Mission 1: Cold Front

||USS Indefatigable
||Bridge
||0841
||Day 1 (Mission Day not...never mind)

There was a certain sleekness to be seen when one admired a Starfleet vessel either passing by a viewport or connected to the beating heart that was a star base or docking station. A certain aura that they seemed to generate. Presence. They generated presence. Especially a class as large as an Excelsior. As old as the Indefatigable was, she still had that powerful air around her. Her gleam and charm showing proudly through the sea of stars and vast empty black. An island of civilisation. Of order. Of knowledge. Yet despite all these things she was deadly. Bristling with weapons it was hard to believe that this bulwark against ignorance and fear was anything more than a painter's inspiration. They were hidden from plain sight unlike the vessels of the Klingon Defence Force which proudly displayed their disruptor cannons as both threat and dare. A difference of mindsets one would agree.

Lieutenant Commander Rena Markov was indisposed of medically yet still within the ship's sickbay. An incident with a coolant pipe was what Marine Captain Reneé Lucas had heard from the reports. The blonde officer sat in the central chair as if such a thing was an unnatural occurrence. As it should be, since it wasn't normal for marine officers to neither wear command red or sit in the central chair. Her unhappiness with the entire situation was etched on her face as the stretched stars whizzed past the view screen in front of her as the ship ploughed at warp speed towards the Valoris Nebula which, according to the briefing, was a bone of contention between the Federation and the Breen Confederacy. Reneé didn't understand the workings nor the reason behind the sudden flashpoint.

Maybe it was on the briefing but since it wasn't to do with hostile action or their actual task Reneé merely filed it under 'for reference' under her mental filing system. There were bigger things to worry about if the Breen were prowling around.

"Lieutenant Dougherty." she called to the man. "Any word on suspected enemy numbers and classification of threats?"

<tag: CSO>

||USS Indefatigable
||Bridge
||0842
||Day 1

Olvier could cut the tension in the air with a knife. The Breen had never been a force that needed much provocation but had been left alone by the Federation if they stay out of our space. Now We were forced to deal with them in such close proximity. "Captain Lucas, while they are not a declared enemy of the Federation they are typically belligerent to the point that cooperation is impossible and they are even openly hostile just prior to the point of firing on our ships. The actual number of Breen ships in the Valoris Nebula has not been established but the reported incidents, sightings, and Starfleet Intelligence reports put our estimation at approximately three warships and twelve cruisers."

Oliver looked around making sure that the entire staff that was on the bridge was hearing him, "Contact should be sporadic and light at worst. From what we understand the Breen and Starfleet are conducting similar missions. We need to check our colonies and make sure that the planets that were part of the spatial shift are being respected by the other party."

Oliver did not like it. He had hoped that the Federation and Breen diplomats would decide to evacuate their planets that had been moved and resettle the colonists to planets that were within their respective borders, but on the other side he would not have acquiesced to such a request if he had spent generations building several thriving settlements from a few prefabricated shelters and whatever they could scrounge up. Terraforming alone had taken the better part of fifty years on most of the planets because of the unique elemental makeup of the soil in that region of space.
<Tags Everyone>

||USS Indefatigable
||Damage Control Deck 16
||0843
||Day 1


Now this was more like it. Finally out in space where Starfleet belonged. Danny sat on his chair down in Damage Control Central where, in the event of an incident, he would command the damage control efforts which would save the ship. He felt the familiar rumble of the ship as the warp engines propelled them across space. It was a sweet feeling.

He watched over the other 4 damage control specialists as they performed various checks and duties. Most of them were new, their first deep space assignment. He would be breaking them in on this deployment. The other 20 damage control specialists were scattered about the ship in 4 teams of 5 waiting for the call to action which if they were heading towards Breen Space might come sooner then later. Danny wasn't worried, a veteran of 347 separate combat engagements, he took those lessons learned and passed them down to his crew. They had drilled constantly while in drydock and while they weren't the best in the fleet they were coming along.

He had wished they had gone into the nebula with the original Captain but Captain Markov suffered an accident right before departing. He had trust in her but the XO..well Captain now...seemed to be a pretty good leader but Sullivan didn't know her all that well. He would find out soon enough as they headed towards the Valoris Nebula. Still he had his crew to worry about. They needed something to take their minds off what was to possibly come.
"Hey how about getting some music in here? Computer playlist Sullivan 3-5."
The specialists smiled as the sounds of Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain" come from the speakers in the small workspace. Whatever came, he was ready for it.


<tag anybody>

||USS Indefatigable
||Bridge
||0847
||Day 1

"Then let us pray Lieutenant Dougherty that the Breen have the manners to announce themselves before they show themselves to our weapons." growled Reneé who straightened her jacket as she stood up from the seat. For some reason it felt unnatural to just simply sit and give orders like some general. She was a marine, it was in her to give orders from the front. She also let the 'Captain' slide given she could rationalise it as Oliver meaning 'Marine Captain' in shorthand. Reneé knew better and yet she wasn't going to pick at that particular scab since it didn't exist. Let them have their traditions and uncomfortable seats. It was a stage and she was the protagonist on the light which they would gaze upon in scrutiny.

Not to mention Reneé desperately prayed for REGCOM to pluck her from this lofty position. Let them play Battleships. She wanted a regiment, not a vessel.

Any thoughts that Reneé had or doubts that lingered in her mind was brought to a halt when the U.S.S. Indefatigable exited subspace with the ripple that gave a brief illumination to the void until it materialised in front of the vast expanse that was the Valoris Nebula. It looked to Reneé as little more than a swirling red and orange cauldron that could hide an entire enemy fleet if it felt kind enough. She remembered how sailors would refer to the sea as a cruel and fickle mistress. A sudden rippled along her spine at the comparison of space. It seemed all the more...deadly. Without ships blowing the seven hells out of one another.

"We've arrived the nebula ma'am." reported the helmsman.

"Thank you ensign. Ops, sensors."

The cold and somewhat blunt way that Reneé requested information from the junior lieutenant behind the operations panel seemed to turn bright scarlet in both embarrassment and indignation. "No abnormal readings ma'am." she reported. "No ships or constructs of artificial nature."

"Excellent. Mister Dougherty, what do you know about this nebula. Can we use it to our tactical advantage?"

<TAG CSO>

||USS Indefatigable
||Bridge
||0847
||Day 1

Oliver was facing Renee, he had dedicated the basics of the properties from the Valoris nebula to memory after some research following the initial briefing that the staff had received.

"The Valoris, or Horse head nebula is a natural source of polaron radiation. The polaron radiation also interferes with starship sensors, reducing the passive scanning range of sensors not calibrated to compensate for it by approximately half."

Unluckily the calibration had to be done manually and there was no predetermined settings because the flux in radiation levels and background interference. Engineering and Operations were going to have their hands full trying to keep up with the adjustments that were going to need to be made to the sensors.

Everything just kept getting better and better, he thought to himself sarcastically. "No ma'am, there are almost no advantages, but since the Breen sensor technology is slightly superior to ours taking away their range evens the playing field. If we can't see them, they can't see us.

<Open Tag>

||USS Indefatigable
||Bridge
||0848
||Day 1

Great. Thought Reneé who turned her attention to the view screen. Fight outranged or blind. What a lovely set of choices.

"Helm, skirt us along the nebula at full impulse. Keep us our side of the border. We don't need to draw any extra attention to ourselves than we probably already are. Keep your distance from the nebula though."

The officer nodded and brought the Indefatigable along side the vaporous stellar body but far enough out to stay away from its blinding polaron radiation. Their mission was to be on station to deliver aid and act as a slaving deterrent. That meant being able to see and hear so there was little reason to dabble in the midst of the nebula. Peace through superior fire power was a smart move from Starfleet command but that only worked if you had the biggest guns.

It didn't help that they were alone and so close to Breen space. Reneé didn't know the response times for any quick reaction force from any nearby starbase. Or if there was a QRF waiting in the wings. It wouldn't be the first time that a lone Starfleet vessel was pounced upon by a numerically superior enemy but she was sure that her crew would do their best. That the girl at Operations would have her eyes glued to the sensors just waiting to announce the next sensor ping. Did all captains have to do this? Just...wait? Wait for the next report, the next break in the tension?

Of course there was tension as Reneé just stood like a statue in front of her chair as if waiting for the command to leap. She looked like a coil waiting to be unleashed, all wound up as each of her thumbs ran along her hands. It was the waiting that got her. She wasn't up to this task. Reneé was used to taking the fight to the enemy, being the aggressor not the defender. Sure there was times against the Dominion she had to dig in but...it never felt like this. With a rifle everything felt under your control.

"Ma'am. Sensor blip has just come out of the nebula and is closing in on us. Range; forty thousand kilometres. Bearing; one-eight-zero mark zero. They're right on our aft ma'am."

Reneé could have almost kissed the girl for delivering that news but instead all she did was slowly exhale the pent up breath that had built up during the course of the report. "Can you identify?"

"Yes ma'am." said the officer. "One Breen warship."

"There weapons are charged and shields are raised captain." reported the Saurian tactical officer. "Shields are raised. We'll be in their weapon's range in fifty seconds."

"I know what these bastards are here for..." whispered Reneé to herself. "Go to red alert. Helm, bring us about. I want to look these frost-breathers in the eyes." she added in a more bark-like tone.

The lights changed on the ship, dimming to be replaced by the red alert lighting as the alarm signalled throughout the ship. As gracefully as the large ship could, the Indefatigable turned to face the looming threat that was the Breen warship. It was an ugly creation that looked as if it was merely twisted metal held together by sheer purpose of the hunt. If anything it made Reneé's stomach feel as if a pit had opened within it but she kept her nerve.

"Target their weapon arrays. See if we can't kick their teeth out."

Sadly the Breen had the advantage over weapon's range against the somewhat ageing vessel and it wasn't long until the familiar blue shimmer of Federation shields flared as soon as the green beams slapped against her. The ship seemed to shake slightly with the impact but Reneé remained on her feet.

"Shields at eight-seven percent." reported the tactical officer. "We are in weapon's range now captain."

"All forward phasers, fire!" she snarled. Upon the command the fore arrays of the Excelsior-class vessel erupted, brilliant flashes of orange light impacting on the green shields of the Breen. The salvoes and shots continued to be exchanged as the vessels closed towards one another as if testing to see which would break first.

<Open Tag>

||USS Indefatigable
||Damage Control Deck 16
||0850
||Day 1




The white lights dimmed as the red lights flickered on. Red Alert. Chief Petty Officer Daniel Sullivan bounded to life down in the cramped Damage Control space on Deck 16. “Ok everyone this is for real!” He leaped from his chair to survey the closest console and put his hand on the back of the crewman sitting there. “Get me comms with the damage control parties”.

“Aye Chief”, the crewman answered and his fingers danced across the console. “All parties report manned and ready. Alpha team is on deck 9 in Secondary, Bravo team is on Deck 13, Charlie team is on Deck 19, and Delta team is on Deck 22”.

“Very well,” Sullivan said. In theory each party would be able to respond 6 decks either up or down sometimes overlapping in heavily damaged areas. Sullivan has had yet to see this work as a truly effective method but he has been surprised before. He felt the ship lurch beneath his feet. “Here we go, this is where the fun begins!” He smiled as looked at the scared faces all turning to look at him.

“Weapons hit deck 11, shields still holding. No damage”.

“Roger, keep it up crewman. You are doing a good job”.
He felt the ship shudder as the weapons were released and he could hear the sounds of the phaser batteries lancing out toward their target. “Sounds like we are giving them hell!!” Sullivan cried out. He grinned as the 4 crewmembers in the space with him cheered.


<Open Tag>

||USS Indefatigable
||Main Engineering Deck 20
||0850
||Day 1



While Chief Sullivan and the rest of his band were cheering 6 decks above Engineering LTJG Trella Fong was frightened for his life. He was assigned duties monitoring the warp plasma flow in the engines. The lights in Engineering dimmed and were replaced by eerie red lights. The other officers in Engineering went about their duties softly muttering to each other or telling a joke or two. Fong found it hard to swallow as he watched the console in front of him. He grabbed the sides of the work station so tight his fingers were starting to turn a shade of purple.

He had to get out here, this is madness. What is the XO thinking going up against a Breen ship with twice the firepower of this old derelict? They should have turned tail and came back with reinforcements. That is what he would have done if he was in command. The ship took a hit and the lights flickered off and on. The startled shouts of the other officers masked the agonizing moan that came from his mouth. He looked at the upper deck and saw the damage control team standing by, all bunched together. If the ship took a hit they would all be wiped out. He yelled up at one of them, presumably the leader.

“Hey you!”

The crewman looked around and looked down. “Yes sir?”

“Don’t you think you should separate, if we take a hit and you all are put out of commission then what would we do?”

The crewman, Damage Control Specialist 2nd class Stephenson a 5 year Indefatigable veteran and Charlie team leader, looked bewildered. “Sir?”

“I said for your team to break up and separate Petty Officer, that is an order!!” Fong felt the spittle running from his lips.

“Aye sir”, he turned and after a few words the 5 man team split up and went to either side of the Engineering space obeying the spirit but not the letter of the order.

Fong glared at them and went back to his console wishing for the ship to retreat back to the safety of the starbase.

||USS Indefatigable
||Bridge
||0855
||Day 1

Like knights jousting before royalty, the two ships closed the distance without holding back the ferocity of disruptor and phaser fire. Kilometres were travelled in mere seconds, fractions of seconds to the point where it looked like the two ships would collide and leave their very superstructures to wrestle one another to submission. The interior of the Indefatigable seemed to shake more violently as a measure of the shield strength. Shields which were being pounded into near non-existence.

"Hard to port! Tactical! Give them a broad sweep with the starboard phaser banks! When they come into sights of our aft launchers fire at full yield. No spread. Knife range."

The ship yanked away from the Breen warship as if backing out from a game of chicken. A broadside from the phasers allowed multiple arcs to be concentrated onto one side of a ship. Usually when this happened it devolved into a shark circle, shooting at one another in constant turns until the one with the most firepower won. Reneé had little faith in the phasers of such an old ship against a Breen cruiser and so decided to take the initiative. As soon as the Breen ship came into the two launchers' firing arcs six orange lights flew from them to impact the dented, but not broken, enemy shields.

At such a close range and with such a high yield the blow back shook the Indie to where Reneé fell back onto her seat. "Report!"

"Aft shields at nineteen percent and falling ma'am! Incoming torpedoes!"

If the ripple effect from the Indefatigable's own shots were a tremor, then what came next was the earthquake. The torpedoes broke the Indie's aft shields and still had enough punch to bleed through enough damage to the ship's hull. Lights on the bridge flickered as the Starfleet vessel was winded, almost crippled.

"Damage report!" demand Reneé

"Sensors are down and we've got power fluctuations on most decks. I can't tell but I think internal communications are down."

It was a disaster? What now? Reneé appeared calm but inside she was panicking beneath her cool exterior. There was only once choice; the nebula. "Helm; take us into that cloud. With luck we'll lose them to catch our breath. Don't worry people...we've just lost one round of many."

<open tag>

||USS Indefatigable
||Bridge
||0855
||Day 1

"Helm; take us into that cloud. With luck we'll lose them to catch our breath. Don't worry people...we've just lost one round of many."

While Captain Lucas was directing the crew, Oliver had been busy reading. Throughout the barking of orders, shorted consoles discharging and spewing sparks in the dark of the bridge, he needed to find some way to get the indefatigable the upper hand in a real David vs. Goliath fight. He had studied up on the tactical capabilities of the Excelsior class when he had learned that was the type of ship to which he was going to be assigned.

One thing that a lot of Starfleet officers took for granted was that they were not that heavily armed when compared to more modern ships, and they would be correct since the frame was over a hundred years old, But the other misconception was that since they were most often outmatched in firepower that they were also soft. The shield systems were on par with the most current upgrades, but one thing that had made them such an advantage to Starfleet initially was that they could take a beating and survive. Core breaches were rare. Starfleet had based the designs of the Sovereign class ships off of them, the were longer and flatter than their sister ship classes. Which had the advantage of being able to put more bulkheads and tritanium between engineering and the exterior of the ship.

Oliver had remembered something that he had seen..."Captain Lucas I have an idea. If it works it'll blind them and take their beam weapons offline for about thirty seconds."

After tapping his combadge he said

=A= Engineering, do we currently have the capability to fire an Aceton beam?=A=

He knew that it would take a few minutes to configure if there were any eningeers available but that even if they were able to make the adjustments firing it would burn out the phaser beam emitter that was used to fire it and only the fore or aft main emitter was capable of firing it. Since that kind of damage could only be repaired at spacedock he was not sure if the payoff would be worth the cost.

<To anyone>

||USS Indefatigable
||Bridge
||0855
||Day 1

Lieutenant Commander Wercheg raised an eyebrow at Dougherty's suggestion. A smile rounded his lips, Dougherty had a good idea, but what was really important was the execution. Wercheg had been staying quiet so as not to break the concentration of the helmsmen and the tactical officers. Wercheg knew that in this assignment, his diplomatic muscles would be put to the ultimate test, if they would be used at all. If this engagement was any indication, would appear as though Antoine wouldn't get very much paper work. Well, atleast there's that.

Antoine leaned over from his station so he could talk more directly to the Captain. "If we're able to get their weapons down for thirty seconds, perhaps we should consider talking the warship's captain down, Captain. Just a suggestion, if you think it may be able to work." Antoine said, adding on to the idea of the Aceton Beam. "The Breen may not know the capabilities of our retrofitted ship, and we might be able to rescue whomever they might have taken as slaves."

Antoine adopted a less open posture and returned to his station. "If anything, I'd like to atleast some of those poor enslaved people, rather then blowing them to kingdom come." Antoine paused for a reflective second, and added, "oh, and the Breen too. That would sadden me deeply too if they perished."

<open to anyone>

||USS Indefatigable
||Main Engineering Deck 20
||0855
||Day 1

Trella Fong heard the Strategic Officer call for Engineering asking something about an Aceton Beam. He had no idea what an Aceton Beam was or what it was supposed to do.
=A= Standby=A=

He took a look around. Most of the Main Engineering officers were either dead or seriously wounded. He grabbed a passing Chief Petty Officer who looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and surprise.

“Chief, can we fire an Aceton Beam?”
The Chief thought for a second, “Sure we can sir, but why would you want to?”
“What do you mean Chief?” Fong asked.
“Well we would have to modify one of the phaser emitters and once we fire it the emitters and most of the power couplings would be fried until we can get back to a Starbase.”

Both men rocked on their feet a little as the ship took another hit and some of the lights flickered on and off before finally going off completely leaving both men bathed in relative darkness with the exception of the emergency lighting.

“Well, it seems like we need one of those beams if we are going to make it to get to a Starbase Chief, get it done” Fong said thinking in his head that if this plan doesn’t work blame would rest on Oliver and the XO.

“Aye sir, it will take a few moments. Would you give me a hand? The aft emitter is shot so we will have use the forward one”

Fong nodded =A= Engineering to Bridge. We are modifying one of the emitters now, should take a few minutes=A=
A few seconds later he heard the XO’s voice

=A= Very well, and step on it. We will hold off that bloody Breen ship=A=

Fong followed the Chief through the smoky corridor past the damage control team in oxygen masks fighting to save the ship with extinguishers and other equipment. They arrived at the forward emitter and the Chief pulled off an access cover.
“Ok sir, the quickest way to do this is to generate a power surge in the phaser emitter which will generate a powerful beam. We don’t want to be anywhere near this thing when they fire it.”
The Chief fiddled with a few interfaces while Fong watched. “Ok that ought to do it. Let’s get out of here.”
He motioned for the gunnery crew manning the emitter to clear out and he Fong retreated down the passageway.

=A= Fong to Bridge, Aceton Beam is ready=A=

Down in the stardrive section of the USS Indefatigable Chief Sullivan was fighting to save his ship. A volley of torpedoes took out the aft shields and with the shields down the hull was vulnerable. Communications between his damage control teams was offline and he resorted to using runners to rely reports and orders to his 4 teams scattered throughout the ship. He had abandoned his post in Damage Control Central, with the power out and the consoles damaged there was nothing for him to do there anyway, and instead took charge of the Team Charlie which was the same team Fong had told to split up earlier in the battle.

They had managed to contain the fires in Engineering using a combination of hand held extinguishers and fire blankets which they would put over a fire and smother it out. The automatic system was offline so they had to do it the old fashioned way.
“Set a reflash watch in here, we are moving forward” He said to one of the crewmen.
“Aye Chief”.

He coughed and wiped his face with his hand. It was black from smoke and his lungs were filled with smoke he was sure of it. He looked at his hand and noticed blood on his fingers. He must have cut himself somewhere, probably when the bulkhead gave way. He joined the rest of the team in the Engineering Admin offices dragging the lifeless body of one of the yeoman out. He looked at the corpsman raising his eyebrows quizzically. The corpsman looked back and wordlessly shook his head.

A fire lashed out at them from the EPS processing center and power conduit transfer room. He raised his hand to protect his face as his team charged forward extinguishers at the ready. He barked orders at his crew

“Attack the bottom first!! Use a sweeping motion!!”

The crew reacted and within a few minutes the fire was out. He saw the new JG Fong with Chief Barnes heading forward but he put the both of them out of his mind. He felt the ship rock again and the lights went out and stayed out. The damage control team ignited their handheld lights and clipped them to their uniforms which illuminated their faces. It reminded Danny of the nights he spent camping and telling ghost stories with his friends.

A runner ran up to him. “Chief, I have a report.” He said out of breath.

“Ok report”

"Alpha team reports multiple fires on Decks 5 and 7 both are being contained. Petty Officer Teryn is leading a team to restore comms right now. Bravo Team had one fire in Stellar Cartography which was quickly put out, a hull breach on Deck 11, two casualties. Emergency forcefield is in place and a patch is being rigged would should hold. Delta team is nearly wiped out.”
He said that so matter of factly and quickly that Danny almost didn’t catch it.

“Wait….what was that?”

“Delta team Chief, there was a massive explosion in the shuttlebay and they got caught up on it. I was almost there when I felt the explosion. If I hadn’t had to take the long way around I would have been in it too. I don’t think anybody made it out”.

“Goddamn it!!” Sullivan roared in anger causing the surrounding crewmembers to take a few steps back. This was the first time they had experienced Chief Sullivan’s legendary temper and some of them were frightened. He regained his composure and motioned to Petty Officer Stephenson.
“Dave, take….” He took a big swallow which hurt his throat. “..take charge here. I am going to see for myself what happened to Delta team”

“Aye Chief, you want to take someone with you?”

“No, just keep up the good work. I will be back soon”

“Aye Chief. You want the corpsman to look at your head? That cut looks pretty nasty”.

“No I’m fine, just hold it together here.”

<TAG>