LeftEar JoNs

MISSION BRIEF: The USS Excalibur will be under repairs for around a month, in the interim much the Excalibur's crew has been transfered to the Excelsior-class, USS Union, where they will embark on a salvage mission of a Scorpiad warship adrift in unclaimed space under the command of Corizon. After a week of leave, the Union's crew is ready to leave port and head off on their mission. ExcalChatLog09_06_21.txt

06.21.09 Excalibur Update: TBS: Three days. We will be a day out from our target, and just entering unclaimed space. - The officers and crew settled on board the Excelsior class USS Union as we zoom out on our salvage mission to claim Scorpiad technology. - We have some new faces amongst the crew, in the SEC, Medical, and SCI departments. - An old score between two of our senior officers is brought to a grinding halt by none other then Captain Corizon himself. - Both Corizon and JoNs attend to personnel meet and greet transfers, while CSCI Laarell meets with CSEC Garrison. CMO Rue fields a new Doctor, while a new bridge SCI Ensign settles in and takes her bridge console for a test drive. Ex Oh JoNs isn't too embarrassed by her own shore leave hijinks, and one young pilot known as Honor-Scar has matured a bit. In addition, CAG Ramson didn't have to bail out too many pilots. - Life is good, for now; we have no idea what this next mission holds for our Intrepid crew.

MISSION BRIEF: Excalibur's junior and senior officers have gathered in the cargo bay for a debrief from Captain Corizon, who's finsihed his own debrief with new station commander Alexander Calypsos and the new commander of the Gamma Quadrant Command, Vice-Admiral Misha Abronvonovich. ExcalChatLog09_06_14.txt

Nice Intel stuff. w00t! Captain Clark seems like a real desk jockey - I'd lke to see how he'd react to an actual field assignment. ;-)

Emotionally compromised aside (considering it was part of the story/plotline) my impression of Nimoy as a watcher of the movie standpoint was he ran like heck with the part and had fun. There was just something there, like a little twinkle in his performance; I really noticed that so called twinkle in the end movie exchange with Quinto Spock. Even in the cave scenes with Pine Kirk, I don't know, I just got this vibe of "yeah, I'm one of the veteran Originals, but I'm happy to be the passer of the torch here". The Spock/Nimoy Prime, New Cast, and Trek 2009 thing was much better handled this time around, IMO, then the passing of the torch to Next Gen in Generations from Kirk, Chekhov, and Scotty. The Generations scenes come across as a bit contrived or unnecessary, and Capt. Harriman is written as a complete incompetant. Granted, I do believe the original scenes started out written for Kirk, McCoy (Chekhov has the most noticeable "McCoy-esque" lines) and Spock, so that might be a factor as well with different actors taking on the lines for Spck and McCoy. Overall, Trek 2009 is a good start for passing the torch without going the way of stupid.

06.14.09 Excalibur Mission Update: TBS: One Week - The Excalibur will require one month of repairs and refit. - The crew will be temporarily re-assigned to the USS Union (Excelsior Class). - Our assignment is to retrieve abandoned Scorpiad salvage; the technology is considered highly important. - The command staff, crew, senior line officers and department heads all have one week to grab some shore leave and get settled into their new assignment and ship.

The bridge damage isn't that bad. It's a wee little hole breach and stuff.

06.07.09 Excalibur Mission Update: TBS: Short - The USS Excalibur, battered and damaged from our Gamma Quadrant adventures, docks at Camelot Station. - The crew is practically climbing the bulkheads, eagerly awaiting some much needed shore leave. Per CAG Lt. Cmdr. Kallah Ramson, she has pilots who will plot courses of escape soon if not granted shore leave. Meanwhile, Lt. Victria wonders if the balance of power (Al-Ucard and Scorpiad civil war) within the quadrant will compromise her own ship board position. - Vorta Lexin takes possession of the Founder communication device and disappears in a purple transport haze to scurry back to his Council after speaking with Captain Corizon. - Certain other power elements (Vorta Semil) in the quadrant express a desire to base personnel to not be left out of the so called Founder action. - Corizon departs the ship for debrief with station command personnel; next sim, he will be on his way back to the Excal, and the senior crew (all players) will be gathering for a debrief from the Captain.

MISSION BRIEF: This sim picks up back in Regular Universe. The Excal is on the last stretch of a long journey home to the Camelot Station. Both ship and crew are weary, and docking at the the station will be a welcome change of space for our Fleet officers. We will be docking at the end of the sim, give or take. ExcalChatLog09_06_07.txt

Tonight will be our last night in Pirate Universe. Next week we will pick up in the regular universe, with Excalibur a few hours out Avalon. MISSION BRIEF: Excalibur is en route to Romulus. Corizon has revealed that he does, in deed, work for the Romulans, who saved their asses from Halloway. This revelation has, apparently, cost him much, and he is in a very, very foul mood. Repairs to the ship continue, and perhaps Doug won't die this sim, maybe, possibly. Prolly not. ExcalChatLog09_05_31.txt

MISSION BRIEF: 03.29.09 Excalibur maintains orbit over the Class M Planet. An abandoned planetary-based spaceport and city are the only evidence that the planet was once inhabited. In addition to the City and Spaceport, the planet has Wilderness, Beach, Grassland, Desert areas, and Oceans, all similiar to Earth. Salvaging teams from SEC, SCI, ENG, MED have been sent to the surface to scavenge any supplies and explore. MARINES are on ground recon. PILOTS are patrolling the upper atmo or providing supply and personnel transport where needed. Small Shore Leave parties have also been authorized for all Departments. SCI continues to monitor the pulsar star, which keeps having energy spikes; some crew have been complaining of headaches - are they related? ExcalChat03.29.09.txt

03.30.09 USS/SS Excalibur NCC-2004 C “Raiding Party” Abandoned City and Ground Spaceport Unknown Planet, Gamma Quadrant Current Timeline, USS Excalibur While she had never considered herself a modern pirate, the Ex Oh of the Excalibur had to admit that the scavenging “raid” on the abandoned spaceport had gone down five by five; she hadn’t gotten any reports yet on the official inventory numbers, but had heard by word of mouth and ear to ear that most of the ship departments had found items on the planet and within the abandoned space port and buildings that would be of use to replenish their dwindling and exhausted supplies and equipment. She did one more go round on foot of the immediate perimeter area that she had ended up in after parting ways from Doctor Wydown; she had wanted to do a quick walk through to make sure no teams had dawdled in this section. Satisfied that she hadn’t missed anyone in this cluster of buildings, the brown furred Cait decided to implement the next stage of the ground based communications call out. Commander Left Ear JoNs tapped at the communicator badge affixed to the upper left chest area of her black uniform tunic and spoke with a decisive tone. “This is Commander JoNs to all ground teams within the vicinity; all landing parties have been recalled to the ship, repeat, all parties are to return to the Excalibur ASAP per Captain Corizons orders. All shuttles, ground patrols, air patrols, and scavenging personnel are to bug out immediately from the spaceport and city … “ Another Time, Another Place Alpha Quadrant, Outer Colonies Unknown Timeline, SS Excalibur “ … c’mon you damn worthless scuts! I can’t believe you lot weren’t shot years ago, y’all are so slow! Move your tails, grab what ya can, and drill anyone that get’ in yer way! We got a call back order from Corizon and the local Imperial Fleet patrol is on its way! Move move move! You don’t make it back to the rally point we ain’t waitin’” Commander Left Ear JoNs aimed and fired her disruptor pistol decisively, hitting a small propane tank that provided energy for a few of the nearby colony buildings; the tank promptly exploded, knocking back four militia guards and a couple of volunteers that had been moving in on her section of the assault grid with the resulting concussive blast. Visually, JoNs could track her people at a glance by the clothing that they all wore. Most, like her, wore some sort of civilian clothing with a design reminiscent of military or militia service: black cargo trousers, jacket or cargo vest, mock long sleeved turtleneck or short sleeved mock turtleneck, tee shirt. Other males wore just a vest, females might wear a halter top and flak vest, and still others wore a combination of civilian and military issue clothing. All clothing was in varying states of disrepair, and could be fraying or patched. But for the most part, the Excal crew kept themselves and their clothing neat per the Captains Articles. The one common factor among all the landing parties was that the crew all wore some kind of ‘pirate bling’: waist sash, do rag on the head, arm band sash, or neckerchief, all in varying colors and such. Those who had bare skin showing might also have several identifying tattoos in bold tribal, skull, and various other patterns. The SS Excalibur had swooped down on the planetary colony of Sigma Four, making orbit and sending down the assault teams in less then fifteen minutes. They had been steadily roaming and raiding the colony buildings and supplies for over an hour, reducing the colonists and the colony to little more then fractured pieces. Those who had fled were still alive; those people who hadn’t retreated were being mercilessly cut down. Things had moved and were continuing to move quickly as the dozen or so landing parties that had been deployed continued to loot the colony structures. Everything was considered fair game, from portable computer systems to jewelry to weapons; what couldn’t be carried individually was slapped with a locater patch and beamed up to the warship in orbit. The brown furred executive officer ran from her cover behind a dome shaped colony structure and darted across the street, firing the disruptor pistols she held in both paws. Her yowled battle cry echoed and reverberated, bounding off the small to medium sized buildings that surrounded the street. One of her shots hit another hapless militia solider in the leg, while the other two were driven to cover. She dove into the alleyway set among a few of the colony structures that had she had intended as her escape route, and continued at a full run back towards the beam down site to re-connect with the rest of the teams. “Left Ear!” The panther like felinoid whirled at the call of her name, pressing her back against the brick wall of the grimy alley way to make herself less of a target, and stood with her disruptor at the ready; her reflexes then gave way to recognition as Kansas, her young cousin, came bounding toward her on all four paws. Like Left Ear, the golden furred leonine Cait wore a black civilian military cut outfit of jacket and trousers, and a red waist sash that matched the older Cait’s. She had a medium sized travel pack strapped to her back, containing the loot that she was able to carry. “Kitten – where’s your squad? Why aren’t you with your squad? I told you to stay close to Garrison and the Al-Ucard!” The younger feline panted as she spoke, and was obviously concerned about something. “Garrison, Mordan, and the rest of our squad’s all heading back to the beam down point, but I had to slip away and find ya! We got problems! They’re younger kids. I was sweeping one of the buildings with my assigned partner, and we were about to cut and run, but now he’s going all bat sh*t over there … I …. I can’t stop ‘im by m’self!” “Show me, go!” JoNs put up her weapon, slipping it easily into the low slung holster on her right hip. She dropped down and took off after the younger feline, making good time and faster time using all four paws. The two felines were flashes of exposed gold fur and brown fur, zooming across the battlegrounds; no one really paid them any mind, as most of the teams were interested in last minute booty or getting themselves back to the beam down point, and the two females didn’t run into any more local resistance either. The screams reached her sensitive ears before actually arriving at the rectangular off white structure, and Left Ear picked up the pace. She went upright on her hind paws and tore through the opening that had been blown out of the entry way, pulling her weapon out as she did so. The interior of the structure was decorated according to the classic design pattern of an Earth elementary school, with lockers lining the walls along the corridor at intervals and various posters that announced upcoming school plays or events. She continued following her younger kitten, and passed several classrooms to either side of the hallway that were empty and a few offices scattered in between the class module areas on the way to the target area. There were also about three bodies scattered at intervals along the route; evidently, some of the school administration staff had at least tried to put up a fight. They reached the intended room and Kansas skidded to a stop, sliding past the open entryway to flatten herself on the far opposite side of the open doorway. The older panther feline didn’t even stop to get a tactical read on the situation, and bolted right into the classroom; Kansas moved to take a flanking position to watch the elder Caits back. Little desks for the kids were strewn about the room. Hardcopy books along with digital Padds had been tossed haphazardly here and there. About a dozen or so kids – oldest looked about nine, with the youngest about four or so – were huddled together to one side of the room. They were a mixture of full Humans and humanoid appearing species such as Trill and Bajoran. An older blond haired Human woman, probably the teacher, lay dead from a disruptor shot to the chest, her eyes wide open and unseeing. Jarrett, a former Imperial security guard turned pirate, whirled at the entry of Left Ear and Kansas. He held a bloody dagger in his hand, and it was obvious that some of the kids had cuts on them from the weapon. “What the hell are you doing Jarrett!” Her angry growled question was almost unrecognizable with the snarl, and her tail lashed ominously. She slowly removed her disruptor pistol from its holster, simultaneously thumbing on the heavy stun setting, “Just following orders Sir and sweeping my assigned structures.” His callous leer was prominent, and his gray-blue eyes held a deadness within them that came easily to the unrepentant and wicked. An odd gleam entered into the Commanders green eyes then, and her entire demeanor went stone cold; she exuded her own wickedness at that point, but it was of a different type of darkness then Jarrett’s “Cutting kids is part of our mission? Wait, never mind.” Left Ear just up and drilled the Excalibur security guard in the hand with a flash of plasma stun shot from her disruptor; the dagger flew from his hand, and he gripped his hand as the pain erupted. She then took a shot at his chest, knocking him down hard to the ground and rendering him fully unconscious. A few of the kids screamed, but others had a flash of relief show across their faces, knowing that the immediate threat Jarrett had posed had been disposed off. The remainder of the kids were too shell shocked to have any reaction either way. Kansas immediately moved to the children as the commotion gave way to a stillness that permeated the air along with the smell of blood and the ozone of the dissipating disruptor fire. The leonine felinoid spoke in low tones, trying to be as soothing as possible to the beings that were only a few years younger then she was. The young Midshipman directed the eldest of the little group, a brown haired boy, to lead the others to one of the abandoned offices and wait there for what remained of the colonists to come to the school and check on them. While the golden furred feline was engaged in this, Left Ear hurriedly worked on Jarrett, stripping him of all available energy weapons and bladed weapons (they could be employed for her own personal use or redistributed or sold for profit on the ship, after all). The elder JoNs then popped one of her claws out and proceeded to run it horizontally along the left side of his face, just under the eye socket bone, drawing blood in the process and scarring the pale white skin. It was an ancient Caitian marking of an unworthy clan member, usually someone who had shown cowardice in battle. In recent years this practice had translated over into the galactic mercenary clans of the Caits. She fished some titanium grade restraints - plundered from the local militia sheriff’s office - from her own travel pack and effectively bound the rogue crew member. Her final act was to slap the hapless and unconscious man with a locater beacon after resetting it for a wideband Imperial signal; Jarrett’d be nice and ready for the Imperial patrol when they showed up, like a birthday present even. Marooning Jarrett was really no risk to either Left Ear or the Excalibur crew. The junior level crew members were not privy to the decisions of the command team, or any future raiding plans: it was easier to keep the crew in line when they were only told about an upcoming job just prior to the mission launch. And even if the Imperials tortured Jarrett for any information on the whereabouts or information on Corizon and his crew, he wouldn't be able to tell the Feds anything that wasn't already recorded on the holo net news feeds. The pirate rebels had been making quite a name for themselves these past few months; who knew that stealing an Imperial warship could be so much fun and so profitable? Left Ear had remained quiet as she went about her work, but as soon as the kids left the room and she finished with her ministrations to the former Excal security guard, she turned to her guardian child and junior officer. “If anyone asks Kitten, he was killed by the local militia authorities, you read me?” “He had a bad streak; he won’t be missed, by me at least. Aye Sir.” The two feline cousins then exited the building and double timed it back to the beam down site, both running on all fours. After a couple of kilometers, they crested a hill and spotted the site where most of the Excal Raiders were re-grouping or dragging the spoils of the colony raid to. At the appearance of the Ex Oh, several of the pirate offices raised their photon rifles or energy pistols in the air, discharging them and yelling out calls of victory. Kansas and Left Ear both went upright onto their hind paws in response to the hoo rahs; Kansas continued running forward across the now shorter distance and jumped into the arms of one of the big engineering guys, while Left Ear fired her own disruptor pistol into the air in answer to the general atmosphere of the adrenaline infused celebration. Nut cases aside, the colony raid had gone down five by five, and the supply hall would augment their ships stores nicely. JoN didn’t see Corizon among the group yet, so she assumed he was tying up some loose ends with the colony assault and hadn’t made it back to the re-group site yet. Or, the Dameon pirate captain was as dead as a burned out dilithium crystal and she’d be free to take over command of the ship and crew. Indeed. Five by five.

MISSION BRIEF: The Marine teams have checked out the planet and said it's cool. So the first sets of away teams can now go look for things. Just about everyone has been granted some sort of leave/shopping permission. Science checks out the star. 032209.txt

MISSION BRIEF: Excalibur has begun the four month journey home to Camelot with their prize in hand. However, the quest has come at a price -- Excalibur has lost several crewmen, including an entire fighter squadron of pilots, our supplies are running low and there's a whole in the bridge unit. Using the maps we downloaded from the Satarimi Archives at Miramo, we're headed towards what we hope is a space port that we can resupply at before we can head home, otherwise we're going to have to look for more suppplies. TBS was one month and we're nearing range of finding out if the Space Wal-Mart is still open or not. ExcalChat03.15.09.txt

03.15.09 Excalibur Mission Update: TBS: 24 Hours - The Excalibur arrived at an abandoned spaceport, no one shot at us and there was no BOOM-age. We're off to a pretty good start. - There will be both shore leave and scavenging parties sent out to check out the spaceport and what the site may offer in way of supplies and entertainment. - The battle damage hole in the top of the command bridge is *not* that big, and the emergency force fields are handling the gap nicely. It's not like the damage is comparable to, oh ... I don't know, a part of Australia getting blown up (see Agincourt Mission Updates). G’DAY!

02.11.09 USS Excalibur NCC-2004 C “Uber-Probie” The Caitian First Officer of the Excalibur glanced yet again to the split screen tactical overlay grids that were showcased on the main viewer in order get an orientation on the current situation and change up her orders on the fly. This sloppy skirmish had gone on for six minutes, which in tactical terms was an eternity. It wasn’t as if the Helm officer wasn’t doing his job, or the Sciences team wasn’t backing up the Tactical officer with their boosted sensor programs that the targeting scanners were benefiting from greatly. Working together, the Science geeks and the Tactical jarhead were scoring some serious battle hits on the hostile raiders. And, gods knew that the Tactical officer was mixing it up over at his console, breaking out the right tools for the right boom-age job. The fighter contingent that had launched were also kicking some serious rear end on the front line perimeter of the battle, taking on the fighter craft of the pirate raiders in one on one dog fighting. The cargo freighter, though damaged, had managed to limp away a short distance and was no longer being set upon by the full wrath of the pirates. And, let’s not forget the Akira class Excalibur herself; the ship, intended to perform multiple mission functions from explorations to military ops to evacuations, was a warship by it’s very design and was a prime example for military engagements, with a larger, more improved design originally derived from the prototype Defiant class. The skirmish should have been over and done with in three minutes, tops, according to the Academy tactical textbooks. But, this was not the Academy, this was field work. The pirate raiders who had been attacking the cargo freighter were not military adversaries, and they were not employing cut and dry tactics; they were employing civilian based raider para-military tactics. And, the ships First Officer needed to get a friggin’ clue; she felt like a damn probie. It was one thing to be a security officer manning the tactical board and letting loose with the phaser, torp, and mine launcher programs. You searched with the grid spotter programs, grabbed a target, locked on the sight down programs or tuned it all up manually if you wanted to go full on old school, and boom – no more active target because said target vessel had been disabled, clipped, or destroyed. Left Ear JoNs wasn’t a tactical security officer anymore, and she didn’t have the luxury of being just one element manning a bridge console in the grand scheme of battle. She was the senior commanding officer currently in charge of the whole ding dang ship, and as such the main tactical lead. And, she was thinking in military tactical terms, going by the book when she needed to go outside the box and implement some civilian raider based tactics of her own. That last jolt that rippled through the bridge did it, and the brown furred panther leaped up from the center command seat. “Okay, enough of this damn friggin’ veken sssstan paddy cake business. The gloves are off and I want these pirate fighters and their raider base ship incapacitated or driven off, veken sssstan ssssfor pronto!” The ships XO continued speaking, barking out orders to the bridge officers on duty, pointing back and forth with a big brown paw to the officers in question and the grid overlay on the main viewer. “Mister Khal, bring us down and around again in an inverted under-maneuver. Tactical, as soon as you have a clear shot at the base ships underbelly, open up with the mine grapplers, low yield should do it so we don’t ding the freighter. Ms. Ramson, give your birds the final clearance to get down and dirty with the opposing birds; if they still respond aggressively after we drive off and clip or incapacitate the base ship, blow ‘em from the black. Ms. Teykier, Ms. Tia, keep grabbing as much Intel as you can with your sensor scans, and good job with the tactical backup.” “Damn veken raiders ….” . . . Left Ear sighed at her final choice of bad language (and really, her language had seriously degraded in time with the battle as it unfolded and she was rapidly spiraling toward the stereotypical ‘mouth like a sailor’ naval designation) and a wide brown paw came up and she gave herself a disciplinary cuff across the back of the head . . . * “Re-engage and let’s take out the trash …” = = = = *Random Trivia: what TV show did I kleptomaniac the famous head slap and the “Probie” from?

02.08.09 Excalibur Mission Update: TBS: Ten Minutes - The Away Team are held captive by the Lizard like beings who we assume call the Black Marsh home. The cave-like pit they are held in is smooth from years of erosion, with little or no hand holds for traction; climbing the walls would make a dicey situation even more unstable. Lieutenant Mark Garrison remains in critical condition, and the rest of the landing party have various dings and bruises. Captain Corizon and Lt. Victria remain free and at large. - The Excalibur reaches the source of the distress signal; a cargo freighter is under attack by pirate raiders. The attackers employ fighter-grade ships as well as a base ship similar in class to the Federations Intrepid type of ships; Excalibur reserve fighters are deployed on CAG Commander Ramson’s orders, and the XO ordered return fire on the Raiding party. - Various Bridge personnel are kept busy with the prep work and evasive maneuvers and weapons fire from the skirmish. Commander Teykier and Lt. Tia bolster the incoming data through their sciences sensors to feed battle information to Helm Cat Khal and the Tactical officer. - Engineering and Medical remain on standby, for any repairs and injuries from the cargo ship. CENG Commander Admiran and the Medical doctors on duty were contacted by Executive Officer JoNs. - The skirmish will continue during the ten minute time between sims, and the landing party remains in custody of the reptiles.

MISSION BRIEFING: The AT is still in the night, while the Excalibur orbits the Black Marsh Planet chatlog2009_02_01.txt

02.01.09 Excalibur Mission Update: TBS: 3 Hours - Wireless communications are unavailable between the Excalibur and the landing party down on the Black Marsh Planet. Sciences had been monitoring the away team, but when the wireless went blinkity, there was no longer a tracking fix on them as well. Otherwise, things remain quiet for the departments of Medical and Engineering. - Quiet? Klepto CENG and the Captains booze held hostage, say what? - A garbled distress call of unknown origin, claiming an attack by raiders, managed to break through the garbled communications, originating away from the planet. Is this all a trap? And are the communications being deliberately jammed? - Dude, where’s our landing party? - The XO made the decision to break orbit, leave the away team in an unknown situation, and investigate the distress call. - This move did not sit well with some of the officers on watch duty, but hey, that’s why the panther has tension back problems and gets that shiny XO designation sign on her office door. - The fighter squads on patrol and monitoring the sensor pod buoys placed about the planetary vector by the flight teams were left to patrol the area around the planet in case contact was re-established with the landing party. - The landing party, with the exception of the Captain and the Al Ucard security officer, who were both on separate patrols away from the camp, were all ambushed at the camp and drugged by darts and then dragged away by Lizard-like beings. - Hostile Lizards? Now that’s what I call a bad day at work Notes for when we pick up next sim: - Fighters left in orbit, per CAG Ramson: 9. - There has also been one additional pick up shuttle/escort launched just in case, and the AT also has the original shuttle that made planet fall as well. - The Excal will be entering sensor range of this unknown originator signal. - The Away Team with the two exceptions will be held in a hole in a cave.

02.03.09 USS Excalibur NCC-2004 C Field Command: The Joker Commander Left Ear JoNs sat quietly in the command chair on the main bridge, willing herself to stay seated and still and not pace the bridge. The Excalibur would be arriving at the intended destination that had been earmarked as the originating source of the mysterious distress call, and then the ships XO and bridge personnel would determine if the signal had been a hoax or not. That sounded like a great plan … on paper and in theory. The Fleet Academy textbooks all heralded the “right” thing to do, which was answering any and all distress calls, as any field commander’s sworn duty. It was when you actually got out into the field and started working that you got slapped with the Joker card, finding out that the classroom learning was no substitute for the actual field work implementation that sometimes fell into the category of trial and error. In other words, if you were in command of a ship, you were usually damned if you did and damned if you didn’t with any number of command decisions. Left Ear had made the decision to bolt from the Black Marsh planet and check out the distress call, leaving Captain Corizon and his Away Team with their collective Al Ucard, Klingon, Brikar, Human and Dameon asses out in the wind, literally and figuratively. The Excalibur’s communication wireless was down, either due to the planet itself, or purposely taken out by the same source that could be feeding the main ship a distress call from some distant unknown crew under attack by raiders; Left Ear knew that if there was a problem within the internal ships systems to cause the comms to go down, the chief engineer would have informed her of it. The planetary team had no way of knowing that their home ship was gone, and the Excalibur had no way of knowing the condition of the ground team. So … was this a wild goose distress rescue chase, or a well conceived plan to lure the big ship and her remaining crew away from the Black Marsh? Was the landing party as well being intentionally cut off? Or was it legitimate? It was a fact that the Gamma system boasted raiders, pirates and many other reprobates of that sort of ilk; the Excalibur herself had tangled with the Blood Cult Raiders. The brown furred panther Exec kept mentally rationalizing her command decision over and over; the planetary team still had the transport shuttle that they had launched in on the planet’s surface – if they needed to get off the rock quickly, then they did have a transport craft. Commander Ramson’s fighter patrols were still in orbital vectors about the planetary vector grid, patrolling as well as monitoring the defensive sensor buoys that the flight teams had placed. There would be an additional pick up shuttle on standby as well, per the patrol orders. So … why did Left Ear feel very much like a loner despite being surrounded by bridge personnel going about their duties? This was another thing the Instructors never told you, at least out right, in the command classes - as a ships commander, you were part of the crew but still alone, separated by an invisible line of command decisions and responsibilities. It was JoNs, not the crew, who would take any heat or fallout from leaving the landing party behind, legitimate distress call or not. That was one of the sacrifices you accepted if you desired to be the first or second in command of a starship, and it wasn’t necessarily fair, just the way that things were done. And somewhere, the Joker that popped up occasionally to haunt a commander was laughing at the way the situation would play itself out regardless. Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.

12.01.08 USS Excalibur NCC-2004 C “Wasp!” Commander Left Ear JoNs, Executive Officer of the Excalibur. Left Ear JoNs, Commander. Executive Officer JoNs of the USS Excalibur. The name, rank, and title had a nice ring to it. The command red uniform tunic was a nice contrast to the feline commander’s rich brown fur. At five foot five inches tall, JoNs wasn’t exactly on the tall side, but with the panther like features and muscular build, it could be said that Left Ear cut a formidable figure and bearing. Generally, when she gave an order, the crew carried out the instructions with no argument. She had come up through the ranks, gone through command level training courses, and was generally a by the book, serious, and straight arrow officer. Most of the time, the Caitian Ex Oh was unflappable and the outward appearance of a command level officer just fell into place. But, an outward appearance could be deceiving, and the old human adage to never judge a book by its cover was very appropriate right now. JoNs was trying not to curl up into a fuzzy ball and babble or yowl incoherently with her displeasure. The landing party had made planetary touch down. Captain Corizon had accompanied the Miriamano team to the surface, JoNs had been left in command of the Excalibur, and the bridge operations were all running smoothly. Nothing had blown up within the last few minutes. The Caitian senior officer had been rather content to let the big ship hang out in orbit of the planet while she sat and looked all feline content and pretty in the big chair. Then, she had started reading through the departmental update reports. Apparently, the engineering staff was moving forward quite quickly with the “spider mole” technological counter measure idea. Left Ear continued scrolling through the data padd she held in a strong and wide paw, perusing the information contained there with a critical eye and trying not to cower in fear or something. Wasps. According to the preliminary tech specs and the description of the counter device function, the grease monkeys planned to construct and employ …. small mechanical wasps to prevent any sort of future technological breach (Cult Spider Mole or otherwise) to the ship . The little bastards. Wait. The wasps. Not the Excalibur engineering staff … Thirteen years previously Starfleet Academy Annexed Grounds San Pablo Ranch, Old California Preliminary Survival Training Class “This is so stupid.” MVess JoNs glanced at the speaker, a pretty white haired Andorian cadet, and offered a commiserating purr to her. “Hey, we don’t pick our first semester classes; required core curriculum, so what’re you going to do?” The brown furred Caitian shrugged and turned her attention back to the instructor blathering on and on at the head of the group. MVess, the Andorian, and about eight other cadets from her freshman class had been shuttled from the main Academy grounds onto the San Pablo ranch for this portion of the class training work. The land was flat and open, and comprised the grassland and plains portion of the preliminary survival training that the academy offered. The San Pablo Ranch had been in operation for about four hundred years, and a portion of the lands had been donated to the Fleet Academy about one hundred years previously for training and teaching purposes. Personally, JoNs was bored out of her ever loving skull, considering she had grown up on the grasslands of Cait and was well aware of what it would take to survive if one where to ever get stranded on an open land area such as this. She had gone camping and on more then enough overnight hikes to be more then over qualified for the class. Oh who was she kidding – she and her brothers could probably teach the class better then the instructor. “… okay Cadets, the land is pretty basic here: flat landscape, grass, scrub oak, the occasional tree. What you need to watch out for is any non indigenous species that may have been introduced within the area over the years, therefore changing up the eco system of what appears to be a cut and dry geological area ...” MVess’s ears perked forward at that point. Non-indigenous? “…such as the Black Winged Prairie Wasp, which can be dangerous if provoked.” Oh-kay. That doesn’t sound very … friendly. The instructor, a dark skinned male lieutenant on a medical leave teaching assignment by the name of Brodie, pointed a finger toward a small tree about twenty paces away. “The current remaining wasps - numbering about two hundred or so now - are all that remains of a failed genetic experiment in the early 2000’s to cut down on an insect problem that had been infecting the surrounding ranch and vacation haciendas. Long story short, a common wasp genetic was bred with the common honey bee, a few DNA strands tweaked here and there, and the Black Wing was born.” A murmuring trolled through the gathered group of cadets as tenuous glances were winged towards the tree; the aforementioned wasps could be seen skimming through the air around the tree. “The bloodline, so to speak, of the Black Wing has continued to degrade over these decades. Every fifteen years or so, a new batch of the now highly aggressive wasps appears, but about half of their numbers are sterile, so the reproductive cycle just keeps dwindling. Eventually, the genetic line will die off, and there are no plans to resurrect the Earth species considering they were created in the first place.” “So why in the name of the Great Predator Bird are we standing a bit close to the um, wasp inhabited tree with the nasty and aggressive wasps, sir?” JoNs’s gentle purred voice carried a bit across the open expanse of the plains area, but her tone was not gentle. It was direct and to the point, or as to the point as a young eighteen year old cadet could be. “I don’t think I like your tone cadet.” “Well, we’ve been through this before sir; doesn’t change the fact that we really should get away from the said non indigenous species … right?” “Cadet JoNs, I assure you that … ack!” And there we go – one of the Black Wings buzzed the Lieutenant. Left Ear swore she heard about a hundred buzzing little voices scream: “ATTACK! INTRUDERS TO THE HIVE! BOO YA YA YA YA!” Present Day USS Excalibur Command Bridge Yeah, Left Ear was still traumatized to this day over that incident and generally disliked any wasp, bee, or any sort of flying insect with a stinger. Gods forbid that she ever serve on a Fleet ship named after a wasp species or something. She knew there was a Norway class fleet ship tooling about the quadrants that sported the name of the USS Yellow Jacket; there was no way in Hades that the Caitian would ever serve on that vessel. JoNs recalled that the next two minutes of that fragging field trip had been just this side of bedlam. The black winged wasps swarmed, defending their tree hive. Minor stings and injuries had been sustained, but the cadet group finally piled and or dove into the transport shuttle that had been parked a short distance away. The feline had been lucky; her fur had protected her from a majority of the little stingers. The instructor was eventually reprimanded (citing general lack of judgment). So, that case had involved a failed and dying genetic experiment and overall JoNs and the other cadets had learned a valuable lesson about the more aggressive insect that could inhabit – or made to inhabit – a planetary area. And this current engineering case involved building a small wasp-like countermeasure device to guard against any further Blood Cult mechanical “spiders” that crawled aboard to mess with any internal ships equipment, and introducing them to the environment of the Excalibur. Granted, the little so and so’s might consider the Excalibur their hive environment once they were programmed. Or whatever … can you program a cyber wasp? Okay, now the Caitian commander was getting a headache. Note to self: pay a little visit to engineering and do some follow up investigating. If the wasps so much as twitched the wrong way, or attempted a coup to take over the ship, or spazzed out and went all cyber zombie hoo rah wasp, JoNs was going to seriously bust some grease monkey rear ends. Little bastards. … she meant the tech wasp project, not the engineers.

11.09.08 Excalibur Mission Update: MISSION BRIEF: We're under siege by the Cult with intruders on three decks, engineering, on their way to sickbay, and on deck five. In space the battle rages. TBS: Two Days, long enough to arrive at Miriamano - Engineering, Medical, the Bridge Crew, SEC and Marine patrols, and the Fighter Wing were all called to action to deal with the external and internal threats posed by the Blood Cult. - The Blood Cult boarders were repelled, most are dead, a few are taken prisoner. - Casualties include: Dr. Patterson and her unborn child, Ensign Laural, Security Officer Dougt, SCPO Farrell, and numerous others. - The 310th Fighter Wing was successful in routing the Cult Raider craft on the external side of the battle as well. - After a flip remark regarding canine based humor made by the XO on the bridge, Commander JoNs discovered the hard way that Captain Corizon definitely does not play favorites. - The Excalibur will now continue her flight to the Miriamano Homeworld and the storage archives maintained on the world.

MISSION BRIEF: We're under siege by the Cult with intruders on three decks, engineering, on their way to sickbay, and on deck five. In space the battle rages. 081109_Excal_Chat_Log.txt

10.19.08 Excalibur Mission Update: TBS: One Day of Shoreleave (the next sim picks right after this) - It was business on the bridge as usual; communications to and from the Satarimi home world were fielded as the Excal closed in on the planet. - Commander Admiran was mildly annoyed once the official orders came down about provisional engineering Ensign Asyle assigned to his department. Lieutenant Garrison functioned as Asyles escort guard. Lieutenant Victria of Security had a heart to heart talk with fellow officer Dougt about his recent performance. - Doctor Patterson deals with the emotional scare of being pregnant; Doctors Maria and Alexander Zier attempt to bottle the situation. - The Satarimi government representative seemed pleased with the Excalibur crews overall performance during the Boganary affair; we passed the Crownstone test so to speak even though we have no stone. - Per the Captain, at the start of the next sim, we will have the coordinates to the Mirimano homeworld. - For those that do not recall: There is a storage archive maintained by the Mirimano, and Satarimi information is stored here; this information could be crucial to the mission to locate the missing Founders. The Mirimano will only allow access to the storage archive when and if the Excalibur crew proves their worth – and the crew has by rescuing the baby at the risk of all else.

EDIT: the correct scientific designation of the plasma flare section is the Laarell Nebula, or The Thicket, depending on who you talk too. The Laarell Nebula. Has a nice ring to it.