USS Vanguard
Posted on Thu Aug 1st, 2019 @ 1:45pm by Captain Paul MacLeod & Lieutenant Commander Clint Cross & Lieutenant Catherine Mclintock & Lieutenant Heath Carter & Lieutenant Karl Ballard & Tom Vercetti & Lieutenant JG Aidan Murphy & Lieutenant JG Marshall Robinson & Lieutenant JG Tenu
1,095 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Episode 99 - Exordium / Epilogue
Location: Various
Timeline: MD1, 0630hrs
ON:
Tom sat at the bar, leaning forward, looking at the shot glass in front of him. It was only half full of whatever the bartender had poured. It was yellow, and tasted awful.
“Did you bring it?” A voice asked from Tom’s right.
“One case of Federation Type-3E Phaser rifles.” Tom replied.
“I ordered a case of Type-3F rifles!” The man replied angrily. “Type-3Es are nearly twenty years old now.”
Tom finished the drink, “I know, but Type-3Es is all we could get. I’m also throwing in two Isomagnetic Disintegrators to help make up for it.”
The man ordered a drink, and quickly took the shot. “Alright, deal.”
Tom leaned back. “Do you have payment?”
The man handed over a PADD, “Twenty bars of gold pressed latinum is ready for the exchange and here’s the data you requested.” Tom grabbed the PADD but the man wouldn’t let go, “You’ll get the encryption code once we make the exchange.” He then leaned in closer, “If they find out I told you any of this, I’m a dead man…and that means you’re a dead man too.”
Tom pulled the PADD away.
The man smirked and stood up, he looked around then walked toward a room in the back. Tom followed him. After a moment, a man sitting at a table in the back also followed.
“Who’s following you?” The man asked.
“Carter is a member of my crew, he’ll initiate transport of the crate once we have payment.” Tom replied.
Once in the back room, Nausican was waiting for the man. He helped a Romulan disruptor rifle and guarded a small case. The man picked up the case, opened it, and showed the latinum and an iso-chip to Tom. Tom smirked, closed the case, then took hold of it. He then looked back at Carter and nodded.
Carter tapped a few commands onto a small Orion PADD. As the case of rifles beamed in, Tom and Carter beamed out.
“This damn craft still smells.” Carter said
“Well, we did buy it from an Orion and Klingon.” Tom replied as he and Carter scanned the case they received.
Carter reported as he finished the scan, “It’s clean, no trackers, just latinum. They inserted the iso-chip into the computer system, downloaded the encryption code, and activated the PADD.
“We’re good. This has tracking information for the Romulan warbird, outlines where they stopped over the last four weeks…wait.” Tom paused.
“What’s wrong?” Carter asked.
Tom read over the PADD. “This says the Romulans are trying to get the pirate cartels in the Triangle to focus their raiding only on Federation targets. In exchange they are paying each cartel in either latimum, weapons, or ship supplies. The Romulans have also asked for any gaps or blind spots in the Federation sensor grid along the border for help in ‘returning one of their own from Federation prison.’”
“So the Romulans are basically paying the cartels to try to harass Federation defenses, and who are they offering to help break out of jail?” Carter asked.
Tom thought for a moment, “Clark. Get us to the rendezvous point. We need to let Starbase 400 know what’s going on.”
Carter took the pilot’s seat and tapped in a few commands. “Breaking orbit.”
Tom sat at the position to the left in the small craft. A moment later his panel beeped. “Uh oh, they must of figured out those rifles weren’t as good as they hoped.”
“I’m guessing they weren’t happy when those Isomags overloaded and disintegrated the case and stripped down rifles.” Carter replied with a smirk.
The small craft shook from a disruptor hit. “Port impulse engine is down.” Carter reported.
“These old phasers aren’t doing much against their shields.” Tom added as he typed in commands.
The small craft juked and weaved around a hand full of other ships, operational and derelicts.
“Jumping to warp.” Carter said.
“Ugh, I hate this.” Tom replied as the small craft shook before it jumped to warp, but the trip only lasted a few seconds.
“Not again.” Tom said.
“Yep, warp coils over loaded. We made it to the edge of the system though.” Carter replied.
A moment later the other craft warped in and eased closer.
“They’re hailing. They want their money back, our ship, and say they plan to let us off with a warning and a reminder to never cross the L'ras cartel again.” Tom said as he read the message.
“There’s another ship approaching.” Carter reported.
A moment later the USS Vanguard finished decloaking as it pulled up above Tom and Carter’s shuttle and extended its shields around them.
“Pirate vessels, this is Commander MacLeod of the USS Vanguard. You’re under arrest for smuggling stolen Federation property. Power down your engines and prepare to be boarded.”
The other craft quickly turned and warped away. Meanwhile Carter and Tom were beamed back to the Vanguard with their cargo.
Mac and Cross met Carter and Tom in Transporter Room Two.
“What’s that smell?” Cross asked.
“Don’t asked.” Carter replied.
“Two cases of latinum, a case of Romulan Ale, twelve new model Romulan disruptors, a box of Thalian chocolates, schematics to a Krazzle sensor array, two barrels of bloodwine, and this.” Tom handed the PADD to MacLeod.
Mac read over the highlighted portions. “So the Romulans are paying the cartels to raid along the Federation border and offering to help break Clark out of SB400’s brig? There’s more going on here than meets the eye.”
“Agreed.” Tom replied. He picked up the case of latinum he’d received a short time ago.
“What’s that?” Cross asked.
“My fee.” He opened it up to show.
Mac smirked, “I didn’t see anything.”
Carter and Tom headed for their quarters to shower and change into clean cloths.
“Chief, get someone up here to take all of this to the cargo bay.” Mac ordered the transporter chief.
“We need to get back to Starbase 400.” Cross added.
“Can we risk sending an encrypted message?” Mac asked, already knowing the answer.
“We risked enough decloaking. We need to get back within Federation space before we try sending any message. If the Romulans fine out we were here and on their trail, this whole thing might blow up in our faces.” Cross replied.
Mac tapped his comm-badge, “MacLeod to Bridge. Set course for the Federation border, warp nine.”
OFF:
RSS Feed