federation control so also could be considered a 'Wild Card' these Pirates do not want us to have?"

Khiy, finally finished reading the newest damage reports, regarded the room. "It's more than just pirates attacking transports, that's an old game in this region. TGT's Security division wouldn't be in business if it wasn't. What's different now is that of all of our transports that have been hit in last few hours haven't been looted. They are simply damaged or disabled." Khiy sighed. "More troubling is our security contracts. Our escort vessels are being targeted and the transports they are protecting have been almost entirely left alone." He looked to Raven and then back to the Captain. "These are highly coordinated assaults against battle hardened ships and crews. There is no profit in it and it is extremely dangerous. I don't know a single Pirate that would agree to those terms." Khiy looked back down to the PADD's "We have engaged 17 separate pirate ships in the last 18 hours. An hour ago, one of my B'rel escorts was targeted and overwhelmed by superior numbers." He shook his head in disbelief. "I don't need to tell you how difficult it is to disable a Klingon B'rel."

Aria was also rather concerned about these Pirate attacks. "Why would they want to attack just the escort vessels but not take anything?" she asked out loud. "To me it seems to be wanting to get someones attention, and frankly they've got mine". 

She looked over at Mabrade and Billy-Jo. "I think that to protect the security of the citizens in this area and of Typhon itself, we should start having a more active role in policing the area" she suggested. "How are the escort ships that we have assigned holding up? If we can get them out and active, maybe we can make these pirates back off a little?" she asked.

"Welllll..." Terry said, glancing at Khiy and then Aria. "I dunno about you, but a different idea presents itself to me." He said, tapping on his wrist-PaDD. "If they're targeting TGT ships and personnel, it could be a move to undermine faith in private escort firms. Then we'd be called upon to protect convoys, stretching the station's resources thin. Draw all of our own ships away, and then attack the station itself. What types of ships are the pirates using? Are we talking about freighters converted into gunships, surplus Klingon or Cardassian cruisers, or something else entirely?" 

Aria could see the Lieutenants point. "Drawing ships away from Typhon would mean we have less ships here to deal with a siege" she explained. "However, to be able to penetrate Typhon's defenses would take a considerable siege force" Aria explained. "We're not on some out of the way outpost, we have plenty of firepower and defenses to keep us safe against pirates. Only the Dominion and Borg have been known to take down a Starfleet Starbase before, and even then their losses were huge" she explained.

Raven thought back on when the Borg had attacked Typhon and how much damage was caused before they were defeated. They'd lost one quarter of the station's personnel during the infiltration. It was not something she wanted to repeat any time soon.

TBC

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