Tactical Talk

Posted on Thu Apr 20th, 2023 @ 8:43am by Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant Commander Malakai Starr [Taylor]

Mission: Season 6: Episode 2: Survival
Location: Elysium Armory
Timeline: MD3
1077 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Malakai surveyed the damage the armory had sustained it was considerable to say the least. phasers, phaser rifles had been ripped from their stands and now lay scattered across the floor. Power cells had been violently pulled from their power stations. It was going to take time to see which were charged and which were damaged. Thankfully the photon grenades were still in their crates and looked undamaged.

He looked to his companions. "This is a mess an unmitigated mess and I'm being polite."

Rin carefully walked through the room with an image recorder, careful not to disturb anything. "Do you know if anything's missing?" She asked. "And when's the last time someone had seen the armory intact?"

Malakai shook his head, "Not at first glance, no I can't tell Rin." As he carefully avoided disrupting any of the articles littering the armory floor.

"Are you sure this didn't happen during the accident?" Rin asked.

Malakai shook his head, "No, I'm not. This all could have happened when we encountered the quantum filament. It was just reported now, when a security officer got back to the ship and was making a routine security sweep."

"Do we have an inventory of what should be here?" Rin asked.

Malakai nodded, "We do." He replied handing her the PADD he held. "I've pulled up the inventory of what should be here." He stated.

Rin looked it over, then eyeballed the scattered weapons. She was confident they were going to come up short. She then uploaded the images she had taken so they could input data on each one.

"There's a lot of rage here," Rin commented. "Unless the chaos is meant to disguise something, this doesn't seem particularly planned. Someone was angry."

She looked to Zara. "We need each of these scanned. DNA, discernable tampering, any other trace materials."

Rin then turned to Malakai. "Assuming this didn't hapen in the accident, I suggest having everything taken to be properly examined by a weapons expert and test fired, just in case someone left any nasty surprises behind. We're going to need people to oversee that transfer. Where would you like them taken?"

Malakai looked at Rin for a moment maybe two before replying with a shake of his head. "Now, that is a very good question Rin. I know I don't want them taken down to the planet if at all possible. I prefer the range here if it's useable."

"Avalon, what is the status of the firing range?" Rin asked.

"Firing range is structurally intact, but target holo-emitters are offline."

"That sounds like 'close enough' to me," Rin said to Malakai.

Malakai gave a shake of his head. "For our needs it is definitely close enough Rin."

Rin moved over to the crates, keying in her passcodes to open them one by one to confirm their contents were still present.

"The photon grenades are all accounted for," she assured Malakai. "Which implies either the suspects didn't feel a need for them for whatever it was they wanted to do, or they simply did not have the access codes.

Malakai nodded, "That's a plus Rin. That they weren't able to get into the grenades." Malakai walked around the scattered weapons. "I can't tell for sure, not until we do an actual inventory, but it looks like the phaser rifles are all here as well."

Rin sighed as she continued tallying. "We're short 5 type-1 phasers. So someone wants to be subtle about whatever they're doing."

Malakai stopped walking at Rin's announcement. "Five type 1 phasers. Subtle or maybe he or she has friends."

"Oh, I'm assuming this is for more than one person," Rin said, standing up from where she had been kneeling over weapons. "But they want something they can slip into a pocket and walk around with, even though it's not as powerful as the other weapons here. at a guess, the goal isn't a show of force. It's to get a job quietly done and then get away. The question is: who do they want dead?"

"A very good question indeed Rin." Malakai replied. "Perhaps it isn't someone but someone's." He suggested. "Either way, we have a problem on our hands. Which leads to a bigger problem. Who do we trust?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Rin said evenly. Despite Intel's reputation to suspect everyone, Rin understood the drawbacks of such an approach. Do it too often and it smacked of paranoia, which only alienates potential allies and resources. "DNA scans will hopefully give us a list of people who have been in here recently and weren't supposed to be."

"Not getting ahead Rin, Just pointing out a potential possibility that's all." Malakai answered. He was very impressed with Rin's approach to the scene and her professionalism.

Rin tapped at the PaDD in hand. "I have 14 distinct DNA traces. 12 belong to people authorized to enter the armory - which doesn't completely eliminate them as suspects, but let's set them aside for the moment. That leaves 2 who are not." She handed the PaDD over to Malakai.

Malakai looked at the PaDD as he took in the DNA traces. "I agree set aside the 12 traces of those who are authorized to enter the armory. However, these other two traces are interesting as they have no business being here."

Rin nodded. "So do we come at them hard or soft? See if someone can befriend them, see if they can get a glimpse of where their minds are? Or just find, arrest and question? My suggestion in the latter. This doesn't look particularly planned. These aren't criminal masterminds. And if they are this angry, we probably don't have a lot of time for subtleness."

Malachai thought on what Rin said. It made sense to just go and arrest the pair and confront them. "We give this information to Commander Taylor and Lt. Commander S'hib and let them arrest and confront the pair."

"Yes, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Make a copies of this. Send one to me, you keep one and send one to Commander Taylor and Commander S'hib, naming Ensign Anish Talan and Lieutenant Carly Morrison as suspects in the break in of the armory." Malakai replied.

"Yes, sir. Both commanders are planet-side. I'll get this to them immediately." Rin was already moving as she spoke. She was going to have to disrupt the shuttle schedule - this couldn't wait for the scheduled rotation.