Population III conundrum Pt. 3
Saturday 24 April 2021 – 1800hrs ~ 2100hrs GMT
Commander Kenneth Mikhael – Executive Officer
Lieutenant Commander Ezekiel “Zeke” Pride – Flight Controller
Lieutenant Elli-Navine – Chief Engineer
Lieutenant Alexander Artopolis – Chief Medical Officer
Lieutenant Scott McIntyre – Chief Tactical/Security Officer
Podcast: Episode 6 – To Boldly Roll The (Mis)Adventures of the USS Potemkin
Mission 1 Aftermath Full:
“In a statement from Starfleet Sciences we have learnt today that the Earth Ship Atlantis encountered by the USS Potemkin was in fact from an alternate timeline, or universe. The Quantum Signature is from a universe not before discovered. Other small differences such as key senior staff have been noted along with a slightly more advanced transporter system than expected for the era.”
“In other news, the court Marshall of the surviving Atlantis senior officer has concluded. All senior officers have been found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer, assault on fellow officers, experiments upon fellow sentient life forms and murder. Each person will be sentenced in a later hearing.”
“Many of the junior officers and crewmen have been given the chance to reenlist with the Federation Starfleet, they will undergo a cutdown version of the four-year academy course before returning to service. A small number of those have decided not to return to service and have instead chosen civilian life instead.”
Finally the shuttlepod that was recovered and has been repaired to its former glory, it is currently assigned to Starfleet Academy as a historical piece.”
Distress call
Captain log, supplemental
We have received a distress call from an Illiran Freighter. The Antares is under attack from an unknown aggressor. The communications were jammed before we could get any more information. However, our sensors are indicating weapon signatures which are used by the Borg. If this attack is really the return of the Borg after a decade of silence it could indicate a much larger problem, either way we will soon know who we are dealing with, the Potemkin will enter the system in just a few minutes.
As the Potemkin drops back to normal space, they do so with shields raised, Phaser charged, and torpedoes loaded. The Captain sits forward in the centre chair and gives the order to fire, the Borg probe ship unleashes a barrage of rapid, short beams of emerald disruptor fire at the Illiran freighter. As her shields start to buckle the Potemkin opens fire, Phasers strike out, stabbing the Probes shields. Green shield energy washed out from each impact, but they held.
The Borg ship, sensing the danger the fully armed Federation ship prosed banked around and fired cutting beams, the violent impacts almost overpowered the Potemkin’ shields. In return Lieutenant Scott McIntyre fired a trio of photon torpedoes, the first slammed into the weakened shields, the second breached the shields and the final one punched through the hull plating and blew out a dozen sub-systems. The Borg ship lost their shields and Captain Pax ordered the deployment of torpedoes via their transporters into the probe ship. The plan was to disable the ship and assess the possibility of freeing the drones, however it did not go as planned. The torpedo was deployed alongside a primary power relay and resulted a cascade reaction that vaporised the entire ship.
With the jamming field gone, the crew discovered a mass of Borg life signs in one of the vast cargo holds. Fortunately, no one was near the hold at the time. Using their tried and tested hacking skills Lieutenant Elli-Navine and Lieutenant McIntyre unlocked and open the airgate, the resulting explosive decompression blew half a dozen drones out into the void.
To no one’s surprise not all the drones had been blown from the Antares. Their job was clear, they had to remove the Borg threat.
Commander Pride hailed the Antares. The ship master informed them that the cargohold had been surrounded but Illiran had never faced the borg and requested their help. The Potemkin’s away team beamed over with a mixed batch of weapons, all programmed to rotate frequencies to give them the best chance at ending the Borg presence.
The Illiran crew carried a mix of kinetic ‘force’ weapons and projectile guns. The assault team outside the cargo bay was joined by the away team, Commander Pride quickly ordered the doors to open, wishing they had remembered the pulse grenades. There was a reference to a short lived but culturally vital 20th century Sci-Fi show, everyone understood!
The bay was pitch black, only broken by the beams of light from the away team and the red laser pointers of the drones. Out of the darkness, a giant appeared. The massive tactical drone stood 9 feet tall, a long tail tipped with a disruptor cannon. The Gorn Borg, The Born… or maybe Gorg stepped forward with heavy footfalls. The tip of the tail glowed bright emerald, green, then discharged. Striking security officer Basin in the shoulder. The blast spun the officer down to the floor. He was alive but staggered.
The away team opened fire, concentrating their shots on the Gorg, it managed another shoot before succumbing to the sheer amount of fire power from the away team and the assault unit. Another drone was dropped quickly, and then a third. The fourth hit the deck, staggered but still active. Basin, who has been treated on the spot leapt into action, jumping the barricade, and smashing the drone with a fine display of boxing. Sadly, the Borg seem to have assimilated a boxer at some point, the impressive form and flurry of blows did nothing more than bloody Basin’ knuckles!
The drone reached up and injected the poor security officer with assimilation nanites; the drone was shot dead shortly thereafter. Basin… well luckily for him Starfleet had long ago cracked the nanites open and learned how to turn them off.
Doctor Artopolis was easily able to remove the few Borg implants that had already formed within Basin’s body.
Elsewhere, led by Chief Engineer Elli-Navine work crews brought systems back online and removed any Borg influence and technology. The work was interesting and the Illiran engineers were competent and quickly picked up Elli’s way of doing things and the work was done ahead of schedule.
As the Potemkin jumped to warp a few microscopic Borg nanites escape detection and hid themselves ready to reactivate when the time was right…