Columbia Mission 01: "Raid on Gamma Doradus III"

On its maiden voyage, the Columbia is sent to Gamma Doradus III, an uninhabited world near the Romulan Neutral Zone, to investigate reports that Romulan terrorists are storing a cache of ultritium in an abandoned science facility on the planet. Terrorists attacks using ultritium bombs have claimed numerous lives in both the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire, and the Columbia is to confiscate any explosives discovered and to clear the world of any terrorist presence. If unable to do so, they are to destroy the ultritium to prevent it from being used on any further civilian and military targets. To complicate matters, the planet is populated by giant insects.

Captain's logs

Capt Adaran 225

Stardate 21101.07

The USS Columbia sits ready to launch on its first mission. All crew have reported aboard, and final preparations are being made to leave Star Base Bravo's space dock. I have yet to meet with all the senior officers, having only talked to the Chief of Security, Lieutenant Commander Zzen Drell, and the Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Junior Grade Jenson Dulan, as well as the Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Levine Meels, whom I've met previously. Meels is the only one whom I know at the moment on more than a professional level, as she toured the ship with me before we boarded and we had breakfast together this morning. I feel confident that she and I will get along quite well. The others I hope to learn more about in the next few days, and I also hope to get along with them, though perhaps not as well as I do Meels. It's important, however, when working closely on a small ship that everyone gets along in some fashion. I also have a feeling that I'll get along just fine with my first officer, Commander Benjamin Vaughn.

So far, things on the Columbia appear to be operating smoothly. The only oddity I've encountered thus far is a rather strange Klingon engineer named Kraav. He was tapping his foot while reporting in to me, and he seemed distracted. I've sent him to Sickbay to get checked out. I think he may have some type of nervous condition. Earlier this morning, he also crossed up the ship's advanced security system while being "efficient" and was automatically transported to the brig on Star Base Bravo. I arranged for his release. I hope he uses more caution the next time he tries to be "efficient."

The crew knows nothing yet of our destination or our mission. I've been instructed not to tell any of them until after we launch, for fear of information leaks. The element of surprise will be important upon our arrival, and Star Fleet wants to take no chances. The mission could be easy or it could turn out to be impossible. We won't know until we get there and can do some actual reconnaissance for ourselves. Either way, I just hope the crew is ready for whatever comes. Though they were picked for this ship because of their talents, most of them have never found themselves in the types of situations they'll soon face, and I hope none of them crumble from the pressure.

End Log.

Stardate 21102.10

The Columbia has successfully launched from Star Base Bravo and is proceeding towards its destination, Gamma Doradus III, a planet near the Neutral Zone where Star Fleet believes Romulan terrorists may be hiding stores of the explosive ultritium. Our mission is to retrieve the ultritium and neutralize any Romulan activity on the planet. It will be a demanding mission, involving a great deal of ground work, but I'm confident we can succeed. The crew has come up with a number of helpful ideas to improve our chances. The main problem will be pulling off enough of an element of surprise to gain the initial advantage. To that end, we're sending out the stealth shuttle Eidolon to scout the system in advance of our arrival, to try and detect any cloaked vessels in the area or any other activity that we should note. Once they've returned to the Columbia, we'll proceed to the planet.

The ship itself has performed well since launch. Though it possesses new and experimental technology, we've experienced very few problems. The main concern has been an AI program that was apparently left in our computer core. It was inactive initially, but it somehow managed to activate itself again. It calls itself Ike. So far it hasn't caused any problems and has been helpful. It was meant to replace the computer's main personality program, so the threat level is quite low, I believe. Still, I'm having engineering and Lieutenant Commander Vos, my Chief Science Officer, keep an eye on it, just in case.

The crew has proved themselves quite capable over the past two weeks. Our first staff meeting got off to a rocky start though. It ended when I had to break up an argument between Vos and Lieutenant Junior Grade Dulan, the Chief Engineer. Things have gone much more smoothly since then, however. The only other incident involved Midshipman Klapphroth. It seems that there's something about Hermat physiology that negates the drugs given to Deltan officers to keep their sexuality repressed. We cause them to loose control of themselves, and when reporting in she propositioned me and then promptly collapsed. Doctor Meels has been looking into it. And I must say that the effects of the condition were equally felt by me. I could smell her increased hormonal level, which in turn caused mine to rise. It's an interesting phenomena, and one not surprisingly undocumented, since few Hermat have ever left our homeworld and engaged in Federation society.

Personal Log, Addendum

Though I had initially wanted to avoid it, I have become involved with Doctor Meels on a romantic level. While it's not completely unusual for a captain to be involved with one of their crew, I'd always resisted the temptation due to the complications it can cause. I met Levine, though, before I'd accepted the position as commanding officer of the Columbia, and things simply progressed from there. I suppose it was inevitable, on a small ship, that we would end up in a relationship, and I'm rather happy that we did. I just hope that I don't screw it up, though, like I always have relationships in the past.

End Log.

Stardate 21103.08

The Eidolon safely returned from its reconnaissance mission. As no activity was observed in the Gamma Doradus system while the stealth shuttle was present, I ordered the Columbia to proceed as planned. The shuttle crew used a new, recently-developed program to scan for cloaked vessels and found only evidence of past activity, in line with what Star Fleet intelligence reports had indicated.

We've now arrived at Gamma Doradus III and are preparing to deploy. Scans show the facility is active, with several Romulan lifesigns inside. The plan is for Master Sergeant Bartlett, Ensign Kraav, Lieutenant Commander Vos, and perhaps another Marine, to halo jump from the Eidolon while the shuttle continues on with the rest of the team. The advanced team will attempt to infiltrate the facility, with a goal of bringing down its power or security system. The remainder of the team, under my command, will land in the shuttle and set up operations in a different location, attempting to draw the Romulan's attention away from the first team, allowing them to do their work unhindered. If they're successful, we'll begin a heavy assault on the facility. Commander Vaughn will remain with the Columbia, in case we need assistance, and in case we have visitors.

Ensign Woods has been working with Lieutenant Vomis in Science on developing insecticides for the planet's native wildlife. They've developed two types of chemicals: one that attracts and one that repels. Both are untested, of course, as we have no time to do so, but I'm confident that they'll at least function well enough to help us keep the insects away while we work. That's all we can really ask for. Anything else is a bonus.

I've also taken on a new crewmember with a colorful past, Raass Giraath, a prisoner that Vice Admiral zh'Matis sent my way. He's on parole for charges related to an inappropriate resignation that caused him to be considered AWOL. I'm not quite sure I trust him completely, but he has a great deal of experience that will be beneficial to the ship, and I've put him on the assault team. He'll also make a convenient scapegoat should things go wrong and the Romulan government finds out about our activities on the planet, and that's part of the reason he was assigned to me. He currently resides in the brig when he's not on duty.

I'm also concerned about Kraav. For some reason, his name appears on the Federation's watch list, causing his security clearance to be severely restricted, which doesn't make sense as he was vetted to serve on the Columbia. It may be a simple mistake, but there are other incidents that give me cause for concern, including an indication that he knew about Giraath's arrival before it was made public. I'm watching him closely, as I'm suspicious that there's more to his story and to his assignment on the ship than meets the eye. zh'Matis may be playing more games with me.

Also, during the shuttle mission, Commander Vaughn observed another incident with Klapphroth. The Deltan was apparently affecting Dulan. I've instructed Lieutenant Sihu to talk to her about it, as I plan on using the Midshipman as our pilot during deployment, and I don't want any further incidents that might endanger the lives of the team because they're distracted.

End Log.

Stardate 21106.04

The Columbia's mission is now complete. Technically it was a success, though the outcome was not optimal. But we did our job, and we did it as best we could. I'm proud of my crew's performance. There are some fine officers on this ship.

The trip down to the planet's surface turned out to be rather rough. Soon after the advance team had jumped we came under fire from the facility's weaponry. The shuttle's stealth systems proved their worth however. The terrorists couldn't get a strong fix on us, so they fired in a pattern around our path. Midshipman Klapphroth demonstrated her piloting skills by avoiding all of the phaser bursts, though we did have one collision with a giant flying insect, which caused the Midshipman injury. She managed to bring us down safely, however, before losing consciousness.

Klapphroth's injury meant that we had to leave behind a guard to protect her on the shuttle while we moved towards the facility. I assigned one of the marines, Private Meris, to stay with her, while the rest of us started up the mountain towards the station's main entrance. Our arrival attracted the attention of several giant ant-like creatures, though, causing us delay. They tried to eat the shuttle until Meris cloaked it and electrified the hull. Once the ants had been distracted away from the main group by some of the attractant that science and medical had developed, we were able to proceed.

On the way up the trail, we discovered another entrance to the facility inside a hide which had been used by the Federation's science team assigned here years ago. Before we could all investigate though, we had unexpected company. Two groups of Romulans beamed down to the planet. The Columbia by that time had departed to answer a distress call from a freighter which was under attack. They later discovered that the attack had been a ruse to draw them away from Gamma Doradus III, allowing a Romulan Pvash class heavy cruiser and an Orion marauder to enter orbit. The new arrivals beamed down teams to the planet and apparently began beaming up ultritium from the facility, hoping to move it to a new location.

With us now being under assault from the rear, I was forced to leave most of the main team outside the facility, where it had begun to rain heavily, to watch the backs of Ensign Giraath and I while we explored a maintenance tunnel that led into the facility. The Gorn proved an admirable battle companion as we made our way into the station. We encountered no resistance in the tunnel. The only unusual incident was the discovery of giant eggs spilling out of a side tunnel, but we made it safely past. Three Romulans were waiting for us inside the facility though, but we caught them unawares by blowing the door open into a storage room rather than trying to enter quietly, taking out one in the blast. We dispatched the other two with a grenade and a full out assault. Several more were headed our way in the corridor outside the room, and we took them out as well. We had trouble with the next pair however. They drew me out into the open with a dud grenade, which I tried to send back to them. Giraath was able to step in and cover me while I regained my feet. He took injury in the process but was able to go on.

We made our way towards a heavily guarded room on the other side of the facility, where we detected the advanced team as well. We encountered several pairs of Romulans on the way, but we were successful in reaching our target destination and uniting with the other team. They'd taken one loss: Corporal Wetherby. Kraav had managed to clear out the Romulans guarding the room where the ultritium was stored, or where we believed it to be stored, and as we arrived he was setting up some explosives to take out the room.

We were becoming overwhelmed by Romulans at that point. Apparently more had beamed down from the Pvash heavy cruiser in orbit. The Columbia had returned to the planet and engaged in battle with both it and the marauder. The marauder escaped, but the cruiser was damaged and self-destructed to prevent us from boarding it. It beamed down some of its crew first, part of which threatened the Columbia team on the surface. The destruction of the cruiser though, which was carrying ultritium, also caused a large shock wave to hit the planet. While Lieutenant Commander Drell was injured in the blast, the surface team quickly recovered and began to evacuate on my orders. I'd made the decision to destroy the facility by that point. We were fighting a losing battle, and there was no way we were going to be able to hold the storage room. Kraav's explosives were in place, and we headed towards a loading/unloading area of the station, where the Columbia's sensors could detect us, and I asked for beam up. We found a few crates of ultritium waiting for us, which had probably been put there for the cruiser to take. The ship transported us out of the facility just as we were being overrun by the terrorists, and we arrived safely on board. I was injured on the leg in the process, and Kraav received multiple injuries.

Despite enemy fire, the surface team, led by Security Midshipman West and Ensign Wood, our medic, successfully made their way to the shuttle, where Meris and Klapphroth, now conscious, was waiting for them. They returned to the Columbia and reported in. Aside from Drell, two marines were injured. With all of us on board, I planned to give the order to blow the facility, but the ship's warp engines were offline from the damage caused when the cruiser exploded. We had to wait four hours for them to be repaired before we could proceed. The facility was then destroyed, and the explosive power of the ultritium caused devastation to part of the planet. Once the dust had cleared, sensors detected a massive crater almost a thousand kilometers wide on its surface and debris in orbit around it. The world had also been shifted a few tenths of a degree on its axis, and its orbit was pushed outward by a few thousand kilometers. Its rotation was slowed down by three seconds per day as well. It's similar to the destruction caused when an extremely large asteroid hits a planet's surface.

Destroying the planet wasn't the optimal solution, but it was the only one left to me. We couldn't allow the terrorists to continue in possession of the ultritium, so we were forced to take the explosives out of circulation permanently. While the planet might have been serious damaged, there was no intelligent life on it, and the ultritium, if left intact, might have been used to kill more innocent people in the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire. I know that some of the crew have struggled with our actions today, but this was certainly a case where the lesser of two evils had to be chosen, and I fully accept responsibility for having chosen it.

We are now helping the freighter Ergenstrasse, which had been attacked by the marauder earlier, finish repairs. We are also borrowing spare parts from them to help in our own repairs. Our EPS system was badly damaged in the cruiser's explosion, and replicators are offline, so we can't make our own parts. I've also been informed that we have an infestation of Altarian Land Crabs in our vent system. We're working to contain that at the moment.

We won't be heading back to Star Bave Bravo though. I've checked in with SFSOCOM and Vice Admiral zh'Matis, and we've received new orders. A Star Fleet freighter will rendezvous with us tomorrow to retrieve the ultritium we procured from the planet, and then we are to proceed to Star Base Delta. It seems Commander Vaughn is being given his own command, the USS Sheridan. I've only know him for a few weeks now, but he's proven himself capable, so when asked to give a recommendation for him I could only give a good one, which is unfortunate, because I hate having to give up a capable first officer. It takes a special person in that position for the Columbia. They have to be committed to Special Ops work, and they have to put up with me. Neither is easy to do. So now I have to begin the process of finding a new first officer, though I'm not in any hurry at the moment.

While at Delta, I'm to pick up a Lieutenant Macleod and bring him back with us to Bravo. He's being promoted to Chief of Security on a 2nd Fleet ship and needs a ride. Star Fleet also wants me to give him command training on the way, so that will keep me busy at least, though I look forward to the Columbia's next assignment. Being back in action again is a good feeling.

Supplemental, Personal Log

While on Delta, I plan to devote some time to my growing relationship with Levine. I'm not quite sure where this is all headed, but so far we've only been around each other on the Columbia, where we have to also maintain a professional relationship. Shore leave will give us a chance to truly get to know each other better, and I hope she isn't too disappointed in me after we do.

End Log.

Crew logs

First Officer

Cdr Benjamin Vaughn

Stardate 21106.16

My appointment as FO of the Columbia had come as a pleasant surprise, and since our first mission I have come to respect even more our CO, Captain Adaran 225. Her combat skills were a blessing for our last mission.

The Columbia had received orders to head for Gamma Doradus III, a planet near the Romulan border to find a consignment of Ultritium destined for terrorists, or, the renegade’s in the unrest in the Romulan empire.

Things went as planned and upon or arrival the Captain went down to the surface with the Away Team to help in their task of finding the explosives. For myself, I was left in command of the Columbia in orbit of Gamma Doradus III. However, we received a distress call from the freighter, Ergenstrasse which was under attack. Reluctantly, I ordered the ship to investigate.

It appeared that an unknown vessel, of Orin origin, which has promptly vanished as soon as we neared the area, had attacked them. Sensors told us it had reappeared at Gamma Doradus III, realising this had been a ruse to take us away from the planet. I ordered the frigate’s return, after leaving a small team aboard to Ergenstrasse to help with their repairs.

Arriving at Gamma Doradus III, we discovered that a Pvash class heavy cruiser that had seen better days had joined the Maurader –the Orion vessel –. I ordered the Columbia in to try and disabled both vessels, after which we received a hail stating that the cruiser was carrying a huge load of Ultritium and that they would destroy themselves if we continued our attacks.

As they refused to negotiate or stand down in there attempts to escape. I ordered another attack run, this time; we did manage to disable the heavy cruiser, only for their small crew to suddenly transport to the surface. The same time they set their ship to explode, hoping to catch us in the blast.

Fortunately, due in no less, to Lieutenant Sihu’s quick thinking we managed to survive the blast. Only to find the resulting blast wave had hit the planet around 50 kilometres from where the Captain and Away Team were currently situated. It was only a matter of time for us to find out if they had survived the blast, as the Columbia at that time was disabled without impulse or warp engines.

PO1 Miller and Lieutenant Dulan and the Engineering staff worked hard to restore the Columbia to enable us to move. It was a pity that the Marauder had escaped during the cruisers explosion, my guess is, they were carrying some explosives and I hope our interference has crippled their plans.

I only hoped that we were in time to get the Away Team out of danger from the planets surface. Once impulse was restored we returned to the planet and a scan by CMR Timmons revealed a transporter lock on only six of the Away Team and apparently, the Eidolon – Though its cloaking system made it difficult to pinpoint.

Because of the communications blackout I gave the order for us to wait, as I felt that our Deltan Midshipman was attempting a rescue with the shuttlecraft. Scans showed that the mountain the facility was built into was affecting our readings, though we did detect some kind of loading bay area. Then our consoles and systems on the bridge flickered then returned to normal, however, deck 4 had suffered a glitch as all power was off. I ordered Engineering to investigate the problem and wondered it was something to do with those blue crablike creatures we had encountered.

To cut a long story short, we finally heard from Captain Adaran who was transported to the Columbia with hir team, whilst the Eidolon returned to the shuttle bay with a few casualties. The Ultritium on the planet surface was destroyed remotely from the Bridge once we had repaired the warp core enough to get us out of danger. It saddened me to think we had to resort to destroying a large section of the planet and most likely a few of its indigenous species, but I feel that it was a necessary thing to do – even if it stopped the terrorists from using the explosives elsewhere.

We began our trip back to Starbase Bravo, but were diverted to Starbase Delta as it appears that I am to be given my own command, the destroyer USS Sheridan. I’m excited by the news, but also saddened, as I have come to regard the Columbia’s crew with some respect and consider them as family.

End log.

Science

CSO LCdr Kellan Vos

Stardate 21106.02

Wow, this is the first mission log I've had to write in a long time. Not much need for one when you're just running around a server room and doing diagnostics. I couldn't beleive when Commodore Jones at Starbase 314 told me about this assignment. He seemed to think I'd love the opportunity to stop patching up old computers and watch a brand new one in action. Now I'm not sure if he just wanted me to get some field experience.

First of all, this ship is amazing. I find knocking out the glitches to be quite relaxing. My first one had me using a dialect of Tellarite to bring back the default settings. It's a good thing Vos knows every Core language.

The ship's interactive AI system IKE is quite amusing too. He lets me examine his programming in exchange for playing tri-dimensional chess with him. He does put off a lot of the crew. I don't think they're ready for the computer to talk back to them. I find it easier, as IKE can translate my bouts in other languages to try and find a solution. But anyway, I digress.

Our first mission was to go to Gamma Doradus III, a planet near the Romulan border. It was beleived to be a staging site for the recent unrest against the Federation and a major stockpile of the explosive call ultritium. It's a pretty powerful compound known to be used in some of the recent bombings. Our primary objective was to secure the compound, both the explosive and the Star Fleet facility being used against the Federation. If that couldn't be done, well then we'd have to go to extreme measures.

The trip itself took two weeks. Gamma Doradus III is populated by large insects and given a joined Trill's rational fear of stinging creatures, I had someone from my department work with Sickbay to devise a cocktail of repellants to keep them away from anyone we sent down. The Columbia was the only ship dispatched to the planet, so I attempted to connect holoprojectors to two probes to make a decoy escort. The technology seems to work so far, so that's good.

I also read about a sensor modification that could lock onto a cloaked vessel. The article mentioned several engagements where the modification worked, but I don't think it helped for this mission. It had so far never met an Orion cloaking device, and I hear the Pvash heavy cruiser we just met was too jury rigged to probably read as a true Romulan vessel. Now I'm getting ahead of myself.

As I stated before, the terrorists were using a Star Fleet outpost as their base of operations. Star Fleet records show the outpost had been refitted during the last war with better defenses, including transporter inhibitors. I was part of an advanced team that made an orbital jump and then take out the ground based proximity sensors so the main team could move in.

It wasn't the smoothest of jumps, but not bad for someone who's spent the majority of his career running system updates. The only way for the advanced team to infiltrate the base was to crawl through the ventilation system. We found access hatches to get us inside the facility. Ensign Kraav from Engineering located some power distribution nodes that must have been vital to our objectives.

Of course, the Romulans who moved in weren't too happy to have company. We lost Weatherby, though. That was the first time I've seen death in combat situation. I didn't have time to think about it down on the planet. There was just so much disruptor fire. We fought our way to a cargo transporter pad in the facility's loading bay. We met the Captain and the rest of the strike team along the way. We were able to grab a few crates of ultritium before beaming out.

At the time of this log, Kraav's improvised bomb is waiting to take the rest out of it. It looks like I get to flip the switch, but wee need to get warp capability back. From what I understand, the Columbia responded to what turned out to be a distress call only to see ships in orbit over the planet. The rest of the crew had their own firefight with a beat up Orion marauder and a Pvash heavy cruiser. I'll add the details when I learn them.

End Log

Engineering

CE Lt JG Jenson Dulan

Stardate 21103.03

Ships status and current operations uploaded and attached to this log.

No major incidents to report. The ship has functioned better than expected and the Engineering staff are performing exceptionable. I do sense some signs of overconfidence in them, especially the younger ones but that is to be expected. When you get a transfer order marked special opperations it seams to cause people to believe they are the best of the best. Maybe they are, but they need to keep their feet in reality. I have been running regular drill's, Plasma fires and the like, to keep them sharp. Once we see some action it should break them off this mindset and keep them focused on the job.

The only abnormality to note would be the arrival of Ike, our resident personality program. He was the product of an experiment run on the Main Computer Core while it was still in alpha. While I object to a Beta stage core being used on an active starship, there have only been a handful of glitches which is good for even a standard core. Just like the core Ike has also been very little problem, in fact some of the crew have become quite fond of him. Except Kraav of course but that was never likely to happen.

Recently the shuttle Eidolon was used for a recon mission into the Gamma Doradus star system. Interesting contraption and I would like to recommend a pre-loaded recon configuration, similar to the program we used, for any future Type 9X class shuttles. Please find the program uploaded for reference. The obvious value of such a craft on this type mission should be plain to see.

End of Log.

Stardate 21103.03

Personal Log
Lieutenant Junior Grade Jenson Dulan
Stardate: 21103.03

I should never have taken this assignment. Being posted to a ship in the third fleet meant I could slip back to Betazed every other shore leave. Just so far away from everyone I know here. The crew have been friendly and welcoming so maybe I should get out a bit more. Drell, the Gorn chief of security, surprised me the other day. After a summons to security and a pretend chewing out, at one point I thought he may actually take a bite out of me, he revelled it to be a prank planned out by Cenara. Nice to hear from her again at least. Perhaps I could get one of the engineers on the Titan to get even, but what to do?

We are nearing our first engagement and it promises to be a big one. Although our quick sneak-peak came up empty, I'm not entirely convinced that there won't be anyone waiting for us.

End if Log.

Stardate 21106.06

Ships status and current operations uploaded and attached to this log.

It's been a while since the last status update, but as you can see from the overviews we have been quite busy. The ship took quite a pounding during a brief encounter with whoever it was we were fighting. Somebody thought it would be fun to shoot at a ship loaded with Ultritium. The resulting explosion left quite a mess and the EPS grid took the brunt of that, now power is more of a luxury across the ship. Since Mister Kraav is an expert on energy type things I feel he is the perfect person to dump this ... I mean assign this task too.

Oh one other thing worth mentioning. We have picked up an infestation of crab like creatures. If they did not all perish during the battle then they have gone into hiding for now. There's not much we can do about them for the moment but we will have the ship flushed out when we reach starbase. Despite there hostile actions and seeing myself as a walking buffet, I still wish no harm upon them, lucky buggers.

Repair schedules have been drawn up and work is due to commence soon.

Tune in next time for more exciteing updates.

End Log.

Ens Kraav

Stardate 21106.04

Begin log.

Shortly after I first boarded Columbia I came to believe that my time here would be unpleasant.

I must now retract that assessment. While I sustained some substantial injuries in last mission, they all ended up being superficial. I am certain that this is primarily because of my superior anatomy relative to that of other species, however some credit should be granted to Doctor Wood for his surgical skills in helping to stabilize a few of my more serious injuries, and saving one of my kidneys.

During the mission things were... interesting. First came the sky-jump. While many say this is an exhilarating experience, I would refer to it as terrifying, or at the very least extremely unpleasant. The landing was at least not as bad as I'd feared.

My team met at the tunnel into the facility, where we were to disable the primary power systems before the other team came in. We achieved this, despite an infestation of insects and deadly fans.

After infiltrating, which required some unique use of my equipment, we finally made it into the facility, where we encountered moderate to heavy resistance. With the efforts of Wetherby, who was I believe our single casualty, we managed to get to the target area, where we rendezvoused with the other team.

After a protracted combat, I was able to deploy a hastily-built-explosive. Unfortunately my detonator was damaged, and when we returned to the ship we had to reprogram the computer to send the detonation code. I then passed out from my injuries and awoke later in sickbay.

This is a very summarized version of the mission, as I simply wanted to point out that we were against enormous odds, and that while I attempted my best, I do not believe that I could have survived much less prevailed without the others on my team, notably Wetherby who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

He will be remembered with honor for his actions in this mission.

I would also like to note that, as a result of the activities of this mission, I believe that I have a great interest in demolitions, and also if I may say so a knack for them. As such I took a course in designing improvised explosives, and passed it on our way back to base.

I am proud that this will be added to my Star Fleet record. My value to the fleet is undoubtedly enhanced as a result of this.

End log.

Medical

CMO Lt JG Levine Meels

Stardate 21103.07

Things in sickbay seem to be running smoothly with little activity. We had an issue with a new tactical officer but that seemed to be fixed with some adjustments in her standard medication that she is on.

Ensign Woods has worked very hard on the assignment that I have given to him and now he will be part of the away team. They will be leaving soon.

On a personal note...I think I am in love...

End Log

Stardate 21106.14

This has been a very interesting mission to say the least. I decided to send Dr. Wood out on this away mission with hopes to calm the young man down. He does a great job but he can be very hyper. Upon his return he seemed very eager to get back into the swing of things in sickbay.

Speaking of sickbay it seems that we have been busy ourselves during this mission with injured crewman and basically this was the result of some sort of crud infestation of a shrimplike creature. Our poor Engineering Chief had to deal with it a couple of times. Nothing that a shot of Benadryl couldn’t fix though I needed to increase the dose. I had a couple of burns and some major surgery to handle but things seemed to have worked out. I know I am still waiting on Science to see what they found out about these creatures.

I am excited about my promotion and my medal. They both were very unexpected but I am glad. I will say I do enjoy this ship and its crew. With the Captain who I seem to be falling deeply for. I have no issies with that. Adaran is a wonderful person and honestly I don’t think I could be happier. Butt…there is an issue with a patient and her…well it will work out.

End Log

Ens Andrew Wood

Stardate 21106.03

...Argh...Liter of water - ~relicator sound followed by foot steps~...

I feel like crap, first time in a while, heh, missed it.

...Is this working? [The log is recording]

Good...log entry, log entry...I need to wake up a bit more. Or maybe go back to sleep.

Well, Gamma Doradus III, we were told it was home to large insects, how true that was. And Star Fleet science station/outpost occupied by Romulan terrorists.

For the bugs I helped a scientist, Vomis, make some cocktails, one to repel, one to attract. It turned out the attractant was most helpful. The shuttle ride down was pretty good, I've been in far worse situations. The advance team jumped on time, wish I could have been with them, that would have been fun. I haven't jumped since that time over the plains during a break at the Academy.

Oh, right, every went fine on the ride down, until we were to land and hit something, hard. I was told it was like large fly. Tracey did great job getting us down, a bit bumpy but, again, been in worse. She was, however, knocked out by the landing, I treated a wound to her head, but she needed to stay down so she wasn't a liability.

After that things were okay for a while, we found a back way into the facility, out smarted some large ants, got them to go after a group of Romulans that had come by, I'm not sure about that use of native fauna, but, really, that was what the attractants were for.

I sat, uneasily, in the science center for a while, when the Captain and Giraath went into the facility to link up with the advance team and the rest battled Romulans outside the down. I've always the known the life of a rapid response medic is one extreme to another, a battlefield medic is the same thing: tense boredom to sudden intense action. Well, this is waking me up, not i really want to thinking about it. Though it should help to get it out.

Hale took a glancing blow from a disrupter, so I had the happy time of running from the hide to his location under that same disrupter fire. He was bad, burns, armor and clothing melded with flesh, a huge mess. I tried to start separating it, but realized I couldn't really take care of it in the field, infection risk was high. So I gave him some pain killer and did what I could.

I fixed a leg laceration as well, nothing major he was back in it after a few moments.

...

Oh...right...that's when that happened. A huge wind storm, found out it was a Romulan ship exploding in orbit, caught us. I've never been through anything like it. It was like being caught outside in three combined class five hurricanes, with no rain. Trees were uprooted, boulders were moved. Some how I wasn't injured, I protected Hale as best as I could. That was when Commander Drell became unconsious, something in that storm.

I carried Hale to meet up with Don, er West, and get a bearing of what was going on. Before Widdle and I moved we tried to distract a group of Romulans who were close to us with the attractant. It was a bit more effective than that. Whatever it brought out cleared them from behind us. I feel bad about that, I know it wasn't a quick or pleasant way, but it was the most effective for us, we were outnumbered probably three to one.

After a bit more fighting we got to the shuttle, Tracy had woken up and evened the field for us. Once we'd gotten everyone in the shuttle we headed off the planet back to the ship. We heard the Captain then as well, that they were transporting out. I think, overall, it went very well.

The sad part is our only loss, Weatherby. A tragic end that, from the reports there didn't seem like anything could be done, but still...

I have to say while I didn't enjoy the fighting on principle, I enjoyed it. I've looked for adreniline rushes my whole life, and that was one of the biggest. I don't like how much I enjoyed it, I hope it doesn't become an issue.

It seems that life won't really be boring here, and that's a good thing. Well, I think I need to find some food, and see what's going on, maybe get some holodeck. I think I may still have an energy bar around here...

End log

Security

Ens Giraath

Stardate 21106.02

The mission to reclaim ultritium from former Admiral Tei's group of terrorists was only a partial success. The advance team succeeded in infiltrating the old Science outpost, but was unable to completely take down the outpost's power supply. The main team, of which I was part, failed to fully enter the facility. Of the main team, only Captain Adaran and myself were able to make entry into the facility. The rest of the main team was forced to defend against Romulan patrols that located our infiltration point. Midshipman West and Lieutenant Commander Drell (when he regains conciousness) will have more details about that.

The Captain and I infiltrated the facility via an access tunnel conecting an observation hide to the main facility. We breached the sealed door into the facility and immediately encountered resistance from the Romulan terrorists. We dispatched them quickly, and moved on, ambushing a patrol sent to reinforce the initial defenders. We made short work of them, but were ambushed by a second patrol. The Captain was lured out of cover, and I shielded her against enemy fire. I was wounded in the process, but having no choice, we continued on with our mission to secure and recover the ultritium.

We were able to link up with the surviving members of the advance team, though at this time the Romulans had managed to secure most of the ultritium, and presumably remove it from the facility. As I understand it, the Columbia did battle with a Pvash heavy cruiser, which claimed to be carrying large amounts of ultritium. The cruiser self destructed causing significant damage to the ship, and to the planet surface.

Once we had linked up with the advance team, we were able to secure a portion of the ultritium the Romulans had obtained. Being outnumbered, Ensign Kraav rigged an explosive device to destroy any remaining ultritium in the storage area. Both the Captain and I were wounded as we covered the withdrawal of the advance team to our inprovised extraction point. Shortly thereafter, we were beamed up by the Columbia, along with the secured ultritium.

Once back aboard ship, we had to wait four hours for the warp drive to be repaired before we could detonate Ensign Kraav's explosive device. Once underway, the Captian gave the order to detonate the device. The resulting explosion blew a peice of Gamma Doradus III into space. While the planet was not wholely destroyed, it has almost certainly been rendered unihabtable.

Commander Vaughn tells us that there was an Orion Maurader present in orbit, and that he believes they had ultritium on board. His belief cannot, however, be verified at this time.

Our casualties were light considering the nature of the task and the size of the terrorist force. Captain Adaran, myself, Lieutenant Commadner Drell, Ensign Kraav, and Private Hale were all wounded during the action. Corporal Weatherby was killed in action.

Lieutenant Commander Drell and Midshipman West, along with the Marines under their command, were successful in defending our entry point and in preventing the Romulans from flanking the Captain and I. Midshipman West is to be particularly commended for his actions, as he was forced to take command of the unit early in the fighting.

End Log.

Stardate 21106.02

Personal Log
Stardate 21106.02

Well. I'm back in Star Fleet. Officially. Well, almost officially. I have three months of parole to serve. Which means three more months in the damn brig whenever I'm not on duty. So I'm pulling double duty shifts. Beats sitting around in a cell for sixteen hours.

On th bright side, I did get to kill a lot of Romulans on this mission. Reminded me of the good old days. Found out that I miss have a planet beneath my feet. Amazing what three months locked up in a cell will do to you. Maybe once my parole is up, Star Fleet will let me retire. Wishful thinking, that. Damn T'Eleijha's family. Why the hell'd they have to go and rejoin the damn Imperial fleet? And why in the hell did her uncle D'Maec have to go get himself appointed to the Imperial Senate? Wasn't Admiral good enough for him? No, now he's Deihu D'Maec, or whatever the frak they call their Senators. Because of him, most of all because of him, the Federation won't let me out of their damn sights. Bad enough that Rhiana and her new husband Vrihn both rejoined the Imperial Fleet. Being frineds with the other side's version of James T. Kirk is way more headache that it's worth. Fraking Romulans. Fraking politicians. Fraking "back-channel negotiations". Fraking Star Fleet.

I think Derrick Grant was right about Star Fleet, and the Federation, drifting away from their ideals. Our mission, to steal some ultritium from Admiral Tei's group of terroists, authorized to destroy an entire planet if need be. And we did it. Blew a big fraking chunk right out if. Probably exterminated every living thing on that rock. If not, whatever's left will die soon enough. What's left of the planet can't possible maintain a stable orbit any more. So now Gamma Doradus III is a momunent to Star Fleet's ongoing mission of peace. So much for Federation ideals. At least the Romulans stick to their beliefs.

The only bright side to being Star Fleet's newest slave is that the crew they asigned me to is competant. Captain Adaran knows her stuff. She's a Hermat, or some such. I've never heard of 'em, but she's a good officer. Likes to lead form the front. Kinda like Commander Vrihn, actually. Ain't afraid to get down and dirty either. I think she enjoyed fragging those green-blooded, knife-eared bastards. I think she might have enjoyed fragging the planet, too, but I guess no one's perfect. The Medical staff seems competant. Sounds like Ensign Wood did his job pretty well under fire. The Klingon, Ensign Kraav, is a bit odd, even for a Klingon...and apparently likes blowing stuff up. Probably not a good trait in an engineer. Midshipman West, a Bajoran (well, half-Bajoran anyway), did pretty well. He had to take over after Drell got knocked out. Not bad for a rookie.

So I guess things could be worse. I could have been assigned to some backwater space station or planetary outpost.

End Log.

Mid Don West

Stardate 21106.04

This is my first official log recording since joining the Columbia. Ok to be honest, this is my first official log ever. I joined the crew on the Columbia straight out of the training academy and was thrown in the deep end.

The Columbia was much smaller than I had expected but the officers on board were all seasoned pros. I received a mission brief from my department head,Lt Commander Zzen, a Gorn.

I was assigned to an away team mission to the planet Gamma Doradus III. The initial reports from planet was that the planet was inhabited by large insectizoids. Our task was to get in, get the Ultritium and get out. If only it was that easy. An advance team was sent down to the planet to get inside the out post and locate the Ultritium. We were taken by shuttle to the planet surface to provide support. The Captain took charge of our team, the initial landing was not of the smoothest, Midshipman Klapphroth accidentally collided with the biggest fly I have ever seen. She was rendered unconscious.

My first contact with the creatures on the planet came ten minutes after our "crash" landing. I had the lead and I was making my way towards an abandoned facility, when six giant ant like creatures came out of hiding, right towards me. We managed to evade them unscaved.

The intel we had on the planet was bad. We spent a lot of time working on insect repellents and who knows what else. But as soon as it started raining, they were all gone.

On the hill tops, we found an old tunnel system leading into the facility. The Captain took a few men inside. I was instructed to guard the entrance, under the command of Lt Commander Zzen.

We faced waves and waves of Romulans. It seemed like if we took one out, he was replaced with two. We tried to change locations to get an tactical advantage, but nothing appeared to help.

And then the storm! Another factor which would have been nice to know about before the time. The wind was so strong, I was swept off me feet and slammed into the ground. It passed quick, but it uprooted trees and even pushed the shuttle around. By the time I got my bearings back, I saw Zzen was down. I made my way to him as quick as I could. I found him unconscious. With Zzen out cold, Ensign Wood was the next ranked officer, but him being a doctor and me having military back ground, we formed a joint lead. By this time the injury list was getting out of control. Wood did well to attend to all their needs.

The turning point came from an unexpected source. Midshipman Klapphroth, she managed to get the shuttle in the air, and this increased our fire power significantly. She also managed to land the shuttle in front of the tunnel, making sure our part of the mission was successful.

We managed to get everyone to the shuttle in more or less one piece, as we received a message to leave the surface.

All thing considered it could have been much worse.

End Log.

Stardate 21106.04

Personal Log
Stardate 21106.04

Well I can't say my time on the Columbia has been boring! From the minute I stepped aboard it has been none stop action.

The away mission on Gamma Dordus III has once again reminded my that I am not bullet proof. By the end of it, my legs felt like jelly. I must make it a point to get to the gym more often.

On a lighter note, I think I'm going to read up a bit more on Deltans. Tracey is the first one I have had direct contact with. I wonder if they are all as ...uhm, nuts as her. Well either way, I owe her and Ensign Wood a Bajoran Ale.

End Log

Tactical

Mid Trac Klapphrothr

Stardate 21106.07

HELP!! If you are ready this message, the computer memory bank you found belong to the USS Columbia.

Hehee, only joking. Well for now any way. The crew aboard the Columbia are suicidal! On more than one occasion now, they have either attempted to kill us all or destroy the ship. The Columbia’s crew compliment is also made up of the strangest people. Our Captain or Cap like I like to call her, is super hot, but has no taste in woman. There are more giant lizards walking around here than humans. One of the humans we do have is so hypo, I’m just waiting for his brain to pop. Ben is another human, he is the first officer and super cute. He made be the smartest one on board, because he is abandoning ship at our next stop, Starbase Delta. Oh yes and then there is Indiana, he is a Bajoran, but has the personality of a Borg drone. No offence to any drones meant. Yes and we have mind readers too.

Let me update you on our last mission, or like I like to call it, near death experience.

It was the first mission assigned to the Columbia. I think the Captain was pissed off that they gave her such a same ship and decided to destroy it on her first mission. Luckily that didn’t happen and we still have the Columbia. Gamma Doradus, a planet filled with hostile creatures and even more hostile Romulans. I was involved in both the primary survey of the planet and the actual mission. I am a pilot, and I took a few crew members to survey the planet in a new shuttle, the Eidolon. She handles like a dream. And she has a super cool cloaking device on board. The survey went well and we returned unscratched.

I was then some how roped in to go to the planet surface too, but not before three of our members decided to go orbital jumping, I think Woody forgot to give them their meds that morning. On entering orbit we were shot upon and then to top it off, I flew the shuttle into a large fly. Ok that was my bad. I decided to take a nap for a while.

When I awoke, I found that we had managed to piss the entire planets population off and we took heavy casualties because of it. Then a Marine by the name of Meris decided to that me outside during a wind and rain storm. Shame, marines aren’t the smartest of beings. Well there was some more shooting and shouting and then we left the planet.

They tell me the mission did not go as well as planned. I think they forgot to plan for the mission at all. If the crew doesn’t get us killed soon, I’ll make another entry in a month or so!

Ok bye bye.

End Log