Let It Begin

The Captain took two steps to his left and without turning to face the cadet he said, "If there are no more questions, lets begin. Computer run program Kobayashi Maru Simulation One, and pause."

The room disappeared and was replaced with the bridge of the USS Mars. Bridge officers were frozen mid-stride as they moved to their stations and some sat typing at their consoles. The first officer stood just in front of Captain Vincent and next to him was the big chair.

"As I said earlier, this is your command, the USS Mars," he said. Pointing to the viewscreen he continued, "You are tasked with protecting that medical convoy as it moves to the Chin'toka System. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the bridge and with the officers that are under your command, whose names are listed on the PADD in the captain's chair. When you are ready take your seat and tell the computer to resume the simulation. Good luck. Captain."

"Thank You Sir" She looked at the Padd as she began to stride around the bridge, the Tactical station was what she recognized the most oO thanks dad  for those bridge exercises to familiarize me with a Starship Oo she thought as she silently thanked her father oO Time to show this fleet Officer that Marines are not only just good for the grunt work Oo She thought to herself knowing what the No win scenario was was about, in essence, she was no stranger to loss, but each loss was always different.

Making a full circle around the Akira Class bridge she comes to the Center seat and freezes oO Oh Damn those training exercises dad gave me on a ship did not include the "big" chair Oo She thought to herself as the realization that she was now in command and that while this was a simulation it was to be classed as the real thing, now she took a look around the bridge visually as it hit her these lives depended on her, sighing inwardly she took the seat and sat down, now her training took over and her demeanor changed.

"Computer Resume Simulation" She said and the frozen figures began to move to their stations. "All stations report status?" She asked.

"Alpha shift is fully on duty," reporting the XO. "And we are just under an hour away from the Chin'toka System."

"Scanners are all clear sir," the Tactical Chief reported. "The rest of the mission should be uneventful."

"Engines are working at 100 percent," reporting the Chief Engineer. "All other systems are operating within acceptable limits. We are good to go sir."

The Comms officer reported next, "The medical ships report all systems operating optimally. No other chatter out here sir."

"Hang on sir," Tactical said. "I'm reading something on the scanners; I think it is a message, but it is broken up."

"Aye sir, it is definitely a comm signal," added the Comms officer. "It appears to be a distress signal coming from a location about 20 minutes from us. I can't make out anything but that they are in distress, the signal is too broken up."

She looked at the tactical officer "lets hear it" She ordered.

The tactical officer tapped his console and the message began to play throughout the bridge.

"This is ... attack... help..."

"That is all that I can get," the comm's officer said. "The rest is just static. There may be a jamming field in effect."

She thought a moment, "keep trying to break though that static" She said then spoke in general "sound yellow alert, helm increase speed to warp six for the transport" She said then opened a channel to the lower decks "bridge to marine detachment, prepare for repelling borders"  she announced.

"Aye sir. We'll be ready," came the Marine commander's voice over the comms.

With that done the ship picked up speed "anything on getting past the jamming?" She asked.

"The jamming signal is very strong sir," reported the Comm officer. "I'm not getting anything more than before. We'll need to get closer before I can break through this mess."

"Indeed, increase speed to maximum for the medical ship" She ordered and not too long after the ship dropped from high warp to low impulse. "Scan the area, activate tachyon sensors, tell me what we got" She said and waited for the reports.

"I'm not picking up anything on the surface, but there appears to be an escape pod on the surface of a large asteroid nearby," reported Tactical. "It appears to be Bajoran in origin."

"Captain, if our allies need assistance we should respond," stated the XO. "We should assemble an away team immediately to check the area."

"I concur," added Tactical.

She looked at her XO "agreed Number One assemble an away team and lead it" She said. 

The XO nodded in acknowledgement as he turned towards the turbolift.

As he walked past her, the science officer pulled up her scans of the asteroid and looked intently for a few moments before responding.

"The asteroid has a limited atmosphere, but I would suggest wearing environmental suits," she said, then added "Agreed" She looked to her XO "suit up Commander go find me some answers" She added.

"Yes sir," the XO responded. He then tapped his Commbadge and ordered, "I need a security team to meet me in transporter room one with full environmental suits."

When the turbolift arrived, he stepped in and disappeared from the bridge.

She looked at her sensor officer "is there any debris of the medical ship, if so look for its black box. Science scan for any type of energy signatures weapon or otherwise I want to know what happened to that ship" She said in all seriousness.

"I am picking up some debris 20 kilometers starboard," the science officer reported. "However, the jamming field is still scrambling the sensors. I cannot detect precisely where the field is coming from, but it may be in the debris itself. We should move closer, so that we can find the exact source and deactivate it."

"I agree Captain," said the tactical officer. "We won't know what is out here until we have full scan of the area, and that can't happen with the jamming field in place."

"Locate that jamming field and take it down, helm get into minimum transporter range and be ready for anything" She said.

"Working on it Captain," answered the sensor officer.

A few minutes later, the XO's voice came over the Comms, "We're ready to transport on your order captain."

Activating the two-way link "make it so number one" She said "watch your six Commander."

"Yes sir," the XO replied. "We're going to beam down a few hundred meters from the pod and make a cautious approach. I'll keep you informed of our progress."

"Lieutenant, you located that jamming signal?" She asked the sensor officer.

"I've narrowed the possibilities down," reported the ops officer. "It is on one of the larger pieces in the middle of the debris field. We could either destroy those pieces of debris or target the area with a concentrated tachyon beam."

"Thank you El tee" She said, then remembered something about the Akira class and turning to the tactical officer "Commander did this ship take on a fighter compliment? I know such a ship can carry up to a max of four complete squadrons, depending on the class of fighter assigned to an Akira" She asked.

"No sir, all fighters are currently deployed on the frontlines," reported the tactical officer.

"Dammit, okay keep scanning, whats the status on the Away team?" She asked.

The Bridge Officers had no chance to respond as the Comms beeped as the XO contacted the ship.

"Captain, we are at the escape pod," he reported. "The pod is still sealed up; I'm opening the hatch now." After a few seconds he reported again, "Um, this can't be right. The only thing in the pod is a corpse that has been here for at least a year; there's nothing here but bones. What are your orders?"

*Face Palm* Connecting the link as the small hairs on the back of her neck began to stand erect "Commander Get back here now, Mars out" She said then turned to her bridge Officers "as soon as the away team is on board go to Red Alert" She ordered.

"Aye sir," replied the XO. "Beaming up n..."

The message was interrupted by the sound of an explosion. The asteroid in the corner of the viewscreen  erupted in flame. The entire debris field followed suit; the entire viewscreen glowed with fire as the ship rocked from the blast. The bridge crew was thrown from their stations, some falling to the floor, others grabbing their consoles for stability. The tactical officer swung at his console as he fell, bringing the shields up before the ship was destroyed.

As he regained his footing the tactical officer reported, "Captain, I got the shields up before we suffered catastrophic damage, but we have lost warp capabilities.The explosion destroyed the jammer, but I... I'm not picking up any lifesigns on the asteroid." He paused as he tapped his console, shifting the image on the viewscreen. "I'm detecting three ships dropping out of warp at the asteroid. One Keldon class cruiser and two Galor class."

Picking herself up she acknowledged the Tactical Officers report with a nod and activated her Commbadge "Bridge to Engineering stabilize the warp core and get a team on fixing our warp capabilities" She said.

"I'll do what I can sir, but it's a mess down here," the Chief Engineer replied over comms. "I'll be able to get the core stabilized, but I can't make any promises on getting warp back soon enough. You should find another plan if you can."

After the Engineer signed off she got back into the chair "Status on Impulse and thrusters" She said.

"Thrusters and impluse drive are functioning nearly perfectly," the Ops officer reported.

"As are weapons," the Tactical chief added. "However, our shields are down to 50% after absorbing that blast."

"Scan for any life-signs no matter how faint I want to know if there is anything left of the away team" she added.

The Ops chief went tow work on the sensors, scanning the asteroid fragments one at a time.

"Captain, I've scanned the fragments of the asteroid. I'm not picking up any lifesigns."

The ship rocked as it was hit by a phaser blast from the nearest Galor class; the bridge officers grasped their consoles to stay upright.

"Shields at 47%," reported Tactical. "The cruisers are moving in, but they're too large to make it through the asteroid field without sustaining damage, so they're splitting up and moving around."

She looked around the bridge "attack pattern Omega, come around on their tails and fire at will re-route all available power to shields and transfer all power from non-essential systems, I want as many of those ships out of my space" She said.

"Yes sir," replied the tactical chief.

The Renegade turned to port and moved swiftly towards the lone Galor coming from that direction. The helmsman dove the ship, trying to get around and behind the ship as the tactical officer opened fire. A volley of phaser fire erupted from the Renegade and struck the Cardassian ship. The Galor opened fire simultaneously, scoring one good hit on the Renegade.

"Shields down to 45% Captain," reported Tactical, "and the other ships are now shooting their way through the asteroid field. Time to intercept, five seconds."

The two ships exchanged another volley of fire.

"Shields down to 40%, even with the extra power we're drawing from non-essential systems. Any other tricks in mind?" asked the tactical officer.

"Attack pattern Delta" Alex said and the ship used that attack pattern as the ship dodged and weaved and fired causing some damage the numbers were not in their favour and after all the ship was only an akira class. Alex saw where this was going it was after all a no win scenario "fire all weapons at the lead ship give it our last" She ordered and was gratified to see the ship explode, then the bridge rocked lights flickered and the simulation finished. She looked around somewhat bewildered then to Vincent.

"How did I do?" She asked.