(OOC: This RP is for either Shadow Fleet Members or for those I have invited personally. If you want to join this RP and are part of Shadow Fleet, please post in the OOC/Signup Thread first if you haven't already. If you are not part of Shadow Fleet, and yet you want to participate, send me a PM and I'll decide whether to invite you or not. However, once we start on the actual mission, I will not accept any other entries.

Here we go again!!!!! )

(Play Soundtrack: Main Title)

The Triangle Region. A Triangle-Shaped region of space classified as Neutral Territory. Bordered on one side by the Federation, one side by the Klingons, and one side by the Romulans, it was always something of a hotspot--especially in the last month as the war between the Federation and the Klingons continued to intensify.

A Type-11 Shuttlecraft, Heavily Modified for Independent Action, landed in a small hangar in Starbase 234, the Federation's Primary Outpost in the Triangle. As it landed, it sent the following message throughout Federation Space on the Shadow Fleet Priority Channel:

"All Shadow Fleet Starships not currently otherwise occupied are to gather at Starbase 234. Once said ships have docked at the Starbase, their Captains are to head to the Starbase's Briefing room."

After the first message ended, the shuttle then sent another message, this one to the Sovereign-Class Vessel U.S.S. Titania. This second message read as follows:

"Greetings, Rear Admiral Elizabeth Hawkwood. Your assistance is required for a mission which will be staged from Starbase 234. Upon arrival, you are to head to the Starbase's Briefing Room, where you will be briefed on the mission."

A man, who appeared to be 19 Years Old, with Long Purple Hair, wearing reading glasses and a Red Starfleet Uniform with Commander's Rank Insignia, stepped out of the shuttle. He headed for the Briefing Room and prepared to brief the Starship Captains who answered his call.

(OOC: Tieria's Uniform for this part of the story is a "B-01"-Type Uniform with default Tactical Officer colorations.)

(Cue this music)

A darkly colored shuttle descends ominously onto the landing pad. No sooner has the craft landed when the shuttle door opens and four Starfleet security officers spill out, terror painted on their faces. Three start vomiting. The fourth starts running away from the shuttle as quickly as he can.

A short girl no older then 20 wearing a black cardigan with a Starfleet commbadge on the left breast and an odd eagle design on each shoulder over a red command uniform with the rank insignia for Rear Admiral casually steps out of the shuttle. She lifts the goggles she was wearing onto her forehead and smiles. She takes a small recorder and says into it, "The engine overloading was a huge success. We made landing in one third the time we normally would have. Local area traffic denser then expected which made this an excellent trial run. Controls seemed sluggish, may need recalibrating to handle higher speeds."

"Ma'am," says one of the Starbase's staff.

She looked around at her security detail, "Stay with the shuttle. And pull yourselves together. One would think you boys had never had a near death experience before." She reaches into the shuttle and retrieves a satchel out of which she removes a disk with some manner of antenna on the top of it. She flips a few switches and several lights come on the device and then flicker off. The girl hits the disk with her fist and many lights come on and the disk starts hovering. The drone unfolds (into something that looks like this except without the gun assemblies on the underside).

"Ma'am," says the Starbase's staff officer again, "May I have your identification?"

"Floormap Starbase 234," she says as a holographic map appears in front of her, projected from the floating disk. "There is the briefing room."

"May I have your identification?" says the Starbase's staff officer again.

"Oh, yes. I am Rear Admiral Elizabeth Margaret Hawkwood, commanding officer USS Titania," she says with authority, despite being shorter then the Starbase 234 officer.

"Oh, you are expected. This way please," he says.

"Very well. My mapper program would have gotten me there anyway," R. Admiral Hawkwood says as the pair and the drone head down the passage.

Upon arriving at the briefing room Rear Admiral Hawkwood bids a welcome to the other officers in the room and takes a seat near the front. Her drone continues hovering behind her. Hawkwood produces a thermos and a cup and pours herself a glass of liquid. "Personal blend of teas to get the right flavor, served slightly chilled. Bloody replicators never get it right."

(OOC: Okay, seeing as how Admiral Hawkwood has already arrived at the Briefing Room, I'll skip the scene I had planned of Alex and Tieria meeting on the way to the briefing room and simply have them already waiting there for her. )

(Play Soundtrack: Dreams of the Future)

The man in the Commander's Uniform had been in the briefing room for only 30 minutes when Admiral Hawkwood entered. Also in the room was a Human Male Captain and a Vulcan Female Commander. The Captain had dark brown hair done in a buzzcut and violet eyes, while the Vulcan Commander had jet-black hair in a very close styling (OOC: Hairstyle "Close 03" from the STO Character Creator) and dark blue eyes. Both officers wore uniforms which were primarily colored dark red, with black shoulder areas and red trim. (OOC: the Uniforms are "B-04"-Type from the STO Character Creator) The two officers also wore identical bands of gold on their right ring fingers. In addition, a pair of 21st-Century wraparound sunglasses rested atop the Captain's head

"Welcome, Admiral Hawkwood," the man in the Commander's Uniform said. "I am Tieria Erde, a Section 31 Shadow Operative. I thank you for coming, because I believe your abilities will be an asset in this mission."

"I've heard a lot about you, Admiral Hawkwood," the Captain then said, "and I'd have to say that I agree with Tieria. I'm Captain Alexander Yamato of the U.S.S. Tempest, but I like to be called Alex." Gesturing to the Vulcan Commander next to him, Alex continued, "This is Commander T'Marin Yamato, my Chief of Security."

T'Marin nodded at Admiral Hawkwood in a wordless greeting. Alex then glanced to the drone behind Admiral Hawkwood and commented, "That's an interesting machine you have there, Admiral. Did you make it yourself?"

Admiral Reid commanding officer of the USS Epsom, an Emissary Class Star Cruiser, sat at his ready room desk reading the latest status reports from Gamma Orionis and Omega fleet. The padd held in his right hand bore some of the worst news to come from the sector in months. A Starbase with over 200 personnel onboard had been captured by the Borg. Starfleet were already mobilising a task force but it would probably be too late for the 200 people aboard. No doubt they were already drones, slaves of the collective.

The Epsom had recently returned from Gamma Orionis for repairs and some crew R and R. Starfleet had engaged several borg ships in System Alpha 61-Beta. The Epsom suffered heavy damage and withdrew early on. Even with her new Resilient Shield Arrays that absorbed incoming energy weapons fire to recharge the shields she was no match against the Cubes of the Collective. With his ship informally assigned to light duty there was not much to do but read the reports, do the paperwork and wait.

Commander Tieria Erde provided a much needed distraction when the following message was picked up on Shadow Fleet subspace channels:

"All Shadow Fleet Starships not currently otherwise occupied are to gather at Starbase 234. Once said ships have docked at the Starbase, their Captains are to head to the Starbase's Briefing room."

"Admiral Reid to the bridge, incoming message on Shadow Fleet Subspace Channels." Takerra's voice was unmistakable through the comm system. "On my way Commander." Replied Reid. Entering the bridge through his ready room doors, Takerra stood from the Captains chair. "Text only sir." She said taking the first officers chair. "On screen." Reid turned to the main viewer and read the message. "Commander re-call the crew from shore leave, i want all personnel back onboard within the next hour. Then set course for Starbase 234 warp 8." Takerra replied with the customary "Aye sir." And began delegating the task to the other Bridge officers holding department head status. Hren for Engineering, Kenohah for Tactical, Mogh'to for Security, Satup for Science etc. Reid returned to his ready room and began looking for information on local events on the tri border in the last few years.


The Epsom dropped ot of warp and approached the Starbase broadcasting its IFF signal and requesting permission to dock. Assigned to outer docking bay 1, the Star Cruisers were far too large to guide inside a starbase hangar, Akharrad the senior Helm officer guided the ship to its berth for the next few hours. Reid exited his ready room and made straight for the turbolift, already aware the ship was docking. "Commander Takerra your with me, Commander Satup you have the bridge."

It was a relatively short walk to the briefing room, from the docking bay. A security checkpoint providing only a minor annoyance. It was good being an Admiral Thought Reid to himself as the security floundered to let him and Commander Takerra through. The briefing room doors slid open revealing a conference table and 3 officers, a Commander, Captain and Admiral.

Alex heard the door open and turned to it and watched an Admiral and a Commander enter the room. He immediately recognized the Admiral--having joined Shadow Fleet just over three weeks ago, he'd taken the time to memorize the names, faces, and history of all the Shadow Fleet Ranking Officers, and one of them had just entered the room.

"Admiral Reid!" Alex said. He stood up, walked over to Reid's side, and extended his hand as he continued, "It's an honor to meet you, sir. I'm Captain Alexander Yamato of the U.S.S. Tempest, but feel free to call me Alex. I joined Shadow Fleet about three weeks ago." After shaking Reid's hand, Alex then gestured over to T'Marin and continued, "This is Commander T'Marin Yamato, my Chief of Security."

"It is an honor to meet you, Admiral," T'Marin said, nodding at Reid.

Tieria then stood up from his position at the head of the table and said, "I'm pleased to see that you made it, Admiral Reid. I am Section 31 Shadow Operative Tieria Erde, and I hope I did not inconvenience you too much when I called you here."

Reid took the hands of Captain Yamato and Commander T'Marin in turn. "The Honor is mine, its always good to meet Shadow Fleet personnel, they have a certain 'air' about them that most of Starfleet lacks, no offense intended of course." he said nodding to Commander Erde and Admiral Hawkwood in greeting. Reid was unfamiliar with Hawkwood but he foresaw no problem in working with officers outside Shadow Fleet.

"This is my first officer Commander Takerra." Reid introduced the young Andorian woman standing behind him. She took a step forwards and nodded to the assembly of officers. Both Reid and Takerra took thier seats as the greetings ended.

(Play Soundtrack: Stratagem)

Once everyone had taken their seats, Tieria began the briefing.

"Thank you all for coming," he began. "For the past month, I've been looking into a certain matter at the request of Captain Yamato here." Tieria indicated Alex as he said this, before he continued, "Before I explain further, I have a question for you."

Looking first at Reid, and then at Hawkwood, Tieria asked, "Tell me, Admirals, how much do you know about the Repercussion Incident?"

"Oh this?" said Admiral Hawkwood gesturing at the drone, "I found the standard drones issued by Starfleet to be rather lacking so I dismantled a few and rebuilt them into a larger unit. Hard part was integrating the systems together. The larger drone allows for greater utility. This is the administrative drone. Unarmed, but carries an onboard computer and links to the ship's computers. I also have scientific and a combat packages that can be installed. Starfleet feels they are too big for practical use. But one day I envision every officer having such a drone."

Hawkwood looks at Admiral Reid, "A pleasure to meet you Admiral. Pity about the Epsom being damaged like that. Borg are nasty abominations. Well as my first officer is busy running counter-boarding drills on the Titania, I am ready. Will any other officers be joining us or are we it?"

"Passenger vessel attacked by the Klingons," said Admiral Hawkwood.

"Very interesting," Alex said to Hawkwood. "Do you think you could have a copy of the blueprints for your drones sent to my Chief Engineer? I'm sure he'd love to try making one."

(OOC: I'll wait to reply to this part until after Teej makes his next post, seeing as how Tieria directed his question to both Admirals. )

"The Repercussion incident? Came across it in my research on the area. Not much known about it publicly, Passenger ship was attacked by Klingons but thats about it."

Reid replied twisting in his seat at the mention of the only significant event on the tri-border for several years. Shadow Fleet operatives had briefly investigated the matter but it had been kept secret by Starfleet with rumours of section 31 involvement.