Out, Down and Away.

Posted on Thu Jun 25th, 2020 @ 10:32am by Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine & Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant Colonel Johnathon Hayter & Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison & Lieutenant Farizah Alani & Lieutenant JG Stephanie McMillan & Lieutenant JG Haru Hernandez & Chief Petty Officer Benjamin Thor & Lieutenant Commander William Rogers & Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan & Lieutenant Bianca Lee & Lieutenant Valenna & Lieutenant Alexis Aenera & Warrant Officer Koh Ottasu & Warrant Officer Callisi Veera

Mission: Into The Delta Triangle

Away Teams:

Team One:
Lieutenant Commander Rogers - team leader
Lieutnant Commander Morgan
Lieutenant Lee
Lieutenant McMillan
Lieutanant Valenna
Lieutenant Junior Grade Haru Hernandez


Team Two:
Lieutnant Alani - team leader
Lieutenant Aenera
Lieutenant Levine
Lieutenant Gunnison
CPO Thor

=/\= Flight Deck =/\=

Abigail leaned against the side of one of the shuttles, a PaDD held in her hand as she watched the crew arriving. They were close enough to the system that no one wanted to go any further at the risk of exposing their identity fully. From here the two shuttles, piloted by Koh and Callisi would take the away teams to within proximity and monitor their progress.

Before they could depart though the crew would need to run through the relevant safety briefings and information briefs, which is why they were all assembling now. Glancing at Ichiko, Abigail offered a faint smile. "30 minutes should be enough to run through briefings, yes?"

Ichiko offered a smirk, "Let's hope. Otherwise, it's a meeting, and not a briefing," she joked. Around Abigail, she felt comfortable enough to let the mask slide off just a little.

Will glanced over the two shuttles. 'Not too shabby,' he thought at the outer decal work that had been applied to them to (hopefully) disguise the fact that they were still active-duty Starfleet shuttles. The less-than-fun part would come later, though, when they would have to be returned to their original state. The cleanup was something that was probably going to take a lot longer that the application had.

Arriving on the flight deck, decked out in their black flight suits, were the two Ts'usugi pilots: Koh and Callisi. The pair were set to take to the stars, though they looked more dressed to fly a fighter than a shuttle. Still, perhaps it was all the same to them. Expert pilots, aces in their respective fields, and while one was snubbed for the role of element leader over the other, Ts'usugi professionalism buried any grudges.

Koh looked sharp in his flight suit, a thick collar of sorts resting around his neck and along the top of his shoulders. Callisi sported a similar piece of wardrobe, and the only thing that looked slightly out of place on their suits was the Starfleet comm badge they each wore on their chest. "Pilot compliment, reporting." Koh was the one who spoke. As element leader it was his call. Callisi stood at attention along with Koh, the only difference in attire between the two was the black eyepatch that Callisi was sporting over her right eye.

Stephanie was checking over the shuttles one more time, but it wasn't because the work was a bad job, it was because she was rather nervous. Away missions weren't common in her career, given her previous postings. Sure, she knew the basics and her qualifications in the phaser simulations were a little above the minimum needed, but only just.

With nothing else to do but wait, she was also busying her right hand with spinning a small tool around in it.

"It's just a job. Roll up your sleeves, get in there, and get it done." She whispered the words of her role model under her breath, trying to focus on them but it was not easy.

Strolling in, Hayter was in his uniform with his trained canine in a heel by his side. He looked around the flight deck. He was quite impressed with the layout of the shuttles and fighters. He had missed the days of being a fighter pilot with the adrenalin rush of the craft dipping and dodging at high velocities. Oh those were the days. Coming up to the new gathering group of personnel, he gave Meeka a simple sign which was a pat on his thigh before he he spoke. "Well, its not a '67 mustang, but these look nice."

Callisi offered Stephanie a glance and a soft smirk, her one good eye focused on her, while under the eye-patch there was a faint blue dot of a light that tracked along where her living eye went. "Is everything alright?" she asked.

Koh, on the other hand, turned his attention to Hayter. "No. No it's not a horse, sir. It's a shuttlecraft."

"I think the colonel is referring to the 1967 model Ford Mustang, Ghost. An old Earth car." Buck explained, close enough to overhear the conversation as he approached the shuttles. Distracted from his intended purpose of inspecting the shuttles from a curious pilot's perspective he inquired of Hayter. "Unless they made others in later centuries?"

Koh chuckled. "So, you measure effort by horses. You name your vehicles horses. Humanity really did love those creatures, didn't they?"

"They made many models after that time, but they were a waste of time, if you ask me," John responded to the question simply Meeka, Hayter's canine looked between them all and only allowed a couple low level barks out, but stayed by his side. The marine leaned down just enough and patted her on the neck as he comforted her and praised her at the same time for keeping her guard up but stayed by his side. "But I don't know about the naming, but that vehicle was surely a well designed machine of its time. Still to this day, its a rare thing to see. Still... to each our own."

"Ah would say that we did." Bianca replied to the apparent group conversation, "Ah still do love mah horse back at home, even have a holodeck program with him in it." She smiled at Koh, who towered above her diminutive height, casual pants and a plain white blouse, "Dear God, what on Earth is she wearin'?" Bianca's eyes were drawn to Alexis just entering the holodeck in an emerald green blouse adorned with sequins and a black skirt that probably showed too much leg for the occasion, not just the ruby-colored accents that made it look like the hem was on fire.

Lieutenant Farizah Alani strutted onto the flight deck with a PaDD rested against her hip and carrying a tall mug in another hand as she flashed a smile at everyone and made her way over to the Captain. "Chai tea for you" she said to Abigail. "Cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, brown sugar, and TBLC" added Farizah offering the beverage to the Captain.

Stephanie looked up from her muttering to look at the pilot. She smiled a little, more to hide her own insecurities. "Yeah. I just didn't go on away missions on my last postings. Just nervous, but one of my professors at the Academy, he said it's just a job, like any other. Just trying to keep what he said at the front of my mind."

Abigail took the chai, inhaling the aroma before taking a sip. "Mmmm," she offered a smile. "Careful Lieutenant, I could get used to this kind of behavior..." her voice trailed off as her gaze fell on Alexis. "You cannot be serious..." she murmured.

Calvin appeared seemingly out of no where, setting down a medical kit by each shuttle to be taken. He shifted his own bag, a 20L small messenger bag on his back to a more comfortable position as he joined the assembling group of people.

Valenna walked onto the flight deck and eyed everyone who was standing around the shuttles. This was her first mission with this new ship and she was already going on an away mission. As she stood on the flight deck, to herself, she observed her crew.

"Lieutenant Aenera, what part of un-obvious civilian attire did you fail to understand?" Abigail's voice rose above the crowd, causing people to stop talking and look. "I strongly suggest that you return to your quarters now and change into something appropriate, before I have Lieutenant Alani change you!" The Commanding Officer shook her head slightly, casting a sideways glance at Ichiko. "While we wait for Lieutenant Aenera to return, why don't we start running through some basics. Commander Morgan, do you want to start?"

"Lieutenant," Farizah said looking at Alexis Aenera of the Science Department. "You're Betazoid, right? Don't be afraid to show off the girls a bit" she said to woman. "Nothing speaks not Starfleet than a little cleavage for leverage."

"While I'm inclined to agree..." Ichiko said with a smirk forming, "... Don't come back in anything that you'd be ashamed to wear to the debriefing." before turning to glance at Abigail, "I... appreciate the uniformity that the... uniforms offer. Though, I agree in that she was overexposed."

Alexis had opened her mouth to respond to the apparent question from the Captain, but hadn't had a chance to get anything out before Abigail had continued on to tell her to go change again. Then a broad smile had started up at Farizah's comment, with agreement that it could definitely be in their favor but Ichiko had cut in right away as well. "I was thinking touristy..." She said softly to them all before turning away, "And not ashamed." Was so soft probably no one had heard her say it.

Koh, in the meantime, brought his glance back to Stephanie, "Well, you have nothing to worry about in so far as getting there. Dead Eye and myself are ace pilots from our Navy, and are part of an exchange program to, what was it, Dead Eye?"

"Peace and order throughout the galaxy? No, that's that silly movie. Oh, culture program." she responded.

"Right! We're here to teach your pilots how to fly." he said with a smirk, before he turned his attention back to the Command staff.

"Oh. Well, I can say the shuttles are good to go, Chief and I got 'em ready. I'm not much for flying things, but when it comes to fixing stuff, I'm all over it." Stephanie replied. She returned the tool to the kit and set that back aside. After a moment, she pulled the sleeves of her simple black jacket down.

Bianca walked over to the command team and smiled slightly, "Ah'm definitely ready to get this started."

"So," Calvin spoke up, having seen what he assumed was the end of that interesting exchange. "Medically speaking nothing of huge concern. A few diseases easily treated during decon. Be wary of airborne particulate especially in the mining areas, they do not keep to the same safety standards as the Federation core. Same with the food, most likely safe, but don't overindulge. Packed in each med kit is several over the counter medications to do the minor stuff, GI issues and the like. And please don't go to any of their hospitals, they will only make my job harder later."

Ben turns up, a little later than he wanted to be. He is wearing a set of clothes from home, very simple material with a couple of areas where it has been crudely restitched, and small patch of what looks like oil on his left elbow.

Haru rushed onto the flight deck just behind someone else who'd been late. He had a PaDD in hand and was ready for anything that was thrown at him. For the last three moths he'd been on Earth but he'd done his part to stay informed and trained. He was looking forward to getting back into the thick of things.

Abigail turned toward Farizah and gave a slight nod. "Lieutenant?"

Lieutenant Farizah Alani cleared her throat. "Alright, we are trained for this. Security personnel is most certainly trained for this. So, I am expecting nothing but the best out of everyone on this crew. We leave here together...we come back together. No marine heroic bullshit necessarily" she said shooting a look over at Hayter. "Be professional and be vigilant" the Bolian said not wasting her energy on fluff.

The quick stab at his area of expertise only made Hayter smirk a little as he kept his tongue. This wasn't the time to deal back lash to the Bolian. Hayter just simply patted the dog by his side as he simply shrugged at the security chief once she looked at him before winking at her. This wasn't the first, and surly wasn't the last. It didn't bother him whatsoever.

Abigail nodded again as Farizah finished. "You'll be splitting into two teams. Lieutenant Commander Rogers will lead team one, Lieutenant Farizah will lead team two. Two shuttles, one for each team. Team leaders, stay in regular communication with your shuttles. You have as long as you need on the surface, but stay in communication. Our pilots will be ready to transport you out if anything goes wrong. Other than that, be safe. Questions? Concerns?"

Haru said nothing. He'd wait until they were settled into the shuttles and perhaps talk to his team lead. He wanted to ensure all was smooth.

"Granted, I realize that our team leads may be going over this with us," Will said, "but just to make sure that the members of each team are on the same page, what's our cover story? Even out here I don't imagine that a motley crew in possession of what looks to be a former Starfleet shuttle just pops in every day for a stroll."

Bianca nodded, because she had opened her mouth to ask basically the same exact question, but Will had gotten it out first. She noted out of the corner of her eye that Aleis had returned, wearing something far more appropriate, even trading in stiletto heels for smaller broad based inch high heels and gave a slight smile at the eccentric science officer.

Valenna cleared her throat. "I've often found whenever I was on an independent assignment unaffiliated with Starfleet and told people I was a civilian scientist on an anthropological expedition that no one ever questioned me." She scoffed. "But then again--someone who did wouldn't get to a second chance to do so..."

The colonel blinked and kept his cool as he looked around at the group as he knew all to well what they were all thinking. But once the small chatter calmed, he looked at the captain and commander to come to the rescue to answer their questions on their cover story. He already knew what his roll was going to be with all this, and it wasn't going to be just sitting around on their hands. He rather it be that way, but he knew all to well that if the shit hit the fan...

"Plan is for Team One to pose as [traders prospectors] ." Buck explained. "Shuttle will transport us down and remain in orbit: the Kessik IV landing facilities that don't serve the mine directly are small scale so it's not unusual for visitors not to land."

"Sounds perfect," Abigail replied with a nod. "Kessik III will be much more straight forward, aside from the refining plant, they have a small trading outpost. You're simply there looking to trade. Don't go into too much detail, keep things as simple as possible. It's easier. Any other questions?"

She looked around for a moment, waiting to see if anyone would speak up. When no one did, she nodded again. "Very well, Lieutenant Commander Rogers, Lieutenant Alani, prepare your away teams for departure. Commander Gail and I will be on the bridge. Colonel Hayter and Lieutenant Commander T'Vek please join us. Good luck everyone and stay safe."