How to trap a Vulture?

Posted on Tue Mar 9th, 2021 @ 8:19pm by Lieutenant Mila Lynn & Colonel Sehan t'Varis & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant T'Ango & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash

2,688 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Chapter III: The Hunt is On
Location: Briefing Room, I.R.W. Ourainavassa
Timeline: 238702.06

Following her meeting with T'Ango, Raven had headed straight to the Briefing Room, in order to set everything up and familiarise herself with the situation reports. According to the intelligence she had received through Gedak's network, the unificationist convoy had been slightly delayed, and would arrive at the nebula a day later than originally expected, which would give her and her crew more time to set up their own ambush. If the Vulture's forces had not received that information, it would hopefully mean less risk of civilian ships being caught in the crossfire, but she was not counting on that possibility.

When she was satisfied that she was prepared, she went over the list of officers she had asked to attend. Major Rogers, as her second-in-command, was obvious, and would be leading a boarding party together with Sublieutenant Hatham. Her mirror counterpart, Commander Rogers, would serve as tactical officer, as well as stand by to launch in Munin, if needed, while T'Ango and her partner were to use their ship as reinforcements. Lastly, she had also invited Sublieutenant Mila Lynn to the briefing, as her insight into cloaking technology as well as the potential effects of fighting in a nebula would come in very handy. The young scientist had proven her worth repeatedly in the past few days, and she had become a key player on the Ourainavassa's crew.

Hatham arrived promptly as usual. "Colonel," he said, giving a crisp fist-to-chest salute before taking his seat to wait for the others.

Before long, two people arrived, though not members of the crew. A male, tall for a human, and a Dosadi - much shorter but carrying herself with the confidence of one for whom size did not particularly matter. Given that Dosadi weren't common in this part of the galaxy, he assumed they were the people Renee had mentioned. He'd heard that they'd arrived, but hadn't had a chance to set up a meeting. The question was, why were they invited to this one?

"Colonel," T'Ango greeted as she entered. "I don't believe you've met my partner, Arnason. He's a medic, so if there are casualties we can be of assistance there as well."

Raven nodded. "Gunnar Arnason. Pleasure to meet you. And I am sure that Doctor Gable will appreciate a helping hand after the battle."

"A pleasure, Colonel," Arnason responded cordially. "To meet you, and to have the opportunity to stop this Vulture from preying on more refugees."

The two Ashes arrived at the same time to the briefing room each holding a mug of coffee and thanks to prior coordination, Commander Rogers entered the room before the Major. The both nodded at Raven in sync before turning to the rest of the room. Commander Rogers recognized the Dosadi from the bar, and she sized up both the human man next to her and the large Romulan male in the room. Major Rogers meanwhile smiled and nodded to T'Ango, Gunnar, and Hatham. They both simultaneously took a sip from their mugs.

The three of them blinked, almost in unison. T'Ango and Gunnar had known about the other Ash and recovered more quickly, though Gunnar was finding it difficult not to stare. Hatham however had heard only a few, what he had previously assumed to be drunken, rumors about two Ashes. Seeing them though... it was uncanny. He had to work to close the jaw that dropped open a little.

"Major?" Hatham couldn't quite find more than the single word to ask.

Both of the Ashes looked at Hatham, but it was the Major that replied, "Yes?" And then they both said in unison to everyone gawking, "What? Have none of you dealt with alternate universe counterparts before?" Then looked at each other mildly annoyed.

Raven couldn't help but giggle, both at Hatham's confusion and the two Ash Rogers still speaking in unison. "Major, Commander, good afternoon. One last person, and we can begin."

Just on cue, the door opened again, and Mila entered, somewhat unsure as to why she had been called to a senior staff briefing like this. When she saw the two Rogers, her eyes grew wide. She had heard that the counterpart was on board, but not yet run into her. So, that's her then? The other you?, she signed at Ash, before turning to the colonel. "Reporting as requested, although I am not quite sure why you asked me here."

The Major signed back to Mila with a slight smile, Yes, why hasn't anyone told me how annoying I am?.

The Commander looked at the exchange between her counterpart and the child. Through her observations, she knew that this Ashley Rogers has seemingly adopted two teenagers, but seeing them interact in person was somewhat jarring. It was surprising to her to see her counterpart be so comfortable with children. She tried to smile out of politeness to the girl she knows is named Mila, but it probably looked like she was in gastrointestinal distress.

"Ah, Sublieutenant. Thank you for coming, I apologise for the short notice. Now, before I begin this meeting, there is one little thing that needs to be done." She stood and walked over to Mila, taking a small, black box out of her pocket. "Mila Lynn, with immediate effect, I promote you to the rank of Lieutenant, and confirm your assignment as Chief Science Officer of this vessel. Congratulations." She took a pin, shaped like a silver crescent, out of the box, and pinned it to Mila's vest, next to the one that was already there. "Please, Lieutenant," she continued. "Take a seat."

Mila was stunned. "Th- thank you, ma'am," she stuttered, before sitting down next to Major Rogers, looking at her for reassurance.

Major Rogers smiled proudly and put a supportive hand on Mila's shoulder before signing, You earned this. I'm so proud of you. You're going to be great.

T'Ango and Gunnar both smiled, Gunnar giving a small nod to Mila and T'Ango flashing a quick thumbs up.

Hatham reminded himself that humans had vastly different timescales for things than Romulans, and this gig was for one purpose only. His bigger concern the fact that the people he'd thought were here to help with that one purpose were possibly going to be at risk joining the fight against Vulture. An extra ship was welcome, but he wasn't sure of the cost/benefit here.

Commander Rogers watched the dynamics of this team and could sense the Romulan's discomfort in contrast to the rest of the people in the room. The child now outranks him. And the big cat and her human seem to be as proud of the child as her counterpart. This is the group that is supposed to help her save the multiverse? She was starting to have as many doubts as it seemed like the Romulan was having.

"If I may, Colonel," Commander Rogers spoke up. "Before we begin, I would like to introduce myself to your crew. It may be disconcerting to everyone here that there are two Ashley Rogers standing in front of you. In the interest of full disclosure, or as much as I can share with you now, I am a Temporal Agent here on an operation involving the Tal'Shiar and Hobus." She noticed Hatham's reaction to the mention of the the clandestine Romulan organization. "Your Ashley Rogers, along with the child.. I mean the Lieutenant and the Dosadi discovered a Tal'Shiar station orbiting the star. I'm here to help you stop their operation, however, the matter that the Colonel is about to brief takes precedence. Consider me an.... exchange officer... from outside this time space continuum."

Major Rogers shrugged at the rest of the room, "I can confirm... she's me." She looked at T'Ango and rolled her eyes, "I owe you that prime rib and cheesecake..."

T'Ango smirked and tipped her head. Gunnar looked somewhat less happy; in fact, the implications were a bit unsettling.

Hatham on the other hand, gave the other Rogers a hard look. Sure, she claimed to be a temporal agent of some type - and he fully expected that she'd claim was here to help them save the timeline or some such - but even if she actually was some kind of Federation time police, that hardly meant she was trustworthy. It certainly didn't mean that her mission meant anything good for his people. However, the Colonel seemed to trust her - a fact that didn't reassure him given recent history, but did mean he knew better than raise any questions openly.

Commander Rogers looked at her counterpart confused before continuing, "Thank you." She knew that the Romulan had no reason to trust her, even with his superior vouching for her. She merely decided to continue to glare at him.

"Thank you, Commander. Unless anyone has anything to add, I think we should get down to business," Raven said, sensing the awkwardness in Hatham and Commander Rogers. She tapped a command into her console, activating the projector in the table. Once again, it was displaying a map of the area, centred in on the nebula, with the unificationist convoy's route drawn in.

"I don't think I need to go over the general gist of the plan again in much detail. We have determined that this refugee group is very lightly defended, to the point of being defenceless. Due to the antiquated design of the ships they are using, they will need to drop out of warp at this nebula in order to realign their course and fly around it. The nebula itself disrupts any warp field entering into it, pulling any ship back into normal space. This makes it a perfect spot for an ambush, as most ship sensors also struggle to penetrate far into it. We expect the Vulture's operation to be staging such an ambush, and have decided to lay a trap for them ourselves. We will lie in wait, under cloak, and strike the moment they reveal themselves."

She looked around the room. "We determined at the last meeting that the enemy strike force would likely be very small, consisting of no more than a handful of their preferred strike vessel, the B'Rel-class Bird-of-Prey." The display changed to an image of such a ship. "Although relatively fast and agile, and of course equipped with a cloak, these ships are known to be somewhat fragile. Using the Ourainavassa's polarised disruptor weapons, we will disable one of them, and send a small boarding party over to secure the vessel and any intelligence it holds. Any other enemy vessels must be destroyed, in order to allow the convoy to safely escape."

"As some of you will remember, several months ago we encountered a freighter, masquerading as trading smugglers, that was in reality filled with cryostasis pods. Blood traces confirmed that these pods were used to transport Romulans, and an interrogation of the ship's Commander first gave us the name Vulture. We can be sure that such a vessel will be lying in wait for the strike force to disable the convoy. That ship will be our primary target."

The display changed to an outline of the mission area. "Once we have secured a Bird-of-Prey, we will use it to determine the location of the freighter and set it to self-destruct. We will then disable and board the freighter. Expect considerable opposing forces on the freighter, as it will likely hold the boarding parties intended to capture the convoy and its passengers. There will not be much point in taking prisoners among the pirates. What we are after is their computer core, as it is bound to hold information on the whereabouts of the enemy base. Once the freighter is secured, Lieutenant Lynn will extract this information. Once we are done with that ship, it, too, will be destroyed."

"Your assignments are as follows. Major Rogers and Sublieutenant Hatham will each lead a boarding party, to transport simultaneous onto two separate locations on the freighter. I will personally be on stand-by with a third boarding party if further reinforcements are needed. Commander Rogers will serve as tactical officer during the operation, and take command of Ourainavassa should I need to join the fray. T'Ango and Gunnar's vessel will provide operational support, as well as help evacuate any captives we may find on board the freighter."

Raven paused for a moment for everyone to understand the plan, before continuing. "Sublieutenant Hatham and Major Rogers, you said you would reach out to contacts over the past few days to see if any further reinforcement could be sourced, should we require them in the eventuality of the enemy having brought more ships than expected. Have you had any success in your endeavours?"

The idea of the unknown variant on Rogers running even tactical on the ship with the most firepower didn't sit well with Hatham. But objection would not serve here, so he made a mental note to speak to the other Romulans who would be in positions to act if necessary. And to Nveid. "Daie. An old friend from the Galae has his own ship now - a decommissioned Dhelan, but still capable of putting up a good fight. One of his cousins was on the flotilla, so he's eager to assist us."

"As for me, what you see is what you have... thanks T'Ango, Gunnar," Major Rogers said nodding to her friends. She looked over at Hatham, she knows he is not comfortable with any of this. And that's what makes him a good security officer... she will want to talk with him after this meeting. Romulan protocol may be keeping him from voicing his thoughts in this environment.

The colonel nodded appreciatingly. "Very good. Once again, thank you both for your assistance. I, too, have been able to make contact with an old acquaintance of mine. A classmate of mine back at the academy recently received a field commission to command his own ship, the U.S.S. Amelia.Luckily, he owes me more than one favour. She's only a science vessel, Nova-class, but if they are needed, they will be available."

She turned to Hatham. "Please relay the battle plan to your old friend. Tell him to stand by at distance. I have given the same instruction to the Amelia. Ourainavassa will be the lead ship of our small task force. Commander Rogers, it will be part of your job as tactical officer to coordinate everyone."

Commander Rogers raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Amelia and almost chuckled internally. "Yes, ma'am. It'll be a welcome challenge to bring together such a... diverse collection of allies."

Major Rogers signed to Mila, Jeez, am I that horrible to work with?

Hatham simply nodded in response to the orders. Of course he would follow them - to the exact letter, which did not exclude any other security arrangements.

T'Ango was having similar thoughts, but she'd discuss them with Arnason later, and possibly with Dr. Gable just to have an extra perspective. For now she couldn't help notice the tension from the Romulan security officer. "You should know I've contacted my old Raider team. They may be too far out to get here to join in, but they will check in." She looked at the big Romulan. "If this goes sideways, they'll make sure to alert our back-ups so that the mission to Romulus will still be carried out."

The first fractional hint of smile crossed Hatham's lips at that. One fewer concern at least. "Appreciated," he replied with a formal precise inclination of his head.

Raven nodded. "Very good. We leave at 0900 tomorrow morning. Unless anyone has anything to add, this meeting is concluded. Oh, Sublieutenant Hatham, could you come see me in my office when you have a moment?"

A dozen possible reasons for a meeting crossed Hatham's mind. However there was only one correct response. "Aye, Colonel."

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