Call to Arms

Posted on 05 Aug 2025 @ 12:13am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander Terry Walsh & Commander John Reynolds & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Kennedy Monroe M.D. & Lieutenant Ranul Frex & Lieutenant Zayna Ryler & Lieutenant T’Mari Rael

3,686 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: July 7, 2390 || 1500 hours

Harvey stood in front of an audience in the ship's largest holodeck. For much of his life, he'd conducted briefings around a table, and rarely in a lecture hall. Just last week, he'd hosted a briefing in the holodeck, but without any furniture so he could show the scale of their convoy and trap. That approach wouldn't work for this briefing, and since the squadron's briefing room was unavailable, he'd replicated that layout here at the holodeck.

The Commodore and the Chief of Security stood at the front of the room, with the Commodore standing away from the podium. In front of him, however, were three rows of chairs. Each row was behind a long counter, giving each seated individual their own computer interface should they want to review the briefing in more detail, or look up information on their own.

Most of these seats were already filled, either with members of the Black Hawk's senior staff, or command personnel from other starships. Already present were the CO and XOs of the USS Endurance, USS Perseus, USS Nelson, and the USS Brandenberg.

Ranul had been there for a little bit by this point. He had gotten something simple for the replicator, so that they didn't have to use up too much energy on the ship on him. Looking around, it looked like there were a few people Ranul recognized, but a few that he didn't. Sitting back down, Ranul was making notes of what to say if he was asked to say anything about the G90B or what happened to the ship.

Sitting in her seat T’Mari was sipping on a cold drink looking around all those present, and soaking up the atmosphere of the room.

Zayna felt like she was on her third cup of coffee, which by this point she was. She'd done her best to get through all of the information and have it ready for this that all of the sensor readings gave her. She sat behind her small computer console, sipping at the coffee as she waited for the start.

Joey opted against any type of refreshment, and unlike the others, she chose to remain standing for the time being. This wasn't the first time she'd been called to a staff briefing inside the holodeck, but it still felt a bit unusual to her. Of course, it was a bit more interactive this way and allowed for a more visual experience.

Kennedy took a seat in the second row of chairs in front of the podium and took a moment to replicate a glass of ice water. The unique surroundings, recent events, and the number of people present or enough to already keep the doctor quite focused, but she didn’t want to risk making herself any more jittery with caffeine. Monroe knew she couldn’t have known one of her patients was going to take his own life and be party to damaging the ship, but it still wasn’t easy knowing he was able to do so by counting on the compassion she and the rest of her staff had offered without hesitation..

Reynolds had settled down close to the head of the table. He checked the PADD he'd brought to make notes and references and looked up. Quite a bit different that normal, but these weren't normal times.

Terry took a sip from the warm coffee he'd gotten earlier and looked around the room. There was so much going on right now. But to be honest, there had been a lot going on for some time now.

"Thank you all for coming," Harvey shared, bringing the meeting to order. He took a moment to study the faces before him, both the familiar and the many unfamiliar. "Before I turn this meeting over to my Chief of Security, I want to remind our visiting command crews to review all material we have on G90B, also known as The Confederation. They are not to be confused for the Federation, as there are few similarities. The Confederation is a Dosi-Karemma alliance from an alternate universe. We first encountered them in 2388 during the Consortium Crisis. Long story short, my crew managed to punch a hole in the fabric of space time, and we were sucked in."

As he crossed his arms in front of him, Harvey continued, "We encountered the Confederation on the other side, and we managed to escape. We closed the hole behind us, or so we thought. The Confederation is currently running amok in this quadrant. So far, we have lost at least five ships to them, and Starbase Unity. In our last encounter, we managed to survive with several scans of the enemy vessel. The Valcour also managed to damage one of their ships with a close-range warp core breach."

He paused for a moment to again scan the faces of the visiting Captains, and chose not to linger longer than he needed to on Captain Holmes' face. "During all of this, I authorized a covert mission into enemy space. Led by my Chief of Security, Commander Di Pasquale, we gathered vital intelligence, upon which we will now act."

The Commodore turned to Camila, and took a breath before nodding to her. "All yours."

"Thank you, Commodore," Camila said. "The leader of this Confederation on our side of things seems to be a Dosi named D'Rimo. He had a counterpart here in the Gamma Quadrant, and recently killed him and took over the planet Mellon." Myself and three others from the Black Hawk were undercover there and taken prisoner and forced to haul ore that we believe is an integral part of their ship construction. Upon arrival at our destination, we used the cargo pods filled with the ore and used them to hurt what I believe is G90B, which seemed to be getting repaired inside of an asteroid that looked to have a refinery."

As she spoke, she adjusted the display to show the map from Mellon to the asteroid and the information that the Flotsam had scanned of G90B itself. "This is our target."

Graham looked at the young Security Chief and wondered exactly why she had stayed with Geisler so long. He had looked at her record and knew she was solid...for the most part, but why Geisler? "How reliable are the scans and what's the plan?" he asked.

Camila turned and gave the Captain of the Endurance a smile that could almost be called sweet. "If you would be so kind as to wait until it's your turn, I'll be happy to let everyone know once they're ready."

Harvey, standing off to the opposite side of the lowered stage, couldn't help but chuckle at her response. Apparently, every version of Harvey found Captain Holmes less than favorable. "Captain Holmes, I will jump in here to add that this is the same vessel that we encountered just a few days ago."

T’Mari gave Camila a curious look, and also looked in Harvey’s direction as well as she sensed the humour radiating off him at Camila’s response. She frowned for a moment before shaking off her sense of curiosity and turning her attention back to the briefing.

Joey smirked. It was nice to see Captain Holmes put in his place, even if it was done in a more respectful manner than some might have done. The man had a reputation for being an ass, so this was definitely worth being present for.

For a moment, it looked like Captain Holmes was going to erupt, but he settled back to glower at the Security Chief with an added glare for Commodore Geisler.

"What I propose is a three strike force movement," Camila said as she activated a holo display and brought it up on the table. "The Deliverance, Brandenburg, Challenger, and USS Valhalla will form Group One."

As she spoke, the ships and classes appeared in the holo with their group designation.

"Group Two will be the USS Nelson, Endurance, Pinnacle, Perseus," she continued as those ships appeared on the screen with their designation. "And Group Three, which is the USS Vadess, Nogura, Dauntless and the Black Hawk,"

"I propose to use the Sabers as advance scouts and the Prometheus class in Multi Vector Assault Mode to fill in the gaps. Based on the scant information and scans that we have, we'll have to triangulate from G90B's last known position and go from there."

"Once we acquire G90B, the next part is to destroy or capture it and prevent it from establishing a hold over the Gamma Quadrant. It has the power and the capabilities and we've seen it in the destroyed ships and station it has left behind."

She looked over the assembled Captains and crew and took a breath. "Due to its size and power levels, I propose using a modified tricobalt device to destroy it."

"A tricobalt?!" Holmes came out of his chair. "Aren't you the same one that used one before and caused this mess in the first place?" He shouted.

"How....exactly are you planning on modifying the tricobalt device? I only ask cause it's not easy to modify those things and I've had some experience with modifying a few before in my years with Starfleet," Ranul asked, trying not to be too curious. But, wanting to know more about what Camila had in mind for the device.

Kennedy saw no reason to be just another voice asking rapid fire questions and adding to the tension in the room, so she remained quiet but observant for now. There didn’t seem to be any love lost between Holmes and Camila, and Kennedy wondered if whatever past history, there was had something to do with Holmes‘ impulse control, or if that was just his nature.

Harvey's reaction was almost as crass as Captain Holmes. It was only the other captain's outburst that caused Harvey to bite his tongue. Every portion of this mission was souring in front of him. Too many ships, and now tricobalts. It seemed that these tricobalts that started this whole mess would make a reappearance for all the wrong reasons. And, with this knowledge now on full display in front of the crew and visiting captains, there would not be a way to walk this back.

But at the same time, this did give both him and Joey a unique vantage point from which to study Starfleet ingenuity. After all, it was ingenuity mixed with a little bit of luck that started this mess. And if there was a chance to acquire the finished product for the Confederation, so be it. For that reason, he stood anxiously as he awaited Di Pasquale to continue.

Camila activated another control and the holographic field changed. "This is my proposed assault force against G89B once we locate it," she said as the ship names and roles showed up in three groups.

============== [ ASSAULT PLAN ] ==============

Group One– Assault Initiation Group

USS Deliverance: Lead scout, threat tracking
USS Brandenburg: Assault coordination & torpedo support
USS Challenger: Shield matrix enhancement & area denial
USS Valhalla: Tactical evasion & fast-response fire

Objective: Softening up the enemy with targeted strikes and defensive probing to expose strategic weaknesses. USS Brandenburg takes charge of offensive timing, while USS Valhalla reinforces flanks.

Group Two – Primary Strike Cell

USS Nelson: Threat monitoring & movement tracking
USS Endurance: Heavy barrage, targeting assistance
USS Pinnacle: Damage absorption & defensive shielding
USS Perseus: Tricobalt warhead delivery, multi-vector deployment

Execution: USS Perseus splits into three assault vectors, each approaching from independent angles. Upon coordinated signal, one vector releases its tricobalt warhead directly into the target’s structural weak point, identified by Group One's early probes.

Group Three – Command & Support Spear

USS Vadess: Area monitoring, relay scanning
USS Nogura: Defensive screen & fire suppression
USS Dauntless: Tricobalt warhead delivery, secondary vector assault

Leadership Role

USS Black Hawk: Command Vessel, torpedo command grid & battle telemetry coordination and third tricobalt delivery if necessary.

USS Dauntless executes the second tricobalt deployment after USS Perseus, targeting a secondary but vital enemy system.

USS Nogura and USS Vadess hold defensive lines to contain enemy counterstrikes and assist vector redeployment after payload delivery.

================== [ *** ] ==================

"In regards to the tricobalts themselves, I will need Engineering, Operations, Intelligence, and Science, and the more, the better," Camila said as she looked at the other ship Captains. "We need to strike fast, and strike hard. The tricobalts will be heavily modified for maximum delivery, but we'll need to put our heads together for the most effective delivery."

Without letting the information sink into the minds of the crew, Harvey stepped forward. "You might notice there's a few names on there that aren't part of Belvedere. Admiral O'Connell believes this is an opportunity we can't ignore, and that we need to be ready for reprisals should G90B, the Confederation... whomever they're called decide to take advantage of our pressing the line. Much of Task Group Sentinel is moving our way to cover our rears. Deliverance, Vahalla, Pinnacle, Nogura, and Dauntless are the closest ships and we'll rendezvous with them at Waypoint Alpha."

Harvey turned around and indicated the waypoint which was just three lightyears east New Risa. "We'll travel together, in a similar formation as we did with our recent baited convoy. Just outside each other's weapons range. When we arrive at Waypoint Bravo, which is our destination, we'll initiate Commander Di Pasquale's plan."

T’Mari frowned before raising her hand briefly. “Forgive me know I’m just ships Counsellor, but we’re seriously going to be using the Tricobalt device? From the reaction of others here it doesn’t seem a very… popular decision.”

"It's the lesser of two evils, Lieutenant," spoke up Captain Suhea of the USS Brandenburg. "The alternative is to cause a warp core breach. Even in a controlled environment, the level of destruction and devastation that could cause would be horrendous, and its not selective on what it consumes. Tricobalts allow us to keep energy of that magnitude focused on a single target."

Joey folded her arms as she watched the tactical hologram shift, absorbing the ambitious layout. Her voice came slower, more deliberate than usual. “There’s no denying this is bold, Camila. Aggressive, layered, coordinated, it’s hard not to admire it. But G90B isn’t exactly playing by textbook rules. Its unpredictability alone makes me wary of putting so much weight on tricobalts, even with multi-vector deployment.”

She stepped forward, eyes narrowing at the layout. “If we get the timing perfect, and I mean perfect, tricobalts could do what you're hoping for, but we’re operating off scans and assumptions.”

Joey glanced toward Camila. “I’ll run the payload profiles myself. If we can boost yield without destabilizing the matrix, and give us pinpoint synchronization, then sure—modified tricobalts could be the hammer we need. But we can't sign off on this without deeper telemetry and some real-time recalibration options.”

The Chief of Intel paused briefly, then continued. “Give me two hours. Intelligence will tear through everything we’ve got—logs, deep scans and so on. I know we weren't able to pick up much, but maybe there's enough somewhere to confirm a weak point. But until then? I call it high-risk, high-reward. And we need to prepare for all outcomes.”

Kennedy nodded in grim agreement. She understood the nature of the threat required a serious and unpredictable response, but she also understood what preparing for all outcomes really meant. Even if they were ultimately successful, and she prayed they would be, that didn’t mean there weren’t going to be casualties. “ There aren’t ever any guarantees, but I believe we’ll all do all we can.”

Rubbing her forehead, listening carefully, Ryler wasn't entirely sure she liked any of this. All of the information made sense, but she wasn't a fighter. She moved a few things around on her own notes when it was mentioned about tearing through everything to find a weak point. Hadn't that been done already? This had been her worry: that her team and her had missed something on their reports. But she kept quiet, at least for now.

John nodded. He liked this game-plan. It was straightforward and hard-hitting, something that was needed out here in situations like this. "They won't go down without a fight and that looks exactly like what this is setup for. I like it."

"Thank you, Commander Geisler," Camila said before she looked at Lieutenant Ryler. ""Lieutenant Ryler, you look like you have something you want to say,. This is the time to say it. Commander Geisler and Lieutenant Frex have. Rest assured, if you speak now or not, I will be picking your brain for solutions soon."

"Hmm? No, just making sure nothing was missed from all the information I put into my reports. It was a lot, and just running it through my head. As for the picking my brain? I expected that." Zayna sat back a little, after marking a spot in her notes.

Ranul had been taking everything in and taking some notes as well. He started to look up the information about the Tricobolt devices and thought about the various ways that they could be changed to do what everyone wanted to do. "This is definitely an ambitious idea. How many people from Engineering did you want me to bring? I know of a few that have some technical knowledge of the devices that we could use if we're planning on really tweaking them."

Camila turned her attention to Lieutenant Frex. "Anyone with experience in torpedo modifications," she said and turned to the other Captains. "Anyone who has experience in this venture is welcome to come and work on it," she offered.

The Captain of the Perseus spoke up. "Why do you have both Prometheus class in MVAM mode, Lieutenant Commander Di Pasquale? "

"Because the various sections can be controlled remotely and the payload delivery will be extremely dangerous. It will ensure zero loss of life."

Commodore Geisler watched this all unfold from his vantage point near the screen. He could not deny that the plan was impressive. In fact, he even appreciated the boldness from his Chief of Security, practically promising there would be zero loss of life in this. She was in no position to guarantee that, but the promise appeared to appease the crowd. "Captain Suhea, you will lead the first group. Captain Holmes, you have the second group. Be sure to analyze these plans and disseminate attack plans to your ships."

And before Captain Holmes had a chance to interject, Harvey looked for his Chief Engineer. "Mister Frex, what is the status on repairing our flight deck hangar doors?"

"Well, it looks like Kemm and I have come up with an idea to get the door back online and make it where it's a bit more secure. What we've got planned is doing something like a double door, similar to what the Xaheans eyelids are like. An inner door to help protect what's inside and an outer door to protect what was outside. Plus, if one door is damaged, the other can come down in its place. That way, there isn't too much or any strain on the forcefield generators to keep the air in, like what happened with the G90B. I've sent the schematics to your PADD, sir. We've already got the work under way," Frex replied, sending over all of the information to the Commodore's PADD.

Harvey made a note to review the schematics at his first opportunity. He had heard of the work being done on the flight deck, and had even dropped by a couple of times to check on its progress. It was an ingenious idea, and a little more difficult to sabotage in the future if needed. "Our target is currently 10 hours away at warp eight. It is my hope to leave this evening by 2200 hours, so we arrive tomorrow during alpha shift. Will your repairs be ready by then, or will the squadron continue to roost with the Endurance?"

"I'll have to get with Kemm and see how the repairs are coming. With how much damage that the G90B did to the hangar bay, there's a lot going into it. But, I'll work on trying to get the inner door and some of the interior damage cleared up before we arrive to our arrival point," Frex replied with a small smile and curt nod.

"Does anyone else have questions?" Camila asked after taking notes on a PADD for volunteers to help work on the tricobalts.

"Did I hear departure at 2200 hours?" Commander Pol of the NelsonL asked.

"You did," Harvey replied. "By that time, we will be joined by the rest of Belvedere. A recording of this briefing will be sent to them, and the command teams on all ships will have a final briefing at 0600 tomorrow."

"No additional questions," Ryler stated after searching her brain for a moment after the question.

Joey shook her head, the wheels within already plotting and planning. There were so many people on the ship she could frame for so many different things. The question was... who would take the fall? "No questions from me, but I certainly have my work cut out for me."

"I think that I'm good! Just let me know where I'm needed and could help out, and I'll be there," Ranul replied with a small smile.

Harvey took a final look around the room, taking a moment to register each and every one of the faces he saw. "All right then," he said with a semi-confident exhale. "Let's go 'em. Dismissed."

 

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