Finally something was happening that would take the Baron's attention off the slipped schedule and possibly provide them a chance to actually use the weapons their ship bristled with.

"Sublieutenant Hrolf, ping that bogey with an active scan. Let them know we know they're there.

Lieutenant Commander Dinsha, wake your crews up and start preparing a firing solution. No need to bother with a warning shot, if they're not listening and they're not paying attention then that is on them.

Sublieutenant Yune, would you do the honors of opening up a channel with the incoming ship."

The Baron-Captain steepled his fingers and leaned forward in a thoughtful posture with a bit of eagerness in his eyes. Nothing demonstrated the power of the Imperium like turning another ship into a cloud of expanding debris.

Hrolf nodded.  "Pulse bogey with active scan aye sir,"  He fiddled with his console and then turned to the cluster of sensor operators huddled on the port side of the bridge.  "Petty Officer Jek, I've transmitted target cueing data although I'm sure you already have a target solution from the passive scan.  Go active and with the sensors for a scan and query them directly with an IFF pulse, let them know we are here."

The individual in question sat up and nodded as well.  She was a dark skinned woman of Solomani descent whose uniform showed the three chevrons of a first class petty officer.  "Roger that Lieutenant, we're on it." Even as she spoke her hands were flying over the holographic console and a sudden cascade of information came through the sensors as the active scanning took effect.  "Target locked and solution passed to fire control sir." All of this took no more than a few seconds as the well trained crew did their duties with skill and alacrity.

"Yes sir, Captain" Jacqueline replied automatically, and attempted to open a channel with the other ship. She fidgeted a little uncomfortably; the Captain's reaction was rather unnecessarily aggressive. There really shouldn't be anything out here that could threaten a heavy cruiser. But it wasn't her place to question orders.

     Leaning down to look over the shoulder of one of the two Ratings currently manning the Flight Traffic Control screens, back in the Command Bridge, Ishakhi frowns and mumbles to himself...

     "What the frack...?"

     Straightening back up, Ishakhi lightly touches the tech on his shoulder,

     "Isaacson, get me some kind of ID on just what that farging thing is!  Macocoa," Ishakhi says to the woman Traffic Control Tech sitting next to Isaacson, "I don't like the look of that fools vector.  Run the numbers and confirm if he's got enough time and room to slow down to docking speed, before he gets here--or if he's gonna plaster himself all over the Captain's shiny new paint job.  And...what Boat is that?  Number Three?  It looks like they're going to come close to the flightpath of this thing...Okay, order Boat Three to kill all forward motion, and hold station right there, until further notice."

     Ishakhi steps a little to the side of Isaacson, and presses a couple of buttons on the control console, opening the standard Traffic Control channel in use in this region, then taps the micro-headset in his right ear,

     "Calling small craft approaching Imperial Cruiser our vector Two-Seven-Three Mark One-Nine-Two.  Repeat.  This is Imperial Navy Cruiser Shasharna calling craft on our approach vector Two-Seven-Three Mark One-Nine-Two.  Identify yourself immediately, your Transponder is not broadcasting.  Repeating.  Identify yourself, your Transponder is not broadcasting."

     "You are ordered to activate your transponder, change course to port, on your vector Three-Five-Zero Mark Zero-Nine-Nine and shut down your engines.  Repeat.  Unknown Craft, you must activate your transponder, come about to your vector Three-Five-Zero Mark Zero-Nine-Nine and shut down your engines."

     "If you do not comply immediately you will be..." Ishakhi glances aside, at a repeater screen on the other side of the Command Bridge, "Correction.  You are being targeted!  Comply immediately, or you will be fired upon.  Comply immediately!"

     Ishakhi reaches out and switches to the Bridge comm channel,

     "Bridge, this is Space Traffic Control.  Approaching Bogey has been ordered to Identify, as well as to alter course and shut down engines.  It's a small sensor reading, Bridge, but it's big enough to be an Improvised Space Weapon, or even a Capital Missile running silent.  Approaching from that vector, recommend you open fire and destroy at one-hundred kilometers, if Bogey does not comply with orders, by then.  Space Traffic Control, over to you."

The situation goes from routine to interesting on short notice, prompting much scrambling on the bridge and other command stations to assess and deal with the unknown contact.

The initial sensor sweep determines that it appears to be a mid-mass spaceship, around four hundred dtons, still some distance away and coasting on a flight path that will eventually bring it into orbit around Mtensc, albeit only after passing very close by the Sharshana and Shuuursima Ki.

Despite coasting into orbit rather than coming in under thrust and decelerating for a landing, it does appear to have power. There's no sign of active weapons or active sensors, but there's also no sign of an active transponder - it doesn't even respond to the Sharshana's override codes, suggesting that the transponder has been completely disabled - and attempts to open communications are likewise met with... nothing.

The vectors and especially the fact that the Sharshana is docked makes it difficult for gunnery to line up a good shot at the thing with its beams, but its missile batteries should easily be able to arc a salvo toward it if necessary.

In reply to Gvoellaekh (msg # 53):

     A thought occurs to Ishakhi, as he's watching the screens,

     "Macocoa...is that Bogey headed for us, or is it going to miss?" Ishakhi quietly asks the woman sitting at the controls, "And if it isn't coming right at us, just where is it headed?  Get me an answer, ASAP."

     Ishakhi double taps his micro-headset,

     "Space Traffic Control to Hangar Control, Kimpasherki speaking.  Prepare to scramble the Ready Boats--tell the Flight Crews to buckle up.  Also, standby to ready the Marine Launch for flight.  Over to you."

OOC: GM, you want I should make one'a them DUI or DEI or DCI rolls for my people, or what?

The Baron keyed down to the hangar bay.

"Lieutenant Kimpasherki, prepare a marine launch for immediate departure."

He turned to address his XO sitting nearby.

"Commander have our marines prepare a boarding action. If this is a smuggling ship with bad luck or a freighter in need of assistance they'll get to the bottom of it. And if it is an attack hopefully they can neutralize the threat before we have to resort to our missiles."

While he delivered the commands in a clear tone there was a slight hesitation as he punched up the orders. If the ship was indeed a giant explosive it was entirely possible he was sending their only unit of marines to a gruesome and fiery death.

The Baron-Captain gave a shrug after a few seconds pause and punched in the order. At least theirs would be a quick death and one in service to the Imperium and its citizens.

In reply to Baron Thenroy Reziilka (msg # 55):

     Ishakhi winced at the Captain's command, also thinking that the Marines were being sent blindly into a potentially dangerous situation...but, Orders were Orders.

     Or, were they...?

     Ishakhi keyed his headset comm,

     "Aye, Captain.  Small Craft Operations initiating mission, now."

     Switching comm-channels to Hangar Bay Control,

     "Flight Control to Hangar Control. Scramble the Ready Boat.  Repeat.  Scramble Ready Boat. Mission is to proceed towards Bogey-One for reconnaissance.  Boat to perform close visual inspection of Bogey-One, in preparation for Marine Boarding Action.  If fired upon, or observe any preparation for hostile activity by Bogey-One, report hostility immediately and return to Ship."

     "Launch Ready Boat immediately.  Over to you."

     Again switching comm-channels, this time to the Marine Commander,

     "Small Craft Operations to Marine Command.  We have a GO for Boarding Action against unknown vessel, designation Bogey-One.  Repeat.  We have a GO for Boarding Action against unknown vessel, designation Bogey-One.  Unknown if Bogey-One is hostile or requires assistance.  Be ready for anything, and proceed with caution."

     "Marine Launch is already being prepped, and will be ready for launch by the time your Marines are aboard.  Ship's Boat Five is already enroute for recon.  Marine Launch should contact Boat Five on tactical channel seventeen, after launch.  Over to you."

Several tense minutes pass as a launch with a squad of the ship's marines aboard departs and heads for the unresponsive ship on an intercept course; vector-matching being more challenging than a simple fly-by, the ship's boat that's preceding it will get a look well before it does.

There's still no response from the incoming ship in the meantime, nor does the sensor sweep pick up anything out of the ordinary. The partial densitometer reading suggests that the mass distribution is more or less as-expected for a small merchant vessel; the profile suggests a fat trader, and its energy signatures are more or less normal save for the literal radio silence.



As the boat's path begins to cross that of the ship, the pilot reports in. "Sharshana, we have the target on visual." There is a pause, lasting perhaps ten seconds at most, but undoubtedly feeling far longer.

Then the pilot speaks again, sounding ever so slightly puzzled, or at least uncertain. "It... appears to be a naval decoy drone, sir."

Captain Reziilka cocked his head to the side in confusion, acting as if he had misheard what the marines had reported or it just hadn't processed yet.

"Pilot, confirm if it is showing proper naval registration. I need to know if this is some game the Admirals are playing or if this is a prelude to some other attack. See if you can interface with it and bring it on board. We can have the tech teams find out where it came from and what it's doing here.

In the meantime I want a full sensor sweep starting with the sector of space opposite the direction of the drone and focusing on the star port and any nearby jump points. If this isn't a test then someone wanted all of our attention focused on this sector of space for a reason."

Orders flowed out from Reziilka like water and he soon had every station jumping to figure out what was happening.

<orange>OOC: Translation, the captain is giving you a blank check so if there is a check you want to make go right ahead.</orange.

Rolf shook his head when it was reported that the ship was a decoy.  Without word from the captain Hrolf turned to the sensor operators.  "Full scan immediate area, spaceport and Jump limit.  Then I want a focused sweep back down the path of the drone.  Also bring up the entire sensor trace on the drone to see if we can backtrack it that way."

While the sensor operators got to work Hrolf pulled up the common command codes for drones of this type and began to work to get into the command protocols to see if he could take over.

Jacqueline looked a little embarrassed when the contact turned out to be a drone. She had been worried, but it was all for nothing. She started trying to see if she could trace the drone's possible trajectory back towards its source. "Who has access to naval decoys besides us?" she wondered aloud.

In reply to Jacqueline Yune (msg # 60):

     Ishakhi quickly steps from one screen to another, in the part of the Command Bridge that his department is using for Space Traffic Control.  At each display he checks, and double checks the readings that are duplicates of what the Main Bridge is getting.

     After a few moments, Ishakhi stops, straightens up, and taps his micro-headset, opening a channel to the Main Bridge.

     "CAPT...! *ahem* Captain," Ishakhi begins excitedly, but quickly gains control of himself, "This is Space Traffic Control."

     "We're getting a visual feed from our Boat now, Sir, and can confirm that Bogey-One is what looks to be a standard Imperial Navy Decoy Drone.  But Sir...we can visually see that it's a Drone, but all our other sensors are still telling us it's a comm-dead Fat Trader."

     "Uh...doesn't that mean that, right now, the Decoy Drone is actively spoofing our sensors?  Sir?"

System traffic (such as it is) has remained more or less normal throughout the event. No one else is inclined to fly in close, and if anyone is behaving suspiciously, they're doing so in a thoroughly non-suspicious fashion.

Astrogation traces the likely flight path back to the jump limit...

If it originated from somewhere near the jump limit, it probably wasn't far off from where the Shuuursima Ki arrived, and at the speed it was coasting, it most likely started moving about then too.

Hrolf did the math on the course of the decoy drone. "Captain, the only other Imperial Navy ship in the system is the Shuuursima Ki and this is an IN drone.  The course would indicate that it could have been launched from the Shuuursima Ki when she jump in."

In reply to Gvoellaekh (msg # 62):

     As Ishakhi watched, a number on one of the displays fluttered, then changed value.

     Frowning, Ishakhi opened a channel to Boat Five,

     "Space Traffic Control to Boat Five.  Run a radar sweep of Bogey-One again, please.  Repeat.  Run another radar sweep of Bogey-One." Ishakhi asked.

     "Radar sweep Bogey-One.  Affirmative." Boat Five responded--and just a few seconds later, data streamed in.

     The results of the computer's analysis made his frown deepen.

     ~~Captain Killjoy is going to have me eviscerated!  Publicly!~~ Ishakhi thought to himself, as he reopened the channel to the Bridge.

     "Space Traffic Control to Bridge.  Ah...Captain, we...just got a...sensor update, from the...from Boat Five.  And...the Computer...the Computer is now giving a ninety-percent certainty that Bogey-One is a...that it is a...a standard Imperial Naval Target Drone."

     "It's...uh...it's completely harmless, Sir.  In fact, the Computer is reclassifying it as...as a space navigation hazard, now...Sir.  Computer recommends we either destroy it, or tow it out of the orbital approach lanes."

     "Sooo...I recommend we stand down the Marines--oh!--unless you'd like to take this opportunity to let the Marines practice a boarding action?  Before we blast that drone out of existence?"

The Baron went back to his chair and slumped down. It seemed more and more likely this was just a training exercise and not a chance to display the glory of the Imperium by reducing some poor sod to slowly glowing slag.

"Bridge to Lieutenant Kimpasherki. If possible retrieve the drone otherwise issue the recall order."

He switched back to their channel with the Shuuursima Ki that had remained open in case an emergency order needed to be given during the resupply.

"Commander Killorn, is there a reason your ship launched a targeting drone and set it on an intercept course during a resupply? I'm assuming you did so under orders but I would like to see who authorized such an exercise. I would hope the Admiraltiy has more confidence in us than to waste time on a trick that likely wouldn't even fool a junior officer."

"Correct, Captain. To test readiness and response." Commander Killorn didn't sound the least bit surprised or the least bit troubled by Thenroy's words. "Our orders came from Admiral Sardusa at Saguenay. They include this exercise and a delivery to the Nouakchat scout base in a couple of months. Nothing else in Gulf-Central and no drones at Nouakchat."


In response to Thenroy's request, Gvoellaekh reports that, "Admiral Sardusa, Vilani female, age 62, is one of several who oversee the logistics chain in the spinward side of Gulf and the trailing edge of Trin's Veil. Not known to have any political allegiances (or unprofessional attitudes) that would encourage sabotaging the Sharshana's shakedown cruise. Saguenay's proximity to Trin is unlikely to be a factor since there are good relations between the two Dukes."

"It's possible that the idea for a drone test originated with someone else and the admiral simply signed off on it as part of the orders since it was within reason, but there's no way to determine that without contacting Saguenay naval base, if not the admiral herself."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:00, Wed 14 Oct 2020.

Jacqueline pulled up one of her tablets and buried herself in her work, hoping it would keep the others from seeing how mortified she looked. What she thought was a serious incident was just a standard training exercise; she felt like a fool. "I, I just hope we reacted well enough."

Captain Thenroy gave a nod at his XO as he reported what they knew. It seemed likely this was just another training exercise and not deliberate sabotage. Still he would be much happier when they reached their patrol zone and were done with these little tests.

"Confirmed Commander Killorn. Let me know if you require any additional information when filing your report. Reziilka out."

With an irritated flick he shut the comms down and scowled at the panel as if he could stare daggers through it to Killorn across the vastness of space.

"Let's be done with this place. Tell the cargo crews to finish the transfer as quickly as possible. Once we have the fuel necessary for a jump we will leave. The Imperium needs us to patrol and we have already been delayed for too long on silly matters."

It wasn't quite clear who he was speaking to. Perhaps he was just speaking to himself or possibly to Gvoellaekh next to him. His mood was clearly foul in either case. Thenroy did not react to his competency being questioned with "surprise tests" well, especially when he had considered expending ammunition or even performing an emergency decoupling that would have endangered his ship and crew. All for the sake of a test straight out of the academy...

Hrolf sighed in agreement with the captain.  "Lt. Yune, let's get the course and Jump vector plotted in advance so that we can depart as quickly as possible."

Jacqueline nodded and started tapping out a route. Jacqueline usually experimented with routes at most time and had many options prepared, but she was a little behind after the excitement over the decoy drone. "Um, understood, I'm on it Lieutenant Standarsson."

The Sharshana, now more than fully restocked, is made ready for departure. Some crew need to be fetched from planetside; even as the planetary survey data is finalized and sent to the research team down on the surface, routine information-sharing with the Shuuursima Ki has given the intelligence staff fresh work to do.

It has been determined that Beaxon shall be the first world visited on the patrol schedule. A troubled place by all accounts, and nothing that you've learned during Mtensc operations has contradicted that assessment.

You'll have a week in jump to prepare for whatever situation awaits you there...

In reply to Gvoellaekh (msg # 71):

OOC: some intelligence concerning Beaxon was passed to Ishakhi--who then passed it on to our Intelligence Officer--who then just...passed.
     But the effort was made to pass on the data...

The Intelligence Event roll was increased accordingly... and there may be other consequences!