Yoritomo Mission 02: "Gorns, Romulans, and Orions, Oh My!"

Captain's Logs

Cdr Mortarr K'ang

Stardate 20006.02

Captain's Log, Stardate 20006.02

Commander Mortarr K'ang, Commanding Officer of the USS Yoritomo reporting.

The mission began with a noble purpose; that of bringing a diplomat to meet with an emissary from the Gorn Confederation, that they might discuss treaties of mutual aggression.

The journey was uneventful as we ventured towards the Alpha Triangle, and Lieutenant Longbow was tasked with assisting Ambassador Mattox in her duties. I thought having an empath on our side might make things flow more smoothly. We rendezvoused with the GCS Galgarax and made arrangements for dinner and to discuss the itinerary for the treaty negotiations. Ensign Dax had managed to track several cloaked Orion vessels, but none were within any distance to pose a likely threat.

Unbeknownst to us, a tiger stalked us from the grass; a Romulan Firehawk Heavy Cruiser. They had been supplied with the command console codes; these codes were used in a most sinister way.

First, they lowered our shields, but most importantly, they had us fire on the Galgarax as its commander and his entourage were beaming over. No sooner had our weapons discharged than the Gorn commander, Salorin, attacked the reception party gathered in Transporter Room 3. The only reason I am giving this report right now and not Lieutenant Longbow is because Midshipman Sarvo sacrificed himself to protect me from a fatal blow. The other fatality from that skirmish was Ambassador Mattox; she was struck by one of the Gorn.

We were able to subdue them with concentrated stun phaser fire, as the Marines and Security teams had been practicing. Once we sorted out the mess that had been made, we felt relatively safe, since we still did not yet know of our hunters. As we were starting to determine that the command console codes had been used, a saboteur, beamed over during the confusion, set off two charges as we returned to the Bridge. These caused hull breaches and through us off kilter yet again, as they were designed to do. Just as we are stumbling back to our collective feet, the saboteur drops the final blow and detonates a bomb under my command chair that had been beamed over while we were in Transporter Room 3.

I set the Marines loose hunting for the saboteur, but as luck would have it, Ensign Dorin and Midshipman Gage, found him and stunned him first. The Marines secured him in the brig and removed any and all suicide devices they could locate. About that point, I had ordered the standard Romulan frequencies to be jammed by playing my favorite Klingon opera across them. We coordinated with the Galgarax to try and drop a shield and damage the Firehawk's sensors, that we might be able to get away.

The Firehawk split its fire between us, yet still inflicted grievous damage to both vessels, including obliterating a warp nacelle on the Galgarax. Even after reviewing the sensor logs, I still don't know how our combined weapons fire caused enough damage for the Firehawk's hull integrity to fail like that. Maybe it was one of those one-in-a-million shots that caused a catastrophic loss of containment on their artificial singularity. Once we had time to put out the fires, treat the wounded, we then took time to honor and mourn the dead from both sides. Having received word from HQ about recommended decorations and promotions, I held a Commander's Call in the Shuttle Bay, that all might be recognized.

Looking back over the events, I see that there is more to be gained through friendship than through hate. I reserve Hate for the truly deserving and They know who They are.