LT Tamio K'Wara - Commence Operation Slingshot

[LT Tamio K'Wara]

(( Cockpit of the USS Acheron - Ebers System, Balancar Sector, Alpha Quadrant ))

Approaching Luxasi Station, Tamio turned to the team that had been assigned to the exercise with them. First up was Alex Storm, the Tactical Officer, who would be in charge of ship weaponry for the exercise.

K’Wara: Did you have time to go over the tactical upgrades to the station, Alex? Anything particularly noteworthy for us to focus on?

Storm: Yeah.  I went over the tactical upgrades before we left, but I’ve continued reviewing the entire security profile on the trip over.  As for what we should note, they’ve encountered a series of false positives - of a possible attack - have occurred at a regular rate.  We should definitely see if we can figure out why and find a way to filter them out.  But for the moment, they’ve moved the station further away from the rift since the growth has been unpredictable.

K’Wara: Sounds viable... Makes sense that Luxasi would move further away from the rift if we’ve got stuff coming through. ::to Vailani:: Will our shielding hold up to the rift’s influence? We’ll have to fly pretty close to it at times.

Vailani: Response

Vailani’s capabilities were as varied as her mission profile - another of the Ops Jacks who could do a bit of everything - and they were certain she’d be a boon to the mission... If she could stop glowering at people for two seconds. At least the gathered people didn’t test Lieutenant Vailani’s ‘professionalism at all costs’-attitude.

Well, apart from Tamio.

K’Wara: Nat, I want you on the conn. Considering how unstable the rift is, we can’t all be focused on Luxasi. I want us prepared to react to the slightest rift-twitch.

Cole: Response

K’Wara: Mmh, nothing in Zurah’s original request mentioned any concerning political or criminal elements in the vicinity, so the main issue will likely be the unpredictability of the rift.

Storm: While that may be true, if the station is under observation by anyone hoping to take advantage of the situation, a Starfleet shuttle could raise some eyebrows, so we should keep on our toes.

Tamio nodded. Staying prepared was never a bad idea, though they had a difficult time seeing how anyone could take advantage of a space observatory in the boonies getting assaulted by rift debris. Then again, that’s why their job rarely had them looking at sector defense and tactical positions. So long as the ship functioned, people were happy and supplies were in surplus, they were sated.

Vailani/Cole: Response

As the shuttle approached Luxasi station - in all its ramshackle glory - a hail came through from the station itself, and Researcher Zurah appeared on the internal viewscreen.

Researcher Zurah: =/\= Welcome to the Ebers system, Officers. I am Researcher Zurah, the Chief of this station. Thank you for responding to my request so quickly. =/\=

K’Wara: =/\= You’re welcome, Chief Zurah. We’re more than happy to ensure the continued safety of your team here at Luxasi. I’m Lieutenant Tamio K’Wara with the USS Artemis-A. =/\=

Self-introductions were made as necessary.

Storm:  =/\= Lieutenant Alex Storm, Tactical Officer.=/\=

Cole/Vailani: Responses?

Researcher Zurah seemed the very picture of professionalism, though she had that errant air about her that told Tamio that this was a highly irregular occurrence for her. Given that this was the first time in years that the Ebers Rift had acted out of the ordinary, that shouldn’t be surprising.

Researcher Zurah: =/\= It is good to meet you. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have, or perhaps you’d like to come aboard? Meet the team? =/\=

Storm: ::To K’Wara:: If we’re supposed to be trying to break through the system, I think it would be better for us to remain out here and keep the pleasantries for later.

K’Wara: =/\= Let’s sling spacerocks at your station first, and then we’ll hop on over for tea, Researcher. ::easy smile:: Gets the rocky patch out of the way. =/\=

Tamio wondered how many rock puns they could get away with before they got tossed out of this shuttle, and which one of the present team members would offer to be the one doing the tossing.

Cole/Vailani: Responses

Storm:  =/\= I want to know how often you’re getting these false positives.  Can you transmit that data over to the shuttle.  There may be a pattern in those that could tell us something. =/\=

Cole/Vailani:  Response

Researcher Zurah:  =/\= Of course.  ::Nods to someone off the viewscreen, and watches until someone indicated that it was done.::  You should have that information now.=/\=

Storm:  Thank you.  

Tamio whistled quietly. Expediency, in a researcher? The Artemis scientists could learn a bit of that. There were several projects suffering delays at the moment, all with the excuse of ‘we got shot at!’... Like that excuse was new!!

Cole/Vailani:  Response

Alex focused on her PADD as the information from Luxasi came in.

Storm:  Thank you.  I’ll work on analyzing this.

Tamio nodded, turning back to Zurah.

K’Wara: =/\= Disregarding the false positives, has the station been able to respond to actual debris properly? =/\=

Researcher Zurah: =/\= Oh, yes, every time more debris slips through the rift, it alerts us in time for the station to move to alert status and activate the proximity defenses. Thus far, there’s been no, uhhh... ‘False negatives’, so to speak. =/\=

That was the benefit of technology. It didn’t cry wolf on purpose because it got bored, so people had no reason to disregard any alerts they got. And if they did, and it turned out to be a true positive? Well, the threat of the cold vacuum of space was a pretty good deterrent.

Storm/Cole/Vailani:  Response

With attention turned to their purpose for coming there - well, part of it - Zurah nodded. Might as well get the initial exercise going, so they could figure out how much of the defenses needed some extra calibrations.

Researcher Zurah: =/\= Of course. We have prepared some testing material - it’s waiting to be ejected from the Sector 24-A9 airlock - that I believe should fit the specifications. =/\=

K’Wara: =/\= We should start from verifying response times, and then we can move to stress testing afterwards. =/\= ::to Storm:: Alex, is the Acheron’s tractor beam souped up for Operation Slingshot?

Storm:  Response

K’Wara: Good. ::to Cole:: Take us in, Ensign, but mind that rift. We want to stay clear of the threshold that flirts too much with the other side. ::to Vailani:: You’re on target calls. ::to Storm:: When Lieutenant Vailani calls it, hurl the biggest piece of debris you can at the station. =/\= Let’s get this rodeo started. =/\=

From one of the outermost sections of Luxasi station, a stream of large debris - not quite 'spacerocks', but large hulking pieces of testing material large enough to count for small meteoroids - was released into space, and the kinetic force from their ejection kept them going towards the Ebers Rift's gravitational pull. 

Storm/Cole/Vailani:  Response

TAG/TBC

LT Tamio K’Wara

Chief of Operations

USS Artemis-A
A240006GS1