Recon Mission - Taranok System Arrival

Posted on Tue Sep 23rd, 2014 @ 4:09pm by Commodore Kathleen O'Shea & Lieutenant Commander Adria "Tempest" Desoro & Captain Pete Samson

Mission: Bloodpath
Location: Taranok System

[ON]

[Taranok System - Orbital path of Taranok VI]

The 405th Tin Squadron Element dropped out of warp in the orbital path of the system's seventh planet. They were far enough away from Taranok IV to get advance warning of any threat from the planet, but close enough to be there in thirty minutes at full impulse.

=^=Iron One to Tin Flight Six =^= Buren called =^= Tin Six-Two; Three; Four and Five you're with me. We're going to carry out a reconnaissance of Taranok IV. Remaining craft take up a holding pattern here and await further instructions =^=

There was a range of acknowledgments and Buren flipped the communication channel =^= Buren to Captain Samson, would you like to come along on the recon, before deploying your teams? =^=

=/\= That's a roger. I will beam on-board straight away. =/\=

Buren swung his Runnabout out of position and brought it in near to Tin Six =^= Ready for transport =^=

=/\= One to beam on-board Lieutenant. =/\=

Once the Marine Officer was aboard Buren pulled back to the head of the four Polaris transports that would be undertaking the reconnaissance.

=^= Iron One has the lead, pair up and follow =^= He ordered. The four craft spilt into two pairs and dropped in behind the Danube.

=^= Iron One to Two-Twenty Escort, trusting you to provide cover here and do you have a spare Flight you can send along with us? =^= Buren asked, hoping the fighter- jocks had got their act together now

=^= Iron One I'm sending Flight 4 with you. The rest of us are already engaged in making sure there are no surprises. =^= Caitlin didn't like the way things were shaping up so far.

=^= Iron One copies that=^=

[Taranok IV - Orbital space ]

As the convoy approached the planet Buren maintained contact with the teams running the systems in the Long and Short Range Recon Modules and Science crew in the Science Module.

=^= Looks like there is a big chunk of their comm-sats are missing. We can't find any deep space channels are active or working. Also looks to be some kind of major disruption to their planetary net, very little global comms, but a lot of localized traffic, mostly encrypted on military frequencies. Nothing at all from the Federation Consulate or the planetary government net =^= Iron Six - Three announced =^=

=^=Copy that, we're going to be cautious here =^= Buren ordered =^= We'll move into the shadow of that third moon and take more scans from there =^=

A short while later the Science team reported =^= Tin Six - Five We're getting some large fallout readings, looks like somebody set off a military grade weapon over the planetary capital. Massive EMP disruption from the ground through the ionosphere and it's spreading with the global weather pattern, now covering approximately fifteen percent of the planet. That would explain the communications blackout =^=

=^= We agree with that,=^= Iron Six-Three confirmed =^= Looks like the only comms working are encrypted military channels using hardened systems. From what we can gather, the majority of those are not using the planetary government frequencies either! Did somebody start a war down there? =^=

=^=Iron One to Tin Six - Two, start relaying our initial findings back to Starbase 80, send them copies of the recon and science data streams too.

=^=Tin Six - Two copies! =^=

=^=Iron One to all Tin Six elements at the holding point. Move up to our location =^=

Buren turned back to Samson "Want to go take a closer look Captain, see if we can find a suitable spot for you and your team to put down while we await their arrival?"

"Yes, please do. We need one team at the least to attempt to secure the Consulate. I think we should try for there." Pete had a number of things going ya rough his mind, was this war, an accident, terrorism. Either way he knew his first priority would be to secure the Consulate, and it's staff. He brought out his pad and started to bring up maps of the area and the consulate.

"Understood Captain, we'll plot a course to take us in over the capital"

=^=Iron One to Two-Twenty Squadron I'm going to take Tin Six-Four into orbit for a closer look, let them run their short-range recon mod systems. Can you cover? =^=

=^= We've got you covered Iron One . Everyone watch your six. =^= The longer they explored the more that knot in the pit of Maguire's stomach grew. Directing her attention to the rest of her squadron. =^= Inform me if anything unusual contacts surface. =^=


[Taranok IV]

With the Runabout in the lead, the Short Range Recon Polaris tailing and four fighters escorting Buren dropped his craft down into the atmosphere of Taranok IV.

Clearly there was something very wrong on the planet, an armed conflict was going on, much more than a crash or natural phenomenon they had originally thought.

=^=Iron One to all craft. We're going to stay at high altitude for the Recon Module to get some wide surface scans.

Then when we're near the planetary capital, in about fifteen minutes or so, we'll go down fast and do one flyover at high speed and low level.

If that's successful, we'll come back for another, slower pass.

If we encounter any other craft or surface threats Iron One and Tin Six-Four will break high and Two-Twenty can deal with the threats =^=

=^= Two-Twenty Copies =^= Maguire acknowledged the transmission from Buren. At the moment they had a very dynamic situation and they needed to stay alert. Vectoring her fighter to better keep an eye on things as they made their pass.

Coming in high over the eastern continent the Recon Module team began picking up surface transmissions form areas not yet effected by the electro-magnetic pulse over the capital on the southern continent. The team leader passed on their findings.

=^= We're picking up local news services. They are saying there was an attack on the Council of Order chamber in Prepheradus. Some kind of anti-matter device, very high grade weapon. They don't know where it came from.

Reports are saying after the explosion there were ground attacks on government forces. But that was some time ago and they are loosing contact as the EMP spreads.

They are also saying that planetary infrastructure is starting to shut down. Power systems are going down, and they don't know why.

Here's a new report, they are saying there is now a clash between rival government troops in the western regional center. They think somebody is trying to stage a coup and that some government forces are involved! There is fighting between their own military units.

Whoa! That news service just went down! They just stopped broadcasting, like somebody pulled the plug!

Let me check, yeah a big regional power grid went off line. The whole eastern continent is down. Somebody just turned the lights out on about a third of the planet! =^=

Buren turned to Samson "Looks like this was well organized and planetary wide Captain. I think we're a little out of our depth here. We'll continue with the recon but I don't think we're going to be securing and holding the consulate if there is a civil war starting.

Might I suggest sir, that you consider formulating a rescue and extraction mission plan to get Federation personnel off the surface as soon as possible"

"You need to get me and my teams to the consulate, it needs to be secured, only the Consulate General, or orders from the Starfleet Command can authorize a withdrawal. But we will be prepared for that. Can we do anything to ensure are comms when we are on the planet?"

"I can get you to the consulate, not sure we can do anything about the communications until that EMP cloud disperses some"

Pete was prepared to scarface himself to protect the consulate. It was his job. "We need to get a message to the Commodore, I need 400 Marines I need 200 of them in Starfleet Security Uniforms. I also need someone to get a list of people at the consulate and Federation citizens on the planet."

As they transitioned into the dark side of the planet, more and more large fires became visible. In places, it seemed as if entire cities and forests were burning. It was obvious that their work had just begun...and they would be here for quite some time.

Lt Buren Zel
405th

Lt Caitlin Maguire
220th

MCpt Pete Samson
Commanding Officer Marine Corps
Starbase 80