Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Iko -- I want to get back to my own ship.
Rebecca Iko
Hopper: Vexa, contact Commander Taelon and his team. Inform them to expect UAW troops near their location. Bec, check in on Wong and see how their teams are doing.
Bec nodded.
Iko: =/\= Iko to Wong. Report. =/\=
Meanwhile, Robin called the Indy.
Hopper: =/\= USS Kepler to USS Independence-B. Aitas, Captain Ashwood, and Representatives – we're nearing a tipping point here. I think if we have something tangible we might be able to sway enough officers in the Astrofleet to pause the invasion... but if we've made no progress, we might be out of time. =/\=
While she did, the peeps that Bec had called responded.
Wong/Varati: =/\= Response =/\=
Iko: =/\= What? =/\=
Seleya/Hopper: Response
Wong/Varati: =/\= Response =/\=
Iko: =/\= Keep us posted, and do what you can. =/\=
She closed the channel.
Seleya/Hopper: Response
Meanwhile, Robin finally got a response.
Ertmo: =/\= This is Captain Ertmo to the USS Kepler. To Ar’a’Dal has agreed to share pathogen research with your people; in response I am asking that Admiral Mokto be placed in protective custody at least until Captain Peronis and myself are able to pursue a diplomatic solution with the Zumardi government. I am attaching the details. =/\=
Bec wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but they were far from this being over.
Hopper: =/\= Response =/\=
She looked over at the helm officer. Fingers were flying across the console, perhaps more frantically than before. They wouldn't have gotten a chance to call Shorty's team.
So Bec did.
Iko: =/\= Bec to Taelon’s crew, report. =/\=
Moore: =/\= We read you! =/\=
Taelon: =/\= Um, we were hoping to find a way to delay the shuttles… =/\=
Iko: =/\= We're attempting to jam their sensors with photonic sparkle kind of things. =/\=
Moore: =/\= Yeah, you just need to make a big enough cloud, run the torpedoes dirty, more charged matter than antimatter, so you spread the charged particles in all directions when they explode. =/\=
Taelon: =/\= Um, torpedoes? =/\=
Bec looked at Seleya, hoping she could explain further.
Seleya/Hopper: Response
Bec nodded, even if they couldn't see so.
Iko: =/\= Kaito you don't happen to have your e-war suite on you, do you? =/\=
Moore: =/\= Umm… No, it's built into The Indy’s jamming systems. You should have access to it. I know we haven’t gone over how to use my suite yet, but I designed it to be user-friendly. That being said, Commander Taelon has an idea that the e-war could be key for it to work. =/\=
Bec closed her eyes and nodded to herself. That was the thing when you borrowed someone elses ship. It wasn’t your ship, so it didn’t have your stuff on it.
Zakrem: =/\= It is not a plan of observation though. Have talks fallen apart that badly? =/\=
Well, not yet. Kinda. But she doubted that Shorty and his crew couldn’t see the swarm of shuttles approaching them.
Taelon: =/\= Well, I - ::Zakrem was right. If they were going to do this, it’d have to be something they showed the Zumardi how to do.:: Um, if the talks have gone that badly, then we should… =/\=
She looked up at the viewscreen and grimaced. Shuttles were landing, or being destroyed, and Zumaris had turned into a battlefield. None of this was going well.
Bec turned to Robin, remembering what she'd overheard from the comms chatter.
Iko: Stupid idea: Diplomatic talks want Mokto in custody, no?
Seleya/Hopper: Response
Iko: We have something called a brig, and something else called a transporter.
Seleya/Hopper: Response
Kaito continued calling.
Moore: =/\= By my estimates, we would just need access to the secondary processing, but this could stop the Zumardi dropships dead in their tracks. Hopefully not in a decaying orbit. The other option is to start shooting down their dropships from here. =/\=
Zakrem: =/\= Still not within our mandate. =/\=
Taelon: =/\= No, no shooting, not unless- =/\=
Iko: =/\= No shooting. Talks are still continuing. But a couple of UAW don’t wanna listen. We just need maybe two more minutes?
She looked to the bridge crew.
Seleya/Hopper: =/\= Response =/\=
Moore: =/\= Copy that. We’ll be ready. Hey, Bec! When you activate the suite, make sure to use the new audio noise, and try to record their comms traffic. I want to test the effectiveness of my upgrades. =/\=
She huffed a small chuckle and rolled her eyes.
Taelon: =/\= Hold on, if the talks haven’t fallen apart, we shouldn’t - =/\=
He cut himself off. Bec furrowed her brow.
Iko: Seleya what are they doing? Can you tell?
Seleya/Hopper: Response
Then she looked to Robin. Again.
Iko: Heard back from Aitas and Ashwood yet?
Hopper/Seleya: Response
Bec nodded, making her way to a console, any console, that was free. She hated the XO chair.
Iko: Lets get this over and done with.
Hopper/Seleya: Response
Tag/TBC