A Simple Business Transaction, Pt. 1

Posted on Mon Jul 6th, 2020 @ 3:41pm by Colonel Sehan t'Varis & Subcommander Kaiae t'Lien & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Rehana t'Shaan & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash

1,795 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Chapter I: Resurgam
Location: Armory, the Raven's Claw
Timeline: 238612.21

Raven smiled to herself as she entered the armory, where she had asked the senior officers involved in the upcoming mission to assemble. They were only hours away from meeting with the smugglers, and everything was in place for a swift operation. All that needed to be done was to confirm the final plan, and execute it. But there was another matter to deal with first.

A few hours earlier, an encoded transmission had been sent to the Raven's Claw, sent by Commander Areinnye. Unfortunately, the business that had taken her back to Romulus was going to take far longer to address than expected. Thus, she had asked Raven and her crew, together with the Areinnye's own officers, to continue to Haakona after acquiring the parts, to take the D'Deridex warbird as originally intended. She had also greatly increased the amount paid to Raven, which suited the young mercenary commander very well. Included with the message was a dispatch from Romulan Fleet command, addressed t Lieutenant Kaiae t'Lien, which had authorised her promotion in the field to the rank of Subcommander, and confirmed her authority as the senior officer of the Romulan complement on board the Raven's Claw.

However, the change in plan would leave the crew with far less manpower for the capture of the warbird, an issue that Areinnye had seen fit to give Raven full freedom to address. Thus, she had asked Gedak to extend some lines of inquiry to see if reinforcements could be found. In the meantime, the mission was to progress as planned, and that was the purpose of this briefing - to select the suitable equipment for the team that would board the smugglers' ship, acquire the parts, and evacuate, before the smuggler ship itself would be destroyed.

Ash looked up from her PADD when Raven walked into the armory. She had spent hours pouring over data on the freighter: systems, capabilities, communication patterns and messages. As much as she loved the action, the feel of a weapon in her hand, the satisfaction of an objective accomplished, and recently... the payday that came with it, there was something simple and satisfying in the calm before the storm. Proper preparation made the rest of more enjoyable and less risky. She took immense pride in being able to anticipate situations before they became surprises. Ash absolutely detested surprises.

There are also a secondary piece of this for Ash. Perhaps it was all in her mind, but perhaps not. She was on board a Romulan vessel, crewed by mostly Romulan personnel, on a very Romulan mission. Ash had worked alone far too long after walking away from Starfleet and Section 31, perhaps burnt quite a few bridges as well. She had a chip on her shoulder, something to prove... but for the first time in a long time, Ash had a mission that she actually believed in. She nodded at Raven.

Where Ash looked up at Raven's entrance, Hatham turned coming almost to attention from force of habit. He'd largely shed that one some time ago, but with the warbird crew around old habits were coming back. He had been examining a disruptor rifle, with nearly everything else planned, the last bit was deciding on the best balance of what might be useful versus the right 'look' for the role he'd be playing. Intimidating bodyguard was an easy one for him, but the question was just how much menacing merc to add in. Also it took his mind off worrying about the the warbird's CO being suddenly recalled to the homeworld and all the many ways that could spell disaster. "Commander, do we have any more intel on the smuggler?"

Kaiae, for her part, was quiet at the entrances of the recent additions, noting them without much outward fanfare except a tight nod at Raven. The new rank bars on her collar and sash seemed to have brought her little joy; if anything they weighed her expression and countenance down and stretched it tensely in ways her own kind would probably see blatantly and as perhaps inappropriate slip of control for the rank in question. But the jarring message had subtext to it that was unsettling in the extreme; the action itself nearly unheard of for both the rank itself at her age, and the fact that it skipped her entirely over the intervening rank of centurion; another nearly-never-performed exception to the order or things that was all the more unlikely still as the rank skipped in question was generally considered a critical stage and development of a future commander's training.

It spoke to the Empire's desperation now perhaps, yes; but more specifically, for it to happen here and now to her, when there was official reason for the Empire to wish it upon her.....She was aware the Commander had allies in select spots in the command structure, sympathizers of her plan and cause or those who owed a significant political debt of favors to her House. The sort of people whom might have been able to authorize such a promotion, if directed to. But the direction itself would have been costly indeed; no doubt burning dry decades of carefully cultivate political capital. And if Areinnye had felt it necessary and worth the price, then that in turn spoke to a credible belief on her part that she would be in no position to carry forward the leadership of the personnel present, and in need of someone to do so longer term in her place than she felt could be successfully navigated by a lieutenant, versus a high rank who could draw upon that authority both legal, ceremonial, and associational if required. Which then itself hinted heavily that whatever had drawn her away was proving far more complex and perilous than she had originally anticipated. Kaiae's face was shadowed and taught under the grim pressure of this interplay of knowledge and conclusions.

Raven returned the nodded greetings. Kaiae's promotion had certainly come as an unexpected surprise, but with the situation the Romulan Empire found itself in, who knows what else would be in store. Areinnye had also sent over documents confirming the identity of one Commander Sehan t'Varis of the Tal Shiar - Raven's established cover identity was now fully official. She knew better than to question where those documents had come from, or where Areinnye had acquired them. With her usual disdain for uniforms and the advantages of supposedly holding Tal Shiar rank, Raven had instead pinned the rank badge to the collar of her long leather coat, and added shoulderboards displaying two broad, silver stripes, with one thin stripe in between them - an old variant of Starfleet's insignia for the rank of Captain, equal to the Romulan rank of Commander. She had also changed to wearing an old-Earth military-style shirt, that allowed her to affix the same shoulder boards, and completed the look with a simple, black necktie. If she was going to have to wear some form of uniform, it would be one according to her own tastes.

"Good afternoon, everyone," she finally began. "I am sure you are by now aware of Subcommander Kaiae's rather unexpected and unusual promotion, as well as my own apparent commission into the Tal Shiar at the rank of Commander. No idea how Areinnye was able to pull those off, but it's the Romulan Empire we are talking about. Knowing the right people gets you as far as you want." She turned to Hatham and Ashley. "I see the weaponry is in good order, excellent. Make sure you can shoot your way out if you have to. I understand the plan is for Ashley and Hatham to escort Gedak over to meet the smugglers, and take over their systems, so their ship appears to attack us. Are we all set on how we get that done, Ash?"

"Yes ma'am," Ash responded. She barely had a chance to work with Areinnye, so the change in command didn't affect her much. But Kaiae now being second in command will be interesting, she got the impression from their last conversation that she's probably not going to be on the new Commander's Christmas list. "After analysis of their communications traffic, they make routine check ins, so if we time our engagement with them just after they check in, we have a solid 6 hour window to do what we need to do and get away before anyone should notice that they're gone. Once we make contact, we will beam over to make sure that they have our goods. I'd like Rehana to join us to make sure that we're not getting ripped off before we rip them off. I'd like to propose that Hatham accompanies the party officially while I go about this a little more unofficial. While Gedak and Rehana inspect the goods, the insect drones would be released. While the insect drones should suffice, I'd like a little more redundancy to make sure this goes off without a hitch." Ash pulled up schematics to the freighter, "When the team beams aboard, we can piggy back a separate transport for me here," she pointed to a section of the vessel near it's warp core. "The old warp core's radiation should mask my signature and I can remain undetected. One way or another, that ship won't come after us."

Raven chuckled when Ash addressed her as ma'am, and nodded slowly when she finished going over the plan. "Very good. I personally made sure our disruptors are at peak performance, and the torpedo tube is loaded and ready. So that hunk of junk they call a ship should be debris in moments." She turned to Kaiae. "Lieu- ah, sorry, Subcommander," she chuckled as she corrected herself, "We will need you to keep an eye on their communications. If they call for reinforcements, we need to know as soon as."

"Yes. One possibility when we near the apex of the operation would be to potentially deploy some methods of interference to prevent that. It would have to be timed well, however; as the act of doing so itself is likely to alert them to an issue."

"Jamming their communications is within our capabilities. Keep an eye on their chatter and let us know when to do so," Raven responded, before she finally turned to Rehana. "Red, did you manage to get our cloak working again? Just in case we need it."

Rehana nodded. "Took a lot of all-nighters and broken nails, but that cloak is working."

"Excellent." Raven looked around the small group. "You all have your jobs. Be ready in three hours. If you need anything, I will be in my office. Let's get this done as quickly and effectively as we can."

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