The first plague (part 7)

Posted on Wed May 16th, 2018 @ 4:03am by Commander Raven Adams & Captain Landon Mabrade & Lieutenant Aria Kanzaki & Lieutenant JG Terry Wu
Edited on on Wed May 16th, 2018 @ 4:07am

1,256 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Pirating Typhon resources

[OLD]

"Do we have models that can Cloak and move slightly?" Mabrade asked. "The Probes that is." He put up a projection of space around Typhon. "What if we seeded some cloaked probes or sensory systems that were cloaked; and with ability to move a little to avoid collisions." He put up a hand. "Any maneuvers will tick it off on their sensors but those should be few cases of only ships with a collision alarm. Hitting a small probe in a stationary position is not like a cloaked vessel a small percentage of hitting it. But it could be an early warning as Early Warning, we place them in areas of high traffic that were not hit yet; we have beefed up where the Pirates are encountered, be foolish to hit there again so we put cloaked warning beacons in high probable areas for future activity." He looked around. "And we have things ready but no so obvious like laying some snares on the trails?"

[NEW]

"The problem is, you'd have to keep them far enough away to not collide with ships. So you either have them move enough to be detected, or you send out a signal the ships can pick up," Raven said. "And as we don't always know who is coming to Typhon, we run the risk of injuring someone by using them. They don't need to be cloaked, they just need to be ordinary. We already have buoys to relay messages and to update navigational charts. We simply need to add a program to the ones we have and add a couple more."

"That sounds rather workable and a bit more 'normal'. it probably would have a higher chance of working." Rii'Na chimed in. "Not that I am all that knowledgeable in the area."

"I want to string some kind of detection system, have one of the Sabers as the deployment and patrol ship. Once we get those in place we have some extra eyes we can make some kind of sense out of this." Mabrade had his ideas going. "Coordinate with TGT as they are getting pretty beaten out there and we are in this together so time we keep watching each other's backs. If I had to put a definition for the Admiralty I would say we are being harassment tactics, trying to disrupt our supply lines and cause mayhem." He grinned. "Always a type of Smoke Screen for the real operations. That is where we need to focus, what is behind the screen?"

Aria nodded in response. She pulled out a PADD from her uniform and began making some calculations. "I'm already running up a patrol plan" she said. "If we take one ship, we can cover the area in eighteen hours, if we take two ships we can half that, and half respectively for every ship that joins" Aria explained.

"Very good." Mabrade complemented. "Rii'Na, you have the other half of that schedule; I dare not utilize more as I want it subtle so two ships on patrol patterns should be enough to keep it under detection, any more than that we risk bringing attention."

Billy Jo agreed with Raven. Putting out some sort of sensor grid would definitely alert the pirates that they were being watched. It wouldn't stop them, just change their tactics. If that was all Mabrade wanted, he was fine. But if he wanted to stop the pirates altogether, he'd need to change his tactics. You didn't catch a crocodile with a string of campfires.

"The patrols do sound like a good option, I just hope we don't tip them off and have them take some other tactic. They don't seem like they will give up all that easily. It's what they could be after that worries me, and why try this so much? This is all rather puzzling to say the least."

"Alright." Terry said, scratching his chin as if it would ever manifest anything more than peach fuzz. "Now, I'm new to this area of space. So, where in this sector would one go if they wanted to go hang out with the local lowlifes? The 'wrong crowd.' Gambling, boozing, selling off contraband, whatever..."

"I suggest you and Serena get attacked by the pirates," Raven said. "Take a freighter and see what you can find. Unless you know who to look for and where, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack." She looked at Mabrade. "What do you suggest? This is your operation. How long do we have to get someone in position? I have a contact who knows some of the pirate hangouts around here. She's willing to check out a couple of them and see if she can find out anything."

"Wu and Giacomo, I think Raven is right, get with the repair facilities and maybe get hold of a freighter that can do the job of being bait." Mabrade began. "I am sure we can find you a manifest that will show a load of something good the Pirates might want? Get outbound as quick as you can then flip back. Seems in bound vessels are bit more of a target so see what you can do?"

"There's an Antares class freighter that's been seized for smuggling in the back 40, waiting to be shipped to a junkyard. I think we can appropriate it, and put out the word that it's loaded full of irresistible goodies." Terry said, thinking it over. "Bio-mimetic gel's popular with the kids these days. We'd have to file about half a dozen clearance protocols and flight plans with various provincial governments to bring it here."

"Adams, please get your contact hitting the Hang outs; insertion is a type of 'when you can, yesterday." He gave a slight grin. "Apologize for the short notice but get this contact what they need to do the job, priority."

Raven nodded. "I'll talk to her right after the meeting."

"I would like to get a feel for where they are attacking; so if we show presence in response to where they have attacked we might heard them more in a direction of where we can anticipate ; leave them some hunting grounds you might say?" Mabrade thought aloud. "If we seem to be reactive it might help them go in places we can predict, they will not hot same route with increased patrols so problem is getting the resources to fill the gap? Any suggestions?"

"Warp shadows." Terry suggested. "Send out fighters or runabouts set up to project the warp signatures and sensor echoes of something a bit bigger and more intimidating, like a Defiant, and actually fiddle with their transponders and IFF's so they're really convincing. As long as nobody gets close enough for visuals, it wouldn't be hard to make it convincing. Hell, you could do that with sensor buoys too. Have them emit the warp signatures, and then tachyons, make the bandits think we've got cloaked Defiants running around."

"That also runs the risk of making them curious," Raven said. "If they don't decide to stay back, they could decide to see what's so valuable to use cloaked ships."

She thought for a moment. "I can pull some strings and cut that red tape. I'll have that transport here in two day."
____
OFF

Captain Landon Mabrade
Commanding Officer

Commander Raven Adams
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant JG Terry Wu
Chief Flight Control Officer

Commander Billy Jo Rhodes
Administrator, Athena Shipyards

Lieutenant Aria Kanzaki
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Commander Ashe Rii'Na
Executive Officer

RSS Feed