The system the Sally Ride found herself in was small and sparsely inhabited, mostly by miners on the second planet and scattered through the system's asteroid belts. Traffic was low, mostly limited to freighters and sparse aerospace patrols. The Sally Ride took up a location at the nearest planet to the star, taking advantage of its position on the opposite side of the sun from the inhabited planet to cover its approach. Engineering and science crews immediately began warp engine repairs while the ship hid above the first planet's northern magnetic pole. The ship's shuttle complement had been prepped to fly in a tight formation, altering their energy output and sensor reflections to appear to be a larger vessel, in case the Sally Ride needed a decoy to distract pursuers.
The ruse turned out to be necessary sooner than the bridge crew had hoped. Shortly after the Sally Ride entered the system, so did a flotilla of unknown vessels that would prove to be extensively modified KDF ships. Direct sensor probes were not an option, as they would have given the Sally Ride's position away, but from observation it became clear that the KDF ships' sensor suites had been massively augmented, at the expense of their tactical systems. Other modifications had probably been made, but were not readily apparent in the short encounter. The ships immediately began powerful, wide-range scans of the system, spreading out along the orbit of the second planet to cover all angles.
While the Sally Ride was still in the solar blind spot, the shuttle formation warped to the edge of the system and returned on another vector, hoping to interrupt the methodical search. This was partially successful: KDF aerospace patrols immediately pursued the disguised shuttle formation, and part of the flotilla of sensor ships broke off from the general search to deep scan the area at the edge of the system where the shuttles had originated. However, this only bought some time: half of the flotilla continued to spread along the second planet's orbit and close the blind spot.
Before the aerospace patrols got close enough to see through the shuttle ruse, the formation broke and engaged them. This was still insufficient to distract the flotilla of larger ships from their search, and before long, the shuttles had to leave the system. Warp engine repairs were completed and shield repairs barely begun when the orbiting general search finally closed the solar blind spot and scanned the Sally Ride. The ships that had been searching the edge of the system immediately closed on the first planet at top speed.
Lieutenant Orenn attempted to bluff the commander of the modified flotilla, pretending to be a damaged Gorn vessel fooled by the shuttle formation into hiding. The unknown commander played along with the ruse long enough to enter weapons range, at which point he abruptly demanded a surrender, correctly identifying the Sally Ride by name. With no chance to win in a straight fight, the ship attempted to escape directly through the approaching enemy formation. The shuttles (who had earlier returned in a failed attempt to distract the ships approaching the Ride) attacked the formation's flank, while the Waverider was filled with photon torpedoes and launched as an autopilot kamikaze attack.
The modified vessels must have detected the Waverider's cargo, because it was immediately forced away from the formation by powerful repulsor beams, keeping the Klingon ships out of the blast radius. This did, however, put it behind the Sally Ride, so that when it was detonated, the shockwave sent the Starfleet vessel hurtling past her aggressors on an unpredictable vector. Shuttle pilots were retrieved by transporter and their vessels auto-destructed, putting the Klingon vessels in disarray long enough for the Sally Ride to escape.
The ship was, predictably, heavily damaged in the confrontation. Shield systems are essentially slag, and the enhancements to the secondary deflector have mostly burned out. The warp nacelles took some damage in the blast, but thanks to repairs are still improved, operating at 89 percent of factory standards. Casualties have been reported on all decks, and hull breaches on four, six, and eight. Sensors have not detected pursuit as of yet, but there's no question that the KDF knows we're here.
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OOC Notes:
Once again, a very fun event! Sorry the report was so long: I tried to cut it down, but a lot happened in this scene. Feel free to append personal reports and information about your character's activities during and after the scene, even if you weren't there.
There will be another event next Saturday at 6pm EST, unless you guys suggest a different time. Feel free to show up early if you would like your characters to just chat for a while before the official conference begins; I'll generally be ready to host a couple of hours in advance, and the conferences can happen in anybody's lounge, not just mine.
Does anybody want me to post full-on logs of these events? I generally keep them for my own reference, and I could clean out the tells and OOC and post them so that people who weren't there will know what went on at each event.
