From: V. Rahul Chandra (vrccan_at_gmail.com)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2008 - 06:36:51 PST
Mission Start Date: 2.80130 Mission End Date: 2.80304 Recorded By: Lieutenant Commander Jeffrey Gorman, Executive Officer, USS PATRIOT ========= My transfer to the USS PATRIOT came at a time when the ship had been heavily damaged in a firefight with Dominion forces as part of the task force that had been sent to protect the GATEWAY STATION. Whether because of the level of damage to the ship or because of the urgency of the next mission, when the PATRIOT left drydock there were still many repairs left to do. The engineering department did what they could en route and we were left to hope that everything would stay together if and when the time came to test the ship’s repairs. As for the mission, Starfleet Command ordered the PATRIOT to the LIOUN system in the Gamma Quadrant; a system that Starfleet Intelligence reported was outside Dominion space. Our orders were to escort the USS CABOT to the system and then assist them in the establishment of orbital and land-based sensor facilities. These facilities, when set up, would allow Starfleet advance knowledge of any aggressive Dominion movements which in turn would give them a chance to deploy their defences accordingly. The trip to the LIOUN system was uneventful and I was able to use the time to read up on the PATRIOT’s crew and previous missions in an attempt to better understand exactly what I would have to do as the Executive Officer of the ship. Prior to our departure from the Alpha Quadrant, I had been assigned the task of taking on several additional crewmembers and helping them settle in; a task which had done a lot to help me in my understanding of how the position worked on a day-to-day basis. Having filled in for Executive Officers on my other ships I understood the basic command responsibilities, but actually having the position is a different beast entirely. When the PATRIOT arrived at the LIOUN system, the CABOT immediately went to work in constructing the orbital listening post. Work was uneventful and the post was up and running in a surprisingly short amount of time. Once the work on the orbital facility had been completed, away teams from both the PATRIOT and the CABOT beamed down to LIOUN V in an attempt to establish the land-based listening post with the intention of finishing the work in a few days. However, the task force was ambushed by a Dominion battleship and was forced to take cover in one of the nearby nebulae while the Dominion forces destroyed the orbital listening post and sent troops down to the planet to gather and interrogate the away teams that had been sent. From what I understand through talking with the away team, the Dominion was able to round up and transport most of the marine forces back to their ship for holding, while keeping all of the other personnel on the planet. They apparently missed some of the marines in their initial sweep however as a strike team was able to disable Jem’Hadar soldiers guarding Colonel Maverick and the Colonel along with Tam Niala, Catherine Sterling-Jade and the remaining marine forces were able to transport themselves to the ship in an attempt to rescue the other marines. Back on the PATRIOT, Lieutenant Corwin and I were given the task of figuring out a rescue plan. With the resources we had available at our disposal, the plan we eventually came up with had little chance of success and it was only the piloting skills of Corwin that convinced anyone that the plan might work. Before we could execute the plan however, a Dominion shuttle carrying Maverick, Jade, Tam and the marine forces of the PATRIOT arrived on our doorstep. Evidently the team that had transported aboard the battleship had run into the other marines, having escaped from their cells with the help of Major Daniel Clarkson. However, on the shuttle ride back to the PATRIOT, Clarkson had been exposed as a changeling and eliminated, leaving a big question mark as to the current location of the Major. Assuming that the Major was still on the battleship, the PATRIOT’s senior staff sat down to figure out a way to rescue him, the crew on the planet and neutralize the battleship in the same process. Another changeling was later discovered on the CABOT, which answered questions as to how the Dominion could have known enough to ambush us in the first place. The CABOT was destroyed to prevent further infiltration and the majority of its remaining crew were recovered through escape pods that had been launched from the ship. I am sad to say that the Captain was not recovered however and ended up going down with his ship in order to save the mission and the PATRIOT. Captain Kenta eventually decided that the best course of action was to engage the battleship on multiple vectors and to that end all of our fighters and runabouts were deployed. The shuttles were held in reserve as the intention was that they would be used to rescue the crew still on the planet. The battle was eventually joined with the Dominion battleship and through some hard work and a little help on the inside from Major Clarkson, the battleship was defeated in combat. Rather than let themselves be captured however, the battleship self destructed. Before they did this however, they fired on the planet, obliterating the partially built station and killing all of the Starfleet forces on that world. The PATRIOT is now on its way back to the Alpha Quadrant and as I reflect back on my first real mission as a First Officer, I can not help but continually feel saddened at the senseless loss of the Starfleet officers and crew that were on LIOUN V when it was hit by Dominion weaponry. According to Captain Kenta, the Vorta said that he was taking that action to make our victory seem hollow. As a doctor, the senseless loss of life makes me feel as though the Vorta was successful in accomplishing this task, although I am not sure how many of my fellow crewmembers share that sentiment. As for the LIOUN V sensor post, I would imagine that Starfleet has abandoned those plans in light of Dominion attention to that area, but I can not be certain of that. If they do try another mission, I can only imagine that it would be far more covert than the one the PATRIOT was ordered to perform and therefore I doubt our ship and crew will be going back to the LIOUN system anytime soon. End Log. ============== NRPG: Strategy and Tactics was actually only the second mission I’ve run in my FRPG career and my first on board the PATRIOT, so I was a bit interested to see how things would turn out. Erik Walz, the Commanding Officer of the ship, was out for the mission as well, leaving us with five writers at the point this mission began. The premise of the mission was a simple and straightforward one that tied directly into the fleet-wide story arc regarding the second Dominion War and so I felt that it was a safe mission for the crew to tackle at this time. The crew posted beyond well beyond my expectations for this mission, which was a pleasant surprise. We had 21 posts in 35 days, which translates to more than 4 posts each week that the mission was on. Additionally, every player managed to find the time to post at least twice for the mission, so the plot contributions were spread out across the whole crew with everyone participating in moving things forward. As for the story itself, I think the development was excellent. I didn’t have that much to resolve when the time to write the closer came along since by the time we reached that point the mission had already reached a point in time just before the final confrontation. I’ve always personally enjoyed missions where the crew takes it to that point and then the person in charge of running the mission gets us over that last hump, so it was very gratifying overall to see how things shook out. No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.21.6/1315 - Release Date: 06/03/2008 9:07 AM From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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