Finders Keepers (Juneau)
| USS Juneau | ||
|---|---|---|
 NPC STATUS VESSEL | ||
| ||
Just hours after the Juneau ends their shore leave to move onto their next mission, they’re called back to Ring 42 to help the USS Grace Hopper, which has been unexpectedly attacked by pirates looking to steal an artifact of unknown properties, then were gone into The Wilds just as fast. The kicker? The pirates mysteriously beamed right through the ship’s shields at will to get it.
Characters
| Senior officers taking part in the mission | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Position | Notes | |
| Oddas Aria | Captain | ||
| Kalia Qinn | First Officer | ||
| John Kendrick | Acting Chief Security and Tactical | Returned after LOA 239903.18 | |
| Dekas | Engineering Officer | ||
| Kettick | Engineering Officer | ||
| Sera | Engineering Officer | ||
| Tomas Falt | Science officer | ||
| Karise Indobri | Chief Medical Officer | ||
| R'Kala | Counselor | ||
| Zaaia Leix | Marine Major | Came aboard 239902.28 | |
| Aratta Eriddu | Science officer | Came aboard 239903.01 | |
| PNPCs & MSNPCs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Position | Notes | |
| Cole Melchor | CO of the USS Grace Hopper | PNPC simmed by Oddas Aria | |
| Isabelle Deveaux | Engineering Officer on USS Juneau | PNPC simmed by Karise Indobri | |
| Nan Hesan | Gunnery Sergeant on USS Juneau | PNPC simmed by Tomas Falt | |
| Gwen Kingsley | Marine Warrant Officer on USS Juneau | PNPC simmed by Oddas Aria | |
| Administrator Pila | Owner of the Scrapyard | NPC simmed by Oddas Aria | |
| Ulysses Conroy | "Pirate" Leader | MSNPC simmed by Kalia Qinn | |
| Shierr | Diplomat & Hostage | MSNPC simmed by Dekas | |
Act 1
Prologue
Captain Oddas receives a distress call from Commander Melchor of the USS Grace Hopper that they've been attacked and incapacitated by pirates in runabout-sized ships who could beam right through the shields. The Artifact they'd been studying is stolen along with a lot of the computer data about it. Captain Oddas has the Juneau warp back to the location to assist.
Damage Control
Commander Qinn puts together a team to help with damage control for the USS Grace Hopper. The team consists of herself and Ensign Sera to help with ship repairs, and Doctor Indobri with Counselor R'Kala to help with the injuries caused by the Pirates to crew members.
Qinn and Sera assess the area, and find a lot of things wrong, and suspiciously well planned for incapacitating the Hopper the way they did. More concerning is the non-Starfleet technology combined in some of the tubing and causing a lot of problems, but without answers as to exactly what problems for certain. They discern the possibility of an inside job, inform Oddas and Melchor on the bridge, and work to remove the technology safely.
Doctor Indobri and Counselor R'Kala find a Hopper crewman with a code red injury and do what they can to stabilize them and get them to Juneau for emergency surgery.
Studying The Artifact
Lieutenant Falt is tasked with figuring out what the stolen artifact does with the help of Ensign Kettick, and Lieutenant JG Deveaux.
Deveaux finds traces of subquantum particles, suggesting sub-quantum transportation. Which, as brought up by Ensign Kettick is a mystery in itself as all known previous attempts at sub-quantum transport of anything other than objects had been a devastating failure. And even objects had a chance for pattern loss, but at a closer range, it could be used as a thieves tool. There's talk of an inside job. The team continues to try and find traces of the artifact to follow that lead.
Following Leads
Captain Oddas and Lieutenant JG Dekas head to the bridge of the Grace Hopper to talk to Commander Melchor and find out who and where the pirates might have headed. They talk to the Intelligence officer on Lightside Station to get reports about recent or not-recent attacks that match the description of what happened to the Hopper anywhere in the Wilds. Upon looking things over, they find two potential matches, an area of where they could possibly be located (which includes two possible planets, and a moon of a nearby gas giant), as well as a scrapyard. They get a similar impression that it may be an inside job. On top of that, the stolen artifact has potentially been activated by the pirates who stole it to their advantage, in conjunction with someone else having helped if that is the case.
In the end they contact a scrapyard in the system, speaking with an Argosian called Administrator Pila, who is being cryptic and short about answers to their questions. But they get his attention by offering things he might want. He sends them a list of rare parts he'd like, all too quickly ending the transmission without another word. And he is most definitely hiding something.
Act 2
Start
Captain Oddas has to exaggerate details to both Juneau and Hopper crews about the severity of The Hopper's issues for the safety of those involved, thus leaving The Hopper at Ring 42, before heading out to the Xunov system to handle the real start of the action.
Distracting the Pirates
Captain Oddas, Ensign Sera, Ensign R'Kala, and Lieutenant JG Deveaux are on the bridge of the Juneau to talk to Administrator Pila at the scrapyard to see if they can parse information out of him by potentially trading, while simultaneously distracting him, and any pirates from noticing the other two shuttles entering their space from two other angles. With excellent timing, Major Zaaia Leix joins the ship to be able to help with this. And a few minutes later, so does the new science officer, Ensign Aratta.
The crew on the bridge look over the list that Administrator Pila wants, and finds mostly easy things. But also verterium cortenide, a substance that is used for upgrading ships, but has historically also been used to create a reflective casing within isolitic weaponry. Something that could tip the power balance of the Wilds, and not in a good way. Captain Oddas tells Aratta and Sera to find a way to render the verterium cortenide inert, and has the rest of the bridge with her as she finally contacts Administrator Pila to speak with him about the things that he wants. With specific help from Counselor R'Kala for her diplomatic abilities.
Aratta and Sera go down to Deck 14 together to find some of the things they need as well as talk out a way to deal with the verterium.
While waiting Major Leix notices life signs not previously noticed heading toward the away team on the moon, and recommends an exfil route just in case. Lieutenant Deveaux gets the schematics of the scrapyard, however outdated. They all talk to consider what they're willing to trade and offer, and come up with some medical equipment among other things.
Sera and Eratta let everyone know they have a way to render the verterium inert with a half-life of a few days before it becomes essentially useless, and that it can be done in the necessary time. Captain Oddas has the two of them come back to the Bridge before contacting Pila again with their offers.
The two ensigns make it back to the bridge.
Not long after there is contact to both teams on the moon to check in. The other teams fill the Captain in. (The team handling the artifact have located it, though are dealing with some CO2 overload, and the team handling the prisoners are figuring out a way in.) Somewhere in the process, Sera realizes that something about the Artifact is connected to a different dimmension.
Ensign Aratta at the science station lets everyone on the bridge know that the planet has a means of getting a lot of something called polysilicate verterium. Presumably a more pure form of what they want from the ship. And it brings into question why they would need the verterium corteride to begin with. And what Pila's role in all of it is, and what his clientele might want out of it.
Pila reaches out once more to confirm that the offered verterium is of high quality, and that he'll send over the information, some of it encrypted until he gets the rest of what's promised. The Captain agrees.
In all the conversations, Ensign Aratta postulates that the pirates might be trying to use ancient technology to harvest the gas giant's atmosphere.
It's about then that Lieutenant John Kendrick returns from his LOA and joins the team on the bridge.
Captain Oddas has Kendrick work with R'Kala, and sends Deveaux, Sera, and Aratta to the shuttlebay, and science labs to prepare to receive the artifact as safely as possible. And as she asks the rest of the bridge crew how the link up of information is coming along, on the screen shows an oncoming vessel. An older Groumal class freighter. Low-range phasers with a range of less than 400,000km, and signs of life aboard it through a whole lot of sensor interference.
The Captain tries to contact the freighter, and it rewards her with a quick burst of audio before stopping abruptly. Followed swiftly by an alarm from the tactical station.
Neutralizing the Artifact
Lieutenant Falt, Lieutenant JG Dekas, and MWO Kingsley are assigned the task of neutralizing and retrieving the stolen artifact, or potentially multiple if there are others previously stolen. They have to do some schmoozing about in disguise to keep this heist from going wrong and being immediately recognized as Starfleeters by pirates or other unsavory sorts.
Before long, they're on their way to the black market on the moon around the system's gas giant. And upon landing their shuttle in the hangar, two Nausicaans claiming to be security show themselves. Dekas gets a bit snarky, and the team has to carefully step away before it can be worse than that. They step into the marketplace, and MWO Kingsley notices a surveillance platform.
While sorting out a way to get past surveillance, they run into a Ferengi trying to make a deal. All very legally, of course. During the course of the conversation, Dekas notices secretive code writing on the wall. He tries to tell the team discreetly, and they get an updated universal translator that can also translate the code on the wall in exchange for Lieutenant Falt's newer version Starfleet tricorder. The language on the wall leads them to a ventilation shaft.
Both Falt and Dekas stay back to keep watch, while Kingsley climbs through the shafts to find the lab. And she does. Inside are two people in lab coats. Falt suggests knocking those people out, but Dekas can only think to do so by means of messing with CO2 levels. Which causes some CO2 poisoning for Kingsley who is in the vents and agrees with the plan. She gets into the lab and gets the door open.
It works almost too easily, save for Kingsley falling unconscious. They're able to get into the lab where they start to vent the CO2 out and help Kingsley regain consciousness. But they realize there were no guards at the door. It's possible they've been found out before they even knew it. But they have found the artifact, and Kingsley has a possible way to get it out.
Falt contacts Lieutenant Deveaux about any information they got about the artifact.
Rescuing the prisoners
Commander Qinn, Ensign Kettick, Doctor Indobri, and Gunnery Sergeant Hesan are assigned the concurrent task of locating and rescuing prisoners, hopefully without the pirates catching on to them, or needing to resort to violence to get the job done. They make it to the moon's surface fairly easily before, similarly to the other team, they run into security Nausicaans telling them they can't bring weapons without specific reasons. Gunny Hesan claims they're body guards, and out intimidates the Nausicaans like a boss.
They carefully check around the market place area and talk about what needs to be done.
Doctor Indobri gets recreational substances to potentially barter with in a place like this.
They check in with the ship and the other team to talk about what they need to do.
The Prison
Pirate leader Ulysses Conroy has Diplomat Shierr and others who work with her taken hostage and held within a pirate prison installation on a planet's moon to prove a point. Shierr's government gives the pirates no direct answers to their ransom negotiations as their point is, in fact, to take care of the pirate problem in the system, and other connected systems.
Notes
(Note: I plan on connecting sims to their mentions in the summaries as I've done above. Any I put down here is because I needed a minute to mentally decompress, and to make sure I remember what I was doing. And if you don't see any Sims down here, I'm probably still figuring out which sims to connect. But if you see this and feel like you'd like to edit things, or see something you can add to, update, or improve on like descriptions, or arrangement of this page, feel free to do so. Saves some effort! -Ace)