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Orbital Jumpstart - 58807.17, 08h30

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Yassen Idris View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Yassen Idris Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Orbital Jumpstart - 58807.17, 08h30
    Posted: November/04/2026 at 7:07pm
Yassen, having nodded to Lektar in acknowledgement of her leaving the centre stations, turned his gaze again to the screen in front of him, focusing on attempting to refine the scattered readings identified earlier.

The atmosphere, it seemed, was infuriatingly dense, and he couldn't imagine it allowed much light onto the surface, whatever that looked like. The thick envelope of gasses encircling the planet was certainly comprised mostly of water; not entirely unexpected, he supposed. What was unexpected were the other strange readings he was getting, some sort of particle he couldn't identify but presumed was causing – or at least contributing to – the poor sensor readings.

Not worth it to try and actively scan directly through the atmosphere, then. Better to keep the passive sensors running on that, and more actively apply himself to finding some break in the volatile atmosphere to scan directly through to the planet's surface. Or suggest they beam someone down? No, it was a ridiculously optimistic endeavour in either case, given how small and sporadic the gaps forming were.

"I'm definitely getting consistently... odd readings, from some particles binding with the water vapour," he said. "I'll try to work out what they are, but I think it's worth keeping an eye on the brief breaks in the unpredictable atmosphere to run some sort of hyper-focused scan through, too. I don't want to limit our options when they all seem equally impracticable at the moment."
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Colin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/04/2026 at 4:04pm
"Aye,  Commander," replied Colin.   Colin pulled out a suit and put it on piece by piece,  and secured the additional gear in the provided slots.
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raikon achaea View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote raikon achaea Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/04/2026 at 9:53am
"Codes received, Commander," Raikon replied.

Looking over to Wryn, he nodded.

"You get yourself suited up. I'll follow in a minute."

When the Maverick docked, Raikon immediately went to work.

"Establishing connection... entering codes... we're in."

His hands glided over the console.

"Routing power from the Maverick. Bringing emergency lighting online from the docking bay to Engineering and the Bridge. Initializing bridge controls, engineering controls, and the main computer."

He waited a few moments while the systems responded.

"System draw is nominal. No abnormal power drain detected from the Keppler."

Satisfied that the transfer was stable, Raikon stood from the console and made his way over to where the environmental suits were stored.
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Shirik Lektar View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Shirik Lektar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/03/2026 at 8:26pm
Shirik ran a search of the Starfleet secure database and found the required codes, transmitting them to the engineering console. "Command codes to you, Achaea," she said. While the others worked on the docking and power integrations, she went to the aft compartment. "Suit up, Murray," she said to Colin as she pulled a suit out of one of the lockers and stared the task of getting into it.
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Colin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/03/2026 at 8:02pm
"Aye, sir";  Colin responds.   He gathers a phaser,  tricorder and tools and stands ready to accompany Shirik to the bridge area;
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Greggory Griffith View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Greggory Griffith Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/02/2026 at 3:35pm
"Alright. Yessen, keep trying to piece together what you can about the planet. If you can't scan through the clouds, gather information on the upper atmosphere. Use passive sensors if you have to: light absorption patterns, spectrographic analysis, even tracking atmospheric flows through storm movements.  Every bit of information is something that could protect an eventual away team if we send one down there."

"Raikon and Wryn, as soon as we're docked, integrate our power systems with the Kepler. You'll need the ship's command codes to access critical systems, so Shirik, I'll need you to find and transmit those. Once life-support is online, divert most of the resources into Engineering and the Bridge, minimal comfort conditions. Let's try to get what we need access to into a usable condition as soon as possible, then try and figure out what happened to the ship's fuel reserves."

"Shirik and Colin, you'll be heading to the Bridge. Try and access the logs and sensor records. We need to know what happened and where the crew went."

"I'll stay here to coordinate and keep an eye on the Maverick's fuel reserves. Anything about consumption rates not adding up, I'll order a recall. I'll also try to access the Kepler's internal cameras, take a visual record of the inaccessible parts of the ship."

"I'm going to update the Vanguard of our status.  If we can give the all clear, I'll recommend bringing Vanguard in and getting you a larger team to work with."
Lt. Cmdr Greggory Griffith - XO
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Colin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/02/2026 at 10:54am
"I'm willing to assist in any way,  in addition to piloting skills I'm also adept at propulsion and weapon systems, and well trained and experienced at EV procedures",  says Colin.
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Shirik Lektar View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Shirik Lektar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/02/2026 at 9:20am
"I agree," said Shirik, even though she wasn't all that comfortable in an EV suit. 
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Wryn View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Wryn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/02/2026 at 8:59am

“I’m comfortable performing the repairs in an EV suit if we want to defer restoring life support to focus on bringing the computer system back online,” Wynn volunteered. “That would help conserve power reserves – in the event we need that power later on for something more important.”

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Shirik Lektar View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Shirik Lektar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/01/2026 at 8:43pm
Shirik never looked up from her console as she studied the readings. "The hull is intact, no signs of any breaches. All our systems are stable. If we want to power the Kepler's core, I'd limit life support to that area only. We'll only have a limited amount of power to play with, and a limited window of time." She paused as she shifted the sensors. "I still can't get clear readings through the planet's atmosphere, but as the density changes, I can get scattered readings that may or may not be accurate. There are sporadic faint readings that could be power or life forms, but I'm not confident enough in what I'm seeing to say they're true readings."

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Colin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/01/2026 at 7:46pm
Colin kept an eye on the instruments,  making sure nothing was taking us by surprise.  Wary of sudden shifts and possible surprises,  he also used whatever instrumentation that's at hand to scan for any local anomalies.
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Greggory Griffith View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Greggory Griffith Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/01/2026 at 7:18pm
Greggory sat there, running some calculations on his console.  "As long as the hull's intact, we'll power life-support and the computer core. That should tell us what happened while making the most of the Maverick's fuel. We can leave just enough to get us back to the Vanguard. If we've figured out what happened by then, we can set up an umbilical between the two ships and transfer enough matter and antimatter to start her core and get her back to the nearest starbase."

He looked over at Shirik and Yessen.  "Can we get any more information from the planet at this range? Is the Maverick's fuel supply and our power grid stable? There's been too many dampener fields ships have encountered to ignore the possibility."
Lt. Cmdr Greggory Griffith - XO
Lt. JG "Scruffy" LeBlanc - Engineer
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Yassen Idris View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Yassen Idris Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/01/2026 at 5:12pm
Yassen's brow furrowed as he kept his eyes fixed on the screen in front of him, as if staring at the sensor readings hard enough would force them to transform into something more promising. "How much time will that power provision to the Kepler give us?" he asked, turning to the rest of the crew. "To work out what went wrong, I mean." A day of keeping the Kepler in a stable orbit didn't necessarily translate to that amount of time in terms of gathering immediate, tangible evidence of what caused the ship to stall out here, especially if its rudimentary systems wouldn't hold out that long for the team going aboard. He hoped they'd be able to use as many of those precious hours as possible to gather information directly.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote raikon achaea Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/30/2026 at 7:24pm
Pulling up the sensor data Commander Lektar was gathering on her console, Raikon took a closer look himself.

“I'd have to agree with Commander Lektar. The Kepler is bone dry. We'll have to use the Maverick to provide power to some rudimentary systems, but it won't last long.”

He frowned as he looked over some of the other readings coming in.

“Looks like she's been without power for quite some time. No atmosphere either, so we'll need to suit up before going aboard.”
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Shirik Lektar View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Shirik Lektar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/29/2026 at 3:44am
Once the Kepler was towed to a higher orbit, Shirik watched the sensor readings change. "I'm getting more data," she said, and frowned. "Main power won't be online any time soon... I'm reading no fuel in the deuterium tanks. We can probably get internal sensors and maybe emergency lighting going from the Maverick, but it won't last long." 


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Colin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/28/2026 at 8:51pm
Following directions without making any changes,  Colin brings the vessel squarely along the ventral side,  taking it slow and easy.    He lines up with the port and makes a solid connection.
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Shirik Lektar View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Shirik Lektar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/28/2026 at 4:06pm
Shirik nodded, feeding the calculations she'd made on the way there to the helm station. She punched in in some commands and a beam flashed out from the Maverick and took hold of the Kepler with a slight shudder. "Tractor engaged, systems holding. Helm, take us to the coordinates fed to your console, slowly." She kept her eyes locked on to her console to keep a close eye should anything go amiss. "That should buy us another day," she told Griffith without looking up. "Once it's clear of the upper atmosphere we should be able to get better readings of the ship itself."

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Greggory Griffith Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/28/2026 at 3:18pm
Greggory nodded at his team and took his seat at the forward station.  He looked over the readings as the ship powered up. "Commander Lektar, request launch clearance. After that, you may take us out, Lt. Murray."

-----

Several minutes passed without incident.  In short order, the Maverick was pulling alongside the Kepler.

"Shirik, go ahead and initiate the tractor lock.  Let's try and drag it into an orbit that doesn't strike the outer atmosphere on each pass."

Greggory pulled up the schematics on the Oberth-class vessel. "After that, Colin, go ahead and bring us along the ventral side.  The docking port should allow us to connect our power grid and give Raikon access to the engineering deck."
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Wryn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/26/2026 at 5:48pm
Wryn gave a quick nod from the port-side engineering station as she dropped into the seat and brought the console online. "Understood, Commander. I'll monitor power transfer systems and stand by to assist Commander Achaea once we're alongside."

The display filled with idle status readouts and pre-flight indicators. For now, there was little to do beyond ensuring her equipment was ready for the work ahead. She ran a brief check of her workstation, then rested her hands near the controls and looked toward the cockpit. There would be plenty to do soon enough.

"Engineering is ready when the helm is," she announced.
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Colin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/23/2026 at 7:44pm
Colin says,   "Roger that,  Commander"  as he takes his station.   He looks everything over to make sure it's as it should be, making a start on a pre-flight checklist.
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