Operation OMAHA Part II

Posted on Mon Oct 14th, 2019 @ 8:52pm by Chief Petty Officer Leslie Calhoun & Petty Officer 1st Class Tobias Beckett & Gunnery Sergeant Flarn & Gunnery Sergeant Gaagii & Staff Sergeant Shayla Kunadt & Staff Warrant Officer Jennifer Masters - Calhoun & Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna & Major Cornelius Tremble & Sergeant Miranda Schultz & Sergeant Azure Thompson & Corporal Rairror Thoran & Corporal Adélaïde Moreau
Edited on on Tue Oct 15th, 2019 @ 12:58am

2,431 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 8 - The Silence
Location: Over Wren IX
Timeline: MD004 1145 hrs

Previously, on Operation OMAHA Part I
"This is Lead. Fragments from the belt are getting smaller and thicker where I'm at," Neil reported, "Watch your pace and you are authorized to go weapon's hot to clear your path as needed. That being said, don't get too excited with it. Lead out."

Then he turned to the signal his detectors were picking up and he was surprised to find it wasn't the SAR target's beacon. It was something all together different.

Something Cardassian...which was odd.
And Now, The Continuation...

Flarn had been taking random shots at debris only paying half attention and enjoying the explosions, when the extraordinary caught his attention. On one of the detonations his suit registered the impact with tritanium. That alloy is usually only found in starship hulls. the Tellarite thought. He ignited the suits thrusters and maneuvered toward the impact. As a safety precaution and because he was alone in the area Flarn amped his transceiver up. He wanted to be found in the event something happened.

As he got closer to the metallic piece what originally had seemed like a fragment began to take full shape. It was a lot more than a fragment, it was more like a chunk. The metal slab was oblong in shape and a dull gray in color. As it spun in space Flarn reached his gloved hand out to turn it toward him. The Tellarite who never blushed and was rarely taken off guard actually blanched pale and breathed in sharply. There on the metal right next to his phaser blast was a symbol he had not seen in sometime, but one he recognized. The symbol of the dominion.

Shayla Kunadt would have rather been in the pilot's seat of any craft at the moment. However, she was enjoying herself. She thought that perhaps it was simply a good idea to stretch a Marine's legs once in a while. She had simply been enjoying the flight. Moving in and out of the rock and crystal. She would hate to admit it but it felt more freeing and yet more in control flying like this. As she executed a hard turn something caught the corner of her eye. She turned back to face it and used the suit's enhanced view-screen to see what it was. Her mouth fell open in shock, it was an escape pod. It appeared to be Cardassian in design and was still active. She move in to investigate and found the pod to be active with no one inside and it had little to no damage. She opened a comm channel. "Hey gang I got something here El T you may want to converge on my location."

Miranda watched the dots indicating her team as they maneuvered through the debris field and listened to the chatter on the comms. Was this an old battle site? She moved closer, navigating a path in the direction of the others while she scanned chunks of debris and rock. In the background, the SAR signal pinged, letting her know which way to go. As she got closer, she became aware of an odd echo. She made note of it and sent a text message to the lead as it wasn't worth cluttering the comms over what was most likely a glitch with the unit.

Neil chinned a switch and winked at the optical pickup and real time views from his units helmet cams began clicking through like an old fashioned slide show. He noted Flarn's run in with the Dominion logo and Shayla's pod find. "I hear you Red five," he said into his open mic, using the lance corporal's call sign. "Red two, I see that bit of wreckage as well," he communicated to Flarn. "I'm also picking up a stray bit of old Cardassian code....stand by."

Neil gave it a beat then called onto the open channel, "All Omaha elements, we're picking up what may be signs of wreckage and a stray Cardassian signal. For now, we'll continue with the Op, but keep your eyes peeled for wreckage." His SIG-INT suite picked up a weak, but definitive tone from the SAR. Within heartbeats, five other confirmation's came in from the Cure and he stared, then squinted into the suit's feed, updating the tac plan.

"Ok, we're also triangulating in on that SAR signal. Looks like the two signals converge..."

After a few more beats, Neil muted the tac channel and switched over to the Hawkeye's, "Hawkeye, Hawkeye, this is Red Lead. We're picking up a strange Cardassian signal along with some other things. This is not a part of the SAR, but...something odd happened here.

Jayna hesitated for a fraction of a second. "This is Hawkeye, Red Lead. Confirm the message is Cardassian, but it's too garbled to understand." She glanced at Jenn and continued. "We'd like to get closer and investigate."

Billy and Tobias had been working the algorithms on the Cardassian decryption. Billy was concentrating on the task at hand but could not help but overhear what was on the comm channel. "It is confirmed the message we have here is Cardassian in origin as well. We have gotten as far as learning that this style of encryption was used by the Dominion. This message is definitely from the war. We can also confirm that it was never received. We are working on getting the actual message. My suggestion is to tell Red Lead to continue with extreme caution. We are in the middle of something that was from the war. In my experience something like this will either go very well for us or literally blow up in our faces. There is no middle ground here." Billy and Tobias both turned to face the Warrant Officers. However, it was Billy who spoke with an intensity in his eyes. It also seemed that Tobias' demeanor had changed. He was less wishy washy and more present in the moment.

Jenn understood this was an important piece they found. But they couldn't loose it now. And this was a dangerous place. "Captain Tremble, what distance would you recommend us to go to as the safest and closest distance." She would humor Jayna's curiosity to going closer, but she didn't want to go in to unknown territory and putting them at risk. Normally she would do anything for intell. But it wouldn't be worth to risk their lives for it.

Jayna understood the need for caution. She also felt a driving need to find out what message this was, and where it came from. She wanted answers. She hoped they'd get close enough to find them.
* * * *
Miranda continued to monitor the SAR and Cardassian signals, but now that she'd passed the information on, until she had orders to the contrary, she'd focus on something else. She began to scan the debris, cataloging what she could. It might be good if they could identify some of the ships that fought here. And to honor those who died. She scanned for parts she could identify, and for any that had markings.

Shayla maintained her position and cocked her head as she floated. The escape pod simply floated as well. She could see the the console lights were on. That was definitely online. "Red Leader this is Red Five. Request permission to investigate unknown escape pod. My suit's data recorders are active, you should be able to see what I do. This is uncanny. I have confirmed the pod is active, however, scans reveal no signs of life. Please advise."
* * * *
Flarn's mind wandered as he stared at that Dominion insignia. Flarn was one of the few members of the cure had actually been through the war. The sight of the small piece of wreckage had flooded the Tellarite's mind with memories that he had thought were long forgotten. Among them was a rumor he had heard, one that was never confirmed and this seemed to fit the story. "Red Leader this is Red Two recommend all OMAHA elements converge and regroup. There is something happening here and what it is isn't exactly clear."
* * * *
Listening to all that was being said on the comms had brought Gaagii back to the here and now. When he departed the Hawkeye he had set up his suit for the operation and training. He began to boot up the live fire sequence. If things went south he wanted to be ready. The HUD in his helmet converted to a small cross-hairs that settled over his eye. He smirked if the order was given the Raven would be ready.

Most of the debris was from a battle about 22 years ago. But oddly enough, Miranda was picking up debris that was more recent. Since Red Lead said they might have to blow up some debris, she practiced scoping but not shooting various chunks to see how quickly the suit responded as she maneuvered closer to a more recent wreck.

Neil brought himself up into a hover, setting the proximity alarm on the suit to 10 meters. That's when he saw a tumbling, battered nacelle that his sensors locked onto and immediately identified as Federation.

The Marine let everything set in for a few beats, then began updating his HUD and his eye drifted over the screen adding waypoints for the Cure and Hawkeye before he chinned the comm suite and began speaking. "All Cure. SAR signal and the Cardassian signal is localizing and we're funneling toward it. As you see wreckage, tag large pieces of it so we can track the debris field."

"On that note," he continued, "I have just found what looks to be Federation wreckage as well so definitely report that. Red Five, leave the pod as is but see if there's any type of computer core then tag it and move on."

Neil uploaded the updated HUD to all elements and changed channels. "Red Three, keep it frosty but reconfigure your CnC suite to monitor a higher threat level and watch for anything that starts to look like a threat."

The Marine CO then changed channels again and said, "Hawkeye. I've updated a path for you that should get you into the debris field if you want. Set the ship's phasers to point defense, go easy and you should be able to vector in."

Jayna turned to Masters. She wanted to go in and see what was there. "Please?" she asked the Chief.

Jenn didn't look back and just started up the engines and replied to Neil, "Acknowledged, team leader, going in now. Keep us updated." She then turned to Jayna. "Way ahead of you, Jayna. I share the same curiosity and enthusiasm as you do." She smiled as she followed the path Neil had put in for her. "Now, put phasers in defense as the Marine Captain suggested." She simply ordered calmly.

Jayna grinned and did as she was asked. It had been such a long time since the Dominion War, but seeing all this brought back a lot of memories.

Neil smirked to himself as he saw the Hawkeye's icon began to move on his HUD. He really hadn't thought they would bow out. He just hoped what they said about curiosity and cats didn't hold true with Intel snoops. The marine chinned his mike and said, "Roger that Hawkeye, we'll keep an eye on you."

Shayla made her way to the pod and looked without touching. She knew that some of these Cardassian pods had security measures that prevented tampering. From a cursory glance she saw that the pod was launched from a Galor Class warship. Upon an in depth look she saw that the computer core was active and in tact. As ordered she tagged it and begrudgingly left. She wanted to explore the pod further, but, the Cap was right something odd was occurring here.

Gaagii's smirk broadened into a smile when the order from Tremble came. "Sir yes sir! The Crow takes flight..." He set the threat level higher and saw his HUD acknowledge the change. He then engaged a perimeter search pattern that would allow him to back up any of The Cure a moment's notice. This is what the Navajo did best.

Flarn made his way to the Captain's location. He had to tell Tremble the legend of the battle that never happened...

Miranda made the changes to her suit, adjusting the sensors and weapons. She felt the familiar heightened awareness that came with situations like this. She began to breathe in and out more slowly, counting two seconds for each, so that she wouldn't lose her situational awareness. As she identified large pieces of debris, she tagged them so they could be tracked.

Neil reviewed everything for a few moments there, then wen through the motions, changing to the secure comms suite and began sending a coded message.
To Be Continued...

A Joint Post By

Captain Cornelius Tremble
Marine Commanding Officer/Second Officer, USS Pioneer