Episode One - Shakedown

ON:

*USS Starfire*
*Bridge*
*SB Bravo*

**0900 Hours**

Richard had just taken the command chair from Lieutenant Baker, it felt different sitting in the Captain's seat for the first time as the actual Captain of a Starfleet vessel. But for Richard, it was a wonderful experience. The bridge was afire with activity it had just been a few minutes ago that they had recieved the permission from the Task Group Theseus Commanding Officer, Captain Thrace, to start the Starfire's shakedown run outside the starbase.

"All systems are nominal, sir," Ensign Wanstall voiced from the Ops console infront of Richard, the young junior officer had beening manning the console for most of the morning going over the display constantly pressing various buttons, going through all the system checks that where required of a ship to begin to come close to being able to leave a starbase.

"Very well, Ensign," Richard responded, a half-smile on his face as he looked around the Bridge. Richard tapped his combadge,"This is the Captain to all crew aboard the USS Starfire, stand your stations and prepare for manuevers, we are about to disembark on our shakedown cruise. All senior staff, please report to the Bridge immediately, Commander Marks out."

Richard locked eyes with the flight control officer sitting at the conn console to the side of where Ensign Wanstall sat. The flight control officer, a Petty Officer 3rd Class Reed, sat awaiting the Captain's orders. "Conn, engage engines, impulse power," the Petty Officer turned in her seat and whisked her fingers away on the console. "Let's get her going," Richard announced to the crew on the Bridge and sitting back into his command chair as he felt the enertia of the force of the massive ship floating away from the docking collar of the starbase.

Amy smiled slightly as she glanced around the bridge, the crew was clearly raring to go and, so was she now that she thought about it, she smiled again as she took the liberty of getting the ship clearence. She tapped a few commands into the console next to the chair, and opened a channel to the starbase.

"Starbase, this is USS Starfire, request depature clearence and entry into the depature pattern" Amy requested as they waited for the starbase staff to get on with the bussines, that would invariably take a few minutes

Richard looked around the Bridge, waiting for the other Senior Staff Officers to arrive to the Bridge so that they could begin their first adventure together.

<tag: any and all!>

Meanwhile, in Main Engineering, Julie finalized all of the work that she had done during the last twenty-four hours of work with her staff and everything was in the green. Julie had worked her team so hard that they were all tired and she didn't care.

Looking at her crew, Parrish said, "Ok, you grunts, good job, everyone. Now, I am heading to the bridge. So, all of you stay awake and alert." The Ensign left for the bridge with a PADD in hand.

Upon her arrival on the bridge, Julie walked up to Commander Marks sitting in his command chair, "Sir, everything in Main Engineering is all in the green. I would, however, recommend that when we go to Warp Speed, that we slowly increase speed to give the Engines a chance to warm up to the new specs, starting at Warp 3.5. Other than that, everything is in perfect running order."

Marks nodded to the rough looking Ensign from Engineering and looked over the PADD that she had in her hand, right in front of his face, "Very well, Ensign, if you wouldn't mind, I would like for you to remain on the Bridge in case we may have any problems with the ship I would definitley need your immediate advice," Marks noticed that the Ensign looked a bit disheartened at the thought of leaving her crew members down there without her.

"Not to worry, Ensign, I will allow for our transporter room techs to transport you directly to Main Engineering, incase of any emergency conditions that we could suffer on our first shakedown," Marks pointed to a side console behind the command chair and to the side of the Ops console,"Go ahead and relieve that engineer officer over there at that station, Ensign," Marks looked over the PADD one more time and handed it back to Parrish.

Julie took the padd and then, went to her station on the bridge. She had confidence in things working properly. She immediately sent a message to the Engineering staff that she was on the bridge.

OFF:

TAG: All & Commander Marks

<TAG: Any and all, lets get this baby started. XO: You can talk to the SB personell over the vidscreen to get us outta the SB, Parrish: call up or come up to the Bridge and inform us all on how the engine room is going and what we should expect, limitations or whatever (get creative) on what to expect through our first test run/shakedown cruise, North: Inform me of any strategical problems way may have in going outside the SB, if there is any, if not just get creative with your character being up on the Bridge, Darkwing: Remind everyone as soon as you come up to the Bridge that they need to do their Pre-Mission check-ups and stuff and maybe start it with one of us.>

OOC: so there ya go, let's get this puppy rolling, btw our Chief of Sec had some login problems with his password or something and will be back with us temporarily, thanks all, lets get some posting in here! oh and please dont post until i get a once over on this, thanks.

ON:

|SB Bravo
|USS Starfire
|Bridge

Marks watched as his Executive Officer recieved permission from Starbase Bravo to debark from the base. He couldn't believe it, his first mission as a CO was about to take off, even if it was just a 'shakedown run'. Richard looked over at his current Conn Officer, Petty Officer 3rd Class Reed, as she sat at the conn directly to the left of the Ops console.

"Conn, go ahead and take us out," Marks gave the command, the vidscreen infront of them was showing the scene of the starbase's massive space door as it opened like a window into the vastness of space before them. That window kept getting closer and closer to the crew of the Starfire as the ship made its way toward the space on the other side of that window opening.

Richard looked around the Bridge as all of his senior staff members had finally assembled on the Bridge in their respective locations about the command center of the massive Intrepid-class vessel. "Everyone, I wanted you all to be here for the beginning of our tour together, though this might not be our first official Starfleet mission together, however this is as important as that first mission might well be. This is history for our vessel, and us as its crew," Marks looked at every one of his senior officers, his eyes not lingering too long on each, he did however look at them sternly, maybe even fatherly.

The ship passed beyond the open doors of the Starbase and into the dark vastness of space. Several clusters of other Starfleet vessels swam about the Starbase as the Starfire made its way around the Starbase, the crew all took in the view of the Starbase, most of them still in awe of its size compared to the other massive Starfleet ships. It was a wonderful sight to see, for anyone aboard the Starfire's Bridge at that moment.

As the Starfire coarsed its way farther and farther from the Starbase, the Conn Officer looked up at Marks,"Go ahead Petty Officer with the coordinates for our pre-mission, engines at warp factor five," Marks waited a second so that everyone aboard the Bridge could get situated,"Engage," as he said this the vidscreen was plunged into warp speed, stars flashing past them faster and faster as they speed through space at faster than light speeds.

The ship finally came back out of warp a few minutes later, bringing the ship and its crew into a star system that had already been pre-determined as their first stop on their 'shakedown cruise', just to test their systems out within the ship. Marks looked over the vidscreen, starring out at the planets before them, at this unknown solar system. "Ops, status report," Marks commanded.

"Sir, all systems are normal, normal readings from the various planets, no other vessels detected," the Ensign responded. Marks nodded to himself, looking around the Bridge as his senior officers around the Bridge where looking at the vidscreen or at other consoles about the command center. Marks was distracted when he heard a loud beeping noise coming from the Ops console.

"Ah, sir," the young Ensign Wanstall uttered, "We have an incoming transmission from Bravo Fleet Command, looks like Epsilon-Seven, for your eyes only, sir."

"I'll take it in my ready room, Lieutenant Baker, you have the Bridge," Marks got up from his chair and made his way off the Bridge and into his ready room, the private setting was quiet, a little relief from the constant chaos of sounds that always emminated from the Bridge. Richard made it to his small desk and sat down in front of his display screen, tapping his keypad to bring up the incoming message.

The display jumped to life as the image of an older appearing human male Starfleet Rear Admiral in his command uniform came on-screen. "Commander Marks, I am Rear Admiral Gregory, commanding officer of Bravo Fleet's Counter-Piracy Task Force in the Raeyan Sector," Marks eyebrows shot up at the thought of a Rear Admiral contacting him, but before he could get a word in, "Commander, I have just recieved notification of a recent strike against a large transport of Raeyan civilians within your sector of operations, being as your vessel is the nearest to that location I am ordering you to go to this location, find the transport and to assist the civilians in any way possible."

"Commander, there may still be hostiles in that sector, if you encounter you are authorized to engage them if the threat means the harm of the Raeyan civlians or the harm of your vessel or crew. Do not under any circumstances follow the pirates if they make for an escape, many a Federation starship has been lost to ambushes like this. Your ship is to go to the transport, assist the civlians and to return to Starbas Bravo as soon as possible. Do you have any questions, Commander?" The Reard Admiral's stern look deterred Marks for a second from saying anything at all, but he was sure that he had to say something.

"No, sir, I have my orders, sir and will conduct the Starfire to support the Raeyans and return to Starbase Bravo as soon as we possibly can," Marks finally got out, his mouth dry and his throat even dryer, its not everyday a Rear Admiral himself contacts you for a special mission, especially something as unexpected as this, even more so surprising that this being the Starfire's first mission.

"Very well, Commander, Gregory, out," with that the display went back to the black background with the Federation emblem on it. Richard sat there, his mind racing. He knew what he had to do, but as a new CO, he was awefully nervous about it. He got up from his desk and exited his ready room and onto the Bridge. He nodded to Lieutenant Baker, sternly, as he sat down in his command chair.

Looking at every officer on the Bridge, and all of them looking back at him, Richard sighed and lowered his gaze back down to the conn officer. "Reed, put in the course that we have just recieved from Starfleet and engage maximum warp," the Petty Officer's look was surprised at the concept, but did as commanded and the Starfire was once again plunged into warp speeds.

Richard looked over to all of his senior officers, "I want all of my senior officers in the briefing room," Marks got up from his command chair and walked into the Briefing room, located on the other side of the Bridge from his own Ready Room. Inside the brief room, Marks waited for the rest of his officers to enter.

As the last of his senior officers entered, Richard looked at all of them gravely. "We have just been tasked by the commanding officer of the Counter Piracy Task Force for this sector on a mission to another system in this sector. We are to investigate the attack of a Raeyan civilian transport vessel, see to its aid, and defend them from any hostiles and to return to Starbase Bravo immediately after seeing to the aid of the Raeyans" Marks tried his best to put it all out there as simply as possible and as fast as possible and waited for it to sink into the senior officers.

"XO, I want you to prep an away team, I want you to take someone from Medical with you, not the Doc though, she needs to stay behind and set up a triage for possible survivors," Marks looked from his XO to the Chief Medical Officer and then to the Chief Security Officer and the Marine CO, "I want you on that away team with the XO, both of you actually, get together a good crack team. I want a heavy assault team from the Marines ready at a seconds notice back here on the Starfire while you guys are gone, Captain North, just incase things get a bit hostile," Marks shook his head at the thought of all this.

<tag: XO, North, Darkwing and Knoxx>

Looking over at their Chief of Intel, Marks nodded, "Lieutenant I want you to gather up your team and start getting me some briefs going on any current Starfleet Intel on these 'pirates', I want to know everything," Marks looked over at Parrish, standing ridged next to him, "Ensign, I want the Engine Room prepped and ready for anything and everything, get me more power than you can possibly imagine, cause we'll need it soon," Marks locked eyes again with everyone in the room.

<tag: Parrish, Bunting>

"I want everyone ready for anything and everything within the hour. We will be coming out of warp and into the Pirate Sector in approximately an hour and a half, we don't have much time to get everything ready for all of this. Reports within the hour, everyone. Dismissed," Richard couldn't believe that this was happening so soon, but he was ready for this, and he hoped that everyone else aboard was too. Richard stayed behind in the briefing room, just incase anyone else needed to speak to him.

OFF:

OOC: Go ahead and post up and responses you have to my character in the briefing room guys, just copy and paste as you go from this and post in your character's individual responses and then what your character will do afterwards, ie: get the away team ready, get intel reports going, check on the engine room, get a hard core marine death team assembled, whatever your respected character would do. After a little bit of this I or the XO will bring our ship out of warp IC and then we can go from there. XO: get ahold of me via email or messenger about this and we can maybe JP our plot from this. Thanks guys.!


[left]

ON:

"Aye sir. I already have a QRF organized. When you have time sir, I also have some requisition requests I require your signature on."

North stood by and listened as the Captain handed out his orders. He already had the marines he wanted for an away team picked out and once he left he would put the QRF on stand-by. he waited until he was dismissed, replied with an 'aye aye', then turned to Knoxx.

"Lieutenant, at your convienence, I'd like to discuss areas of responsibility for the away team with you."

OFF:

<<TAG - Marks, Knoxx>>

North wrote:ON:

"Aye sir. I already have a QRF organized. When you have time sir, I also have some requisition requests I require your signature on."

North stood by and listened as the Captain handed out his orders. He already had the marines he wanted for an away team picked out and once he left he would put the QRF on stand-by. he waited until he was dismissed, replied with an 'aye aye', then turned to Knoxx.

"Lieutenant, at your convienence, I'd like to discuss areas of responsibility for the away team with you."

OFF:

ON:

"Certainly Captain North. What can I help you with?"

OFF:
TAG: North

ON:

"Once we hit dirtside, I think it would be appropriate for your security personnel to stay near to the command staff and provide close security, with my marines providing outer security and offensives capabilities."

OFF:
TAG: Knoxx

*USS Starfire*
*Briefing Room*

ON:

Marks had just dismissed the senior staff, but had waited behind to ensure that if any of them had questions or comments or even advise for him, he would be there for him. Richard couldn't help but over hear the two main strategic officers of the vessel conversing about the security operations that would be used in case of conflict on their mission.

Marks was going to start in on a conversation with the two gentlemen, but at that very moment he was interrupted by his comm badge beeping in.

"Ops to the Captain," came the aggrivated voice of Ensign Wanstall over the combadge.

"Go ahead Ensign," Marks replied as he turned back around, already heading toward the door of the briefing room.

"Sir, you have to come and see this," the younger Ops officer responded.

"On my way, Marks out," Marks tapped his combadge and made a slow jog out of the briefing room and back out into the Bridge. Marks had not been prepared for what he now saw infront of him.

The Bridge's vidscreen was now up, the vessel had apparently came out of warp while his staff had been conversating, the time must have gone by alot faster than what he had thought. But on the vidscreen Marks now saw, with pained regret, the destroyed hull of what appeared to be the remnants of a Raeyan civilian transport ship.

"Magnify," Richard said, his voice almost hard to come by, as he knew that this was almost a pointless request. He had been in Starfleet for quite some time and had seen countless vessels destroyed and knew that the destruction he now saw before him meant that it was highly unlikely anyone inside survived that kind of devastation.

Wanstall tapped the Ops console a few times and the vidscreen zoomed in to display what Richard had already known. Countless bodies floated out of various different holes in the hull of the Raeyan vessel.

Whatever had caused this destruction, it definitely wasn't just your normal pirates, normal pirates Marks knew would have taken them captive using them as ransom or the pirates would have just taken their booty from the people onboard and left them to their ways. Usually something like this would not have taken place.

"Life signs?" Marks asked the question, per Starfleet regulations, no matter the damage, he had to ask it, even if he knew the vessel was utterly destroyed.

"None sir," Wanstall replied as he typed a few things into his console. "Scans show nothing out of the ordinary sir."

"Very well, Ensign," Marks turned back to his Executive officer who had just came out of the briefing room with Knoxx and North and was about to tell the Executive Officer the news when several beeping noises came from the Ops console.

"Sir, we have multiple contacts on scanners showing themselves uncloaking, bearing three four four five and closing, sir!" Wanstall's voice fumbled excitedly.

"On screen!" Marks nearly shouted.

Before the Bridge of the Starfire, the vidscreen was replaced by the image of three vessels coming out of what appeared to be nowhere, as if space itself spewed them out. The vessels headings where on direct course with the Starfire.

"Hail them," Marks told the Ops officer as he sat down into his command chair.

A few seconds went by as the Ops officer typed several things into the console and with a disturbed look on his face looked back to Marks.

"Sir, they are failing to respond to our hailing frequencies," Wanstall said, his voice trembling a little bit.

"Very well," Marks looked down at the floor of the Bridge, his mind racing. He had never seen vessels like these before, not in all of the years he had been with Starfleet. Could these vessels be scavenged pirate vessels with rag tagged cloaking devices?

Marks looked up from the floor and tapped his combadge,"This is the Captain speaking, we are not at red alert, all crew members man your stations and prepare for combat manuevers," Marks looked over at his Marine CO and the Chief of Security.

"Captain North, radio your men, get them ready for everything. Boarding parties ready, and a team of men on every deck in every corridor. Lieutenant Knoxx, I want you to lock and load a barrage of weaponry in Phase Pattern Alpha at those three ships immediately," Marks waited for either of the men to respond before he tapped his combadge.



"Marks to medical," Marks waited for the response from the doc before looking over at Ensign Parrish.



"Chief Parrish, get your tail down to the Engine room and get me more power! I want our ship cruising and bruising with enough energy to create our own star! We need to be flexible, get it done!" Marks was getting a glint in his eyes as he turned back around to the Ops officer.



"Ensign, power all shields to maximum intensity to the forward hull," Marks sat back down in his command chair.

"Aye sir," the young Ensign pounded his fingers across his console, bringing the shields up as the red alert lights started flashing across the Bridge.

"Lieutenant Baker, get your away team ready, you may be needed before this day is done," Marks eyed his XO before returning his attention back to the three possibly enemy vessels closing in on their vessel.

North wrote:ON:

"Once we hit dirtside, I think it would be appropriate for your security personnel to stay near to the command staff and provide close security, with my marines providing outer security and offensives capabilities."

OFF:
TAG: Knoxx

ON:

"Agreed. Your marines should be able to handle most difficulties encountered. I will keep my security force to protect the command staff."

ON:

"Right away Commander." Lucian went to the Security/Tactical console behind and slightly above the command chair and began typing commands into it. He set the phaser banks to the right phase coordinates and input the photon torpedoes to fire in the same ratio as the phasers.

"Phasers ready to fire Commander," Lucian finally declared, finally looking up from his console at the Captain.

Marks stood up from his command chair looking directly at the vidscreen that showed the three advancing enemy vessels,"Engage!"

Lucian's fingers sped across the Tacitcal display infront of him, locking the barrage onto the three vessels, and fired the torpedoes. The view screen pulled up a view of the photon torpedoes flying across space at the three enemy vessels, detanating across the hull of one of the vessels, another two torpedoes hit another one of the enemy ships, devestating its hull.

The phaser bank array flew from the Starfire, and the phaser beams thrashed the sides of the first two vessels, their shields glowing against the barrage. Marks looked on, with a stern face as the secondary barrage of phaser fire detonated across the first two vessels, cutting directly through their shields after the first barrage had taken them down and reaping havoc across the innards of both ships hulls. The beams plunged deep within the exterior hulls, lighting fires within them.

A few seconds went by and the first two ships slowed, the devestation appeared to have done something to phase those two ships, but the last ship broke past the other two its speed never waivering as it charged onward toward the Starfire. Marks sat back down in the command chair and braced himself for impact, tapping his combadge, "All stations brace for impact."

The crew on the bridge watched the view screen as the ship came about and lashed out at the Starfire with what appeared to be some form of green phaser fire that jetted across space like lightning bolts. The impact of the hits across the Starfire rumbled and shook the crew on the bridge, as the bolts hit mostly the bottom side of the Starfire's shield array.

The enemy vessel appeared to have flown passed the Starfire towards its rear at speeds twice that of the Intrepid vessel, allowing everyone on the Bridge a closer look at the enemy vessel on the view screen. Marks noticed that the ship was not that large, but was very fast and agile, appearing to be more like a scout vessel than anything else. Marks thoughts started running around in circles in his head, if these where scout vessels....

"Lieutenant Knoxx, load a tracker pod into your next salvo of photons, and send a half strength concentrated beam from the phaser banks the next time around, direct the photons to the center of the ships hull to ensure a guaranteed hit. We are about to find out where these bad boys' nest is," Marks sat back down in his command chair, his plan coming to light in his mind of what he was about to accomplish with this next round of combat.

"Right away commander" Lucian's fingers raced across the console as he set up the next barrage of phaser bank fire and an array of photons loaded with tracker pods.

The enemy vessel swung back around and fired its green phasers that streaked across space like lightning. The enemy phasers struck against the top of the ship, detonating against the shield array and rocking everyone in the Bridge a little bit, just enough to annoy everyone that where standing up at their consoles in the back.

"Ensign Wanstall what is the status of our shields?" Lucian asked as he prepared the Starfire's next firing pattern.

"Our shields are at eighty percent and stable, sir" the ensign responded as he tapped the console a few times.

Lucian nodded to himself and locked on to the center of the enemy vessel as it came across the Starfires side and fired the photons with the tracker pods. The torpedoes hit home around the same time the phasers hit the ships shields, depleting them enough to slam the torpedoes home and digging themselves into the side of the enemy vessel.

Marks looked over at Ensign Wanstall,"Ensign, status of those tracking pods?" Richard watched as the younger Ops officer tapped his display a few times and nodded.

"Sir, successful attachment, sir. The beacons are admitting the proper frequency, we can detect the vessel across warp if we wished to, sir," the young Ensign responded as he continued to type stuff into his console.

Marks nodded to himself as he saw the enemy vessel breaking contact and vanishing into space within seconds. Now the hunt was on. "Conn, go ahead and bring us about, Ops, scan for enemy survivors," Marks commanded and watched as their vessel was turned around.

"Nothing sir," Ensign Wanstall responded promptly after a few seconds of typing on his Ops display.

"Okay, conn, wait five minutes and at minimum warp, keep a steady pace and follow that enemy vessel. All senior officer, I want you back in the briefing room immediately. Intel, I want you to look into what type of vessels those where," Marks got up from his chair and started for the briefing room.

On his way toward the briefing room, Marks tapped his combadge,"Marks to Main Engineering, status report."



Marks waited for all of his officers to enter the empty room, and started up as soon as everyone was in. "Alright, we have a destination that we are going to follow this enemy vessel to, with possibly alot more enemy combatants at the other end of it. We need to get our stuff together, we have a bit of time I am sure before we hit our final destination. Marines get your stuff up and running, Security, coordinate with them, I want some emergency medical people to start looking over our crew members that got injured during our previous combat," Marks looked over at all the officers assembled.

"This is some pretty serious stuff, I know just about as much as the rest of you what will happen next. Let's get our stuff together and make sure that we are ready for anything," Richard looked at all of the other officers in the room.

OFF

A JP by Lieutenant Knoxx and Commander Marks

ON:

North nodded and muttered something into the throat-mic attached to his comm-badge.

"Aye sir, the MarDet is on stand-by. I'm on my way down there now to draw my weapon and brief my men." he said.

North started for the door, then paused and turned.

"Lieutenant Knoxx, I believe that your personnel would be best utilized as the primary personnel for counter-boarding operations, with my marines held in reserve and used for boarding the enemy vessel."

<TAG - Knoxx>

OFF:

ON:

"Agreed," Lucian replies to North, “My security personnel are better prepared to defend our ship. While I figure your marines are a formidable strike force."

<TAG - North>

OFF:

ON:

North nodded.

"Good then. Ensign Parrish, If you don't mind, I'd like to come by engineering and speak with you once I finish business here." he said before turning to Marks.

"Sir, if you have a moment, I would like to speak with you in private."

OFF:

<TAG - Parrish, Marks>

Joint-Post between Cmdr R. Marks and CPT M. North

ON:

The captain nodded and walked into his ready room, motioning for Malcolm to follow him.

North followed the CO into the ready room and waited for the door to seal behind him. He hid well the fact that there was something on his mind, but Marks could tell he was bothered.

"Sir, permission to speak freely."

Marks, trusting the Marine CO had something important to say, Marks nodded,"Go ahead Captain."

"Sir, I'm not satisfied with the state of the MarDet. I don't know who put together my roster, but I got the short end. Out of twenty marines, I have a staff sergeant and two corporals who've seen combat. That's it. Three NCOs and seventeen green boots straight out of basic. I've done what I could with them, but we're operating in a tight time crunch and when the shit hits the fan, it's going to show sir. All the training in the galaxy is still no substitute for hard experience."

Marks nodded to himself, contemplating the Marine officer's scenario,"Very well, Captain, what would you like to do about this?"

Malcolm reached into his cargo pocket and removed a PADD, pulling up a file before handing it to Marks. The file was a copy of North's supply request; asking for extra carbines, photon rifles, support phasers, Slayer disposable rockets, claymores, demolitions, grenades, two isomagnetic disintegrators, a tetryon pulse launcher, an M-2240 mortar and an auto-grenade launcher.

"Also sir, the MarDet has minimal armament; just minimum allowed by the TOE, which in my experience can be.....insufficient in some situations. With only twenty marines, my detachment is going to have to fight bigger than it is, and they can't do that when all we've got is one rifle each and a few heavy weapons. I tried to put the request through while we were docked, but for whatever reason, it keeps getting denied." he said, barely hiding his frustration.

"I would like to ask for your assistance in pushing my request through sir."

"Request is granted, Captain. In our current circumstances we may need the additional, "guns". Go ahead and have everything mass replicated aboard ship, you have my authorization, take the Chief Security Officer with you if you would like to ensure that this all gets done hastily. I am sure Lieutenant Knoxx would also like to get the chance to get his hands on a few extra 'guns'," Marks couldn't help but smile at the thought of such an armament aboard his first command.

"Aye aye sir." North said, snapping to attention and giving a sharp salute which the captain returned.

North left the office, again growling something into his throat mic as he left the bridge, quickly catching up to Lieutenant Knoxx.

OFF:

TBC in Joint-Post.....

ON:

Richard had been standing there receiving the various reports from all of the senior staff as they reported in their departments status'. Richard looked over at his XO, she had just got done rallying up her away team.

"Lieutenant Baker, I'll let you go ahead and handle the rest of this meeting, go ahead and go over the strategies that we will have to use once we get to where we are going, make sure to include the medical and engineering departments in this, I will have the Bridge, carrying on," Marks nodded to the younger Lieutenant.

"Aye, sir," she responded as she took Marks PADD.

Richard exited the briefing room and walked back onto the Bridge, where he instantly saw that the ship was coming out of warp. "Ops, status report?"

"Sir, the enemy vessel is coming out of warp, sir," Wanstall responded as he went over his console.

"Where are we coming out of warp in?" Marks shook his head, wandering what was going on.

"Sir, its a level three asteriod field," and about the time Wanstall responded the ship finally exited out of warp, the Starfire was on a collision course for a massive asteriod field.

"Conn, evasive action!" Richard yelled out as he tapped his combadge,"Captain to all crew, brace for impact, brace for impact," Richard sounded excitedly as he braced for impact against his command chair.

On screen, the Starfire had already begun turning away from the asteroid field, but judging by the fact that the ship was still traveling too fast to make the turn and not hit any of the giant sized pieces of rock out their view screen.

Right before Richard thought the Starfire would hit the first dozen or so asteroids, the vessel completed its turn, uneventfully. Richard stood up in front of his command chair and took a better look at what was on screen. Before him, the Starfire had just missed the outer lying wall of the largest asteroid field Richard had ever seen.

"Status report, ops," Richard said, flattening out his duty uniform as he had slightly wrinkled it a bit grabbing against his command chair for what he thought would be a violent impact against a massive asteroid field.

"Sir, all systems normal," Wanstall looked back at Richard, "Sir, it appears we have lost the enemy vessel through all of this, the transmitting device on its hull has apparently been destroyed or neutralized."

"Damn it," Richard banged his fist against the command chair, "Very well, Wanstall, if anyone needs me, I will be in my ready room, trying to explain to Starfleet Command what just took place," shaking his head, Richard walked toward his ready room.

"Lieutenant Baker, you have the Bridge, take us back to Starbase Bravo," Richard turned to say before entering his ready room.

OFF: