War Zone

Posted on Wed Aug 12th, 2026 @ 11:24am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Commander Christine J'Oh & Ensign Zeve Navot & Ensign Ian Milkovich & Ensign Raven DeVine & Commander Cale Llewellyn DSci & Lieutenant Jack Lashmore & Lieutenant Cyrin Xanth & Lieutenant Arianna Frost

Mission: A New Day at Midnight
Location: Planet Omipro

ON:

With the scout and new crew members safely aboard, the Pandora pressed on toward Omipro. Before long, the ship emerged from its particle-cloud shortcut into clear space. The violent turbulence faded, a quiet stillness settled over the vessel, and Ensign Milkovich finally let out a deep sigh of relief. Captain Temple emerged from the Turbolift, having gone down to the shuttle bay to welcome Lieutenants Frost and Lashmore.

“Five minutes until we’re in orbit.” Ian called out.

“Let’s get those shields up to full strength.” Temple commanded as he took his seat. “Assess the damage and make any priority repairs.”

Jack had followed the Captain in, despite having a desperate need for a sonic shower with none such luxuries aboard a Federation Scout for the past month. Spying his assigned console, currently manned by a younger dark-haired Ensign Jack approached the man and stood beside him and spoke low enough for the conversation to be between only them. "Ensign Navot, I assume?" Jack enquired as he read over the LCARS read-outs on the tactical console.

"Yes, sir."

"Great, I'm your new Chief...but you're not dismissed; consoles still yours at the moment." Jack reassured him. "Though, perhaps aid the shields a little bit on their regeneration, hmm? Could be a gamble, but I'd stand down the torpedo bays from red-alert to a stand-by mode, have that fraction of power go towards the shield generators. We're here to deter, not to destroy, phasers should be all that we need in the present...and we can adjust in the moment if needed."

"Aye, sir...and welcome aboard," Navot replied dutifully and did as was instructed, though, it was easy to tell that Jack's vacinity, namely the month of no sonic shower was noticed by the Ensign in his clearing of throat and readjustment of stance a further inch or two from Jack.

"Cheers, Ensign."

With the Security Console now quite crowded, Arianna kept towards the back, not getting too close to anyone, for pretty much the same reason as Jack. She took the moment to listen to the chatter around her, updating the mental file with the new information. She would go to Deck 4 at the earliest opportunity to meet with Mister Jarok, who has been minding the Department so far and get a debrief from him.

"That was exciting," Xanth said to no one in particular as he at last glanced up from him research over at the auxiliary science station. "Haven't felt as bumpy a ride like that since a class-four ion storm on the Celeste. Nice flying!" That last he directed down towards the helm, before stretching and eyeing the newcomers on the bridge. When had they arrived? He'd been so intent on his reading...

“Thank you!” Ian called out without taking his eyes away from his console. But he did raise up his hand and waved it slightly, assuming the chatty guy behind him would see it.

From his own station, Zeve saw this little exchange and paused for a moment, before shaking his head and looking back down at the console again.

"Sorry, Nyx," Xanth called out, gesturing over the console. "I got nothing. If the researchers found anything important, I don't think they put it in the official records. Kinda odd, right? If they found something valuable enough to make someone cause all this trouble, you'd think they'd want Starfleet to know and to give them some protection."

That was a good observation, Jack thought. He had to think back to his days as a teenager in the syndicate for a moment, it was a long-shot but worth maybe speaking up about. "Since this is a Federation Colony, can we sync our systems with the comm-satellites in orbit without too much issue? Perhaps get a read on any internal communications history that may help us map-out a history of events before we even knock on the door? And also, see if anyone tampered with any outgoing data packets, perhaps the information has been kept from us and some digital fingerprints may be on said satellite."

Nyx’s chair swivelled around to the rear and - ‘oh heck yeah my chair swivels!’ He joyfully thought to himself. The old chair turned, sure, but he didn’t get a 360 degree swivel before. He had to suppress a gleeful smile. Then he focused his eyes on the science station and Xanth, grey eyes darkening a little. “We’re on the Bridge, Lieutenant. Let’s remember to use rank here.” He said firmly but not too harshly, reminding the young officer of their earlier conversation. He was happy to have informality everywhere else but on the Bridge. Here, formality mattered.

"Oh. Right. That." Xanth returned the gaze with a guileless expression of his own. That was the first time the captain had to correct him about protocol, but it was most certainly not going to be the last. For now the correction held though. "Sorry, Captain."

Nyx then swivelled - ‘yeees’ he thought - back around to Liana on Ops. “Can we?” He asked.

“Unfortunately it appears the attackers have destroyed the orbital communication satellite. We should be able to send a subspace signal to their planetary comms base in about a minute.”

"That sounds like standard procedure when attacking an outlying colony. Destroy your prey's ability to call for help. Or am I thinking too linearly for anyone?" Cale mentioned out of the blue from his seat at the Captain's right.

Something was off. Ari had listened to all the exchanges quietly, as everyone else ticked off possibilities that were on her mental list. "No, sir." She said to Cale, "that's SOP for actions such as these. However, we should still look at comm logs. I can try and ping neighboring installations, and see if anyone else in the area cought something. A forensic sweep even to see if this was on the wire at any point before the attack."

"I didn't say that we shouldn't do something like that, Lieutenant. You and I are thinking along the same lines anyway you wish to look at it. But that's just my opinion," the First Officer said.

“Let’s send the ping, see what comes up.” Nyx said. He looked over to the Security console. “Are we picking up anything on the long range scanners that doesn’t look friendly?”

Arianna noted the Commander's tone and mannerisms, but chose not to react to it. It was neither the time nor the place. Instead she focused on the task at hand, seeing if there was any action indicating chatter from the surroundings. She nodded to Temple as he gave his assent. Frost then quickly located the dedicated Intelligence console on the Bridge and headed over.

Ari tapped in a few commands. First, the log in. Second, the access to the broader Intelligence database. Third, the handshake ping. With the interferences, it would take a little bit for a return handshake, before she could set off her query.

Although Jack had been eyeing the read-outs on the security&tactical console he shot Navot a glance who silently shook his head. "Not at this point, sir, but that in itself presents its own issue." Jack had in-fact spent some time going over Starfleets mapping of the system while he and Arianna were headed to the Pandora during their long ride on the Federation scoutship. "One moment," he inputted a few commands into the console before him and then gestured forward to one half of the bridge main viewscreen. "This is the target system...whilst the systems star and planetary bodies provide clear pockets of space around each other, there are several tendrils of the nebula which leak in between areas where there is greater distance between stellar bodies." A few more taps on the console and each tendril of nebula-matter was highlighted in the system. "As we've already experienced, this somewhat hinders sensors based on density within each. If there's still hostiles about, my bet is they'll be utilising those pockets and further masking their cross-section detectability by lowering non-essential power use. If they emerge at full impulse, worst we'd have five minutes warning if they're utilising the closest pockets to launch a strike from; at best we'll have an hour, depending on which pocket they come from - if they are even still around."

Jack continued as he changed the map view to one of Planet Omipro and highlighted certain segments, "A further thorn in our reactive capabilities is over the billions of years in formation of this system, in concurrence with the surrounding nebula's properties is the stellar bodies and nebula share much of the same ingredients; mountain ranges near the colony itself can effect standard sensors and transporting capabilities, as well as much of Omipro's moon. So from both space and ground, we have very little...buffer zone in which to react."

Finally, Jack offered his initial suggestion to all those issues, "I suggest we initially..." A few more taps on the console to zoom out the planetary map a little to indicate several gravitational points. "Set our initial position at the 3rd Lagrange point. Gives us the clearest view and reaction time we're going to get between land and space incursions. Or at least, leave a type-9 sensor probe there."

"Sounds like a good plan to me. What say you, Captain?" Cale added. "I think we should set up class 9 probes along the points where the communications satellites were in relation to the ship as an added measure as well. Does that meet with our Chief of Security's approval?" Cale was trying to step on any toes...just yet. "And I think you're calling your security officer by the wrong name. I believe Ensign Zeve is Bajoran."

That was one of Cale's pet peeves; calling someone by the wrong name especially when that someone in of a lower rank than you. Cale felt it conveyed disrespect toward the individual. That could just be an error on Lashmore's part with no malice intended that was just the way Cale looked at things. Though those "things" he was thinking off may have to be modified on this ship but the good thing about being the First Officer, you never had to show your hand.

Zeve's fingers paused on the console as he realised he was being spoken about by his superiors but not specifically spoken to, so he froze with awkward indecision. He had every Starfleet Academy professor and class in his head telling him to simultaneously respect the chain of command and not to question his superiors but also loudly shouting that wallflowers rarely made for successful officers. Does he correct the one with more pips, or the one with even more pips? Or say nothing and be forever known as the wrong name? It seemed like a lose-lose. So he spoke; "Either, uh, is fine." He said, not to anyone in particular but more so aloud and for the empty sake of it.

From his console at the front of the Bridge, there was the slightest side-eye from Ensign Milkovich, trying to catch Zeve's face, before he snapped back to his own screen.

Jack's eyes looked up from the tactical console, though his head did not adjust upwards with them, "acknowledged." An affirmation to which part, unknown initially...though Navot was indeed the family name on the file, so Jack was somewhat perplexed; he had sworn he got the Bajoran terminology correct. Eh, it would not be the first time a Commander made a wrong call. "The communication probes could assist us in the short term, though we will need to map out locations for additional buoys on our way back out of the nebula for long-term effectiveness and security of the system for cleaner signals."

"Then, I shall endeavor to do that. I'm not just a pretty face," Cole grinned. "This task should put my doctorate in Astrophysics to good use," he managed to say to no one in particular and under his breath. He mapped out from the 3rd Lagrange point as Lashmore had said initially and from there every 100,000 kms in a concentric circle about where each of the orbital communications relays where to assist with short term comms needs. Now onto the additional buoy marker points which they would need to start every 300,000 kms out of the nebula for the long-term needs. "Et voila!" Cale suddenly shouted. "I'm sorry about that. It just came out. But anyway, I believe I have our program for the Class 9 probes and the communications buoys. I'll send them to each of your consoles. Let me know if you have any alterations you would like to make. Please," Cale said timidly knowing he had stepped on both of the new addition's toes. He saw an opportunity to try to mend bridges for future relations.

"Ahh." Nyx relaxed back into his chair, an entertained smile on his face. "I love the sounds of a new crew getting to know each other. Alright, let's probe this nebula before we crash land on Omipro."

Cale turned back to his console and made the last minute adjustments to his launch program. Then he hit the initiate button to laying of the communications probes. Once they were laid out in the proper pattern, he sent a test message and received one back. "Just so that everyone knows, the communications beacon system has been reestablished and is up and running," Cale mentioned to his fellow bridge staff.

The return handshake came back pretty quickly, much to Arianna's surprise. Then again, she was used to blacksite advanced tech, not Starship one. All in all a pleasant surprise at the upgrades ships, at least some of them have gotten over the past few decades. Frost tapped in a few commands. Search parameters included unusual weapon, supply and or troop buildup in the area.

A few seconds passed before a negative result.

Another command entered searching for any suspicious or indicative chatter of an event set to take place on Omipro. Both of this searches included foreign power intercepts.

Another negative result after a few more seconds passed.

Without a full spectrum search through all files, both available to her access level and not and more time to conduct such research, Arianna was forced to conclude that this did not seem to be externally planned or aided.

"Captain," she piped up from the back, "initial search indicates no outside influence on Omipro activity. Best I can tell without time and proper research. We can proceed on supposition of this being locally planned and contained. At least at this stage of the game, sir."

"Great...because dealing with embedded native forces is always so much easier..." Dripping sarcasm all too obvious. Jack thought out loud, not realising his year or two of mostly living and working alone caused him to voice his thoughts out loud rather than with his inner-voice. Clearing his throat at the realisation, he simply nodded once, then buried his thoughts into the telemetry of the console before him.

“Perhaps it is a matter of no news is good news?” Nyx suggests. “If the path is safe, then we can proceed to Omipro.” He commanded, looking to help and giving Ian a firm nod.

“Aye, sir.” Ensign Milkovich replied, turning back to his terminal and dragging his finger up the console to increase the Pandora’s speed.

It wasn’t long before the particle field cleared even more, the area likely consumed by the planet’s orbit. The deep green Omipro appeared before them on the main viewer, looking quiet and peaceful from their view from space. They couldn’t see the war zone happening below on the surface.

“We’re getting a hail from the planet’s colony.” Liana stated, “They know who we are.”

“On-screen.” Nyx stated as he stood up.

Upon the main viewer came the image of a tall woman, her grey hair frazzled and unkempt, a recently mended wound had left a long scar upon her right cheek. She was dishevelled, wearing stained and bloodied clothes. Behind her was a small office, stuffed with cabinets and equipment, as if it were a hastily created, temporary war room.

“Pandora.” The woman managed a brief, pained smile. “We received word you were coming. I am Governor Lenneitha Reed-Humes.”

“Governor.” Nyx nodded, “I am Captain Temple, and we are here to assist you.”

“Not a moment too soon.” The Governor somewhat sighed in relief. The ceiling lights in her office flickered and the screen fuzzed with distortion. “Our replicators went offline, we have been struggling with food, supplies. Our hospital is overrun.” A surge of emotion rose through her voice but she managed to catch in time, trying to keep her composure. “It’s… been hell, Captain.”

“Tell me, are you in any danger? Are the attackers still on the planet?” Temple asked. As much as he wanted to rush in and help the Governor, he had to consider his crew’s safety.

“No.” Lenneitha said firmly. “They crippled us and… just left. If you hadn’t arrived by now, we weren’t going to survive much longer. The people are frustrated and angry. We’re seeing signs of civil unrest and disruption. Desperate people starting to act out.” She shook her head, “We need your help now.”

“Help is here.” Nyx said with all the warmth he could muster in his voice. “We will be in orbit shortly, and we’ll send our Away Team right away.”

“Thank you.” She actually smiled this time. “Thank you!”

The screen switched back to a view of Omipro as the call ended.

Jack sighed to himself, already running through the requirements and strategies involved in rising public unrest and the increased surface-level criminal activity. Then it further hit him...he was not going to be able to have time for that much-needed sonic shower, was he?

Frost was already thinking ahead. "Captain, permission to quickly change to match uniforms and have a shower? Lieutenant Lashmore and I can meet our teams at departure, unless you specifically need us for orbital entry and prep?"

Cale took this time, albeit short, to look through the options before him. First, he was working with an entirely new and untested crew of which he knew less than nothing about. But he realized that nothing about this situation seemed ideal. Second, he had already stepped on some toes and would need to tread carefully for the foreseeable future. "Permission to rally in Transporter Room #3?" he directed his question at Nyx.

"After we've showered our woes, yeah?" Jack added. "I think Arianna and I could both insult a klingon delegation."

Good thing we weren't going anywhere near one of those, Cale thought to himself.

From over at the science station, once more peering around the much-taller Orion woman actually manning that post, Cyrin's look of eagerness to join the away team was so absolutely plain to see. He almost quivered from the effort not to jump in and explain the three-dozen different reasons he had come up with why he should be on that team. Four-dozen.

“Use my ready room.” Nyx indicated to a doorway over to the port side of the Bridge. “The uniform replicator is by the book case. When you’re ready, I want you to secure the government headquarters and the hospital as the priority targets. That’ll clear the way for Medical to drop in and for us to begin our work. But, know this,” he looked around the room with a furrowed brow, “We are there to bring peace, not to punish. We must lead with understanding and patience first; remember what those people have been through. Issue warnings first and never shoot unless absolutely required.”

Ari nodded, "yes sir. She stepped into Temple's ready room quickly to get presentable.

Jack followed without a word, not yet realising there would only be a singular sonic shower unit in there.

“Commander,” Nyx turned to Llewellyn, “Meet with the Governor. Assess the scope of the civilian unrest. I am hopeful that seeing a Starfleet presence will calm things down naturally. But make the call, if you feel it is necessary, and we will address the colony as a whole and restore order that way. Then, we need to know what their most urgent needs are beyond medical treatment. Food, power, infrastructure? Set a priority task list and get back to me, I’ll have Ops coordinate on delivering what they need.”

"Yes, Captain. I'll handle that for you. Should I take security with me?" Cale asked.

“Yes, please.” Nyx replied, “I’m not losing my XO on our first mission.”

Nyx then looked over to Science and nodded to the Lieutenant, “Mr Xanth, once we have the all-clear from the first away team, be prepared to head to the museum. We want to give the people answers as soon as possible. Take a security team with you, under Lieutenant Lashmore’s instruction.”

"Aye, N-" Cyrin caught himself with an audible clack of his teeth as he stopped from saying the nickname. It didn't stop his grin though. "Aye, Captain, I'll be ready!" He turned that same smile over to Lashmore, practically vibrating the deck he seemed so ready and eager to go.

The Captain couldn’t help but smile a little at the Lieutenant. He then tapped his badge, =/\= Bridge to Medical, are you standing by?” =/\=

=/\= Aye, sir. We’re awaiting the all clear and we’re ready to move in. =/\= Lieutenant Commanded J’Oh responded quickly soon after. She was standing in front of Transporter 2 on Deck 8, Raven and her team behind her.

=/\= Very good. Bridge out. =/\= Nyx nodded. He retook his seat in the Captain’s chair and pressed the call button to send a ship-wide announcement. The speakers chimed with the tannoy whistle. “All hands, this is your Captain speaking. We have arrived at Omipro and we will soon begin our operation to secure the colony and help our Federation citizens. It is imperative that we work quickly and efficiently to provide medical aid, restore fundamental services, and help the colony back onto its feet. This the work we do, what we all signed up for. Do it well, do it quickly. Temple out.”

OFF