Operation Flintlock Act 2

Operation Flintlock’s Act 1 by Solas Tempus focused on evacuating Romulus before a supernova, involving strategic planning and the formation of an evacuation fleet. Act 2 faces new challenges: the STV Bonhomme Richard intercepted a remotely piloted Romulan Warbird, achieving tactical engagement without destruction for intelligence. Meanwhile, the STV Insane Prince encountered a damaged Romulan craft within a space-time anomaly. Additionally, the NVV Duzitzapa dealt with an infestation of Aloftex Arachnid species, raising concerns about biosecurity.

We have completed Act 1 of Operation Flintlock, this is the plot that has Solas Tempus attempting to evacuate Romulus before the Super Nova occurs which starts off the 2009 Star Trek movie’s alternate timeline. Act 1 was mostly scouting and preparation. Now we are into Act 2, and the convoy is headed to their 2nd stop now. Here is a summary of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2.


Act 1: Preparation Phase

Operation Flintlock was initiated by Solas Tempus in response to the critical threat posed by the impending supernova of the Romulan star. The preparation phase involved extensive logistical and strategic planning, including the deployment of scouting missions to secure viable planets for the establishment of Hermod Outposts. These outposts were intended to serve as logistical support points along the evacuation route. The operation also faced challenges related to the use of AI by Solas Tempus, which required careful navigation given the Romulans’ historical apprehension towards artificial intelligence. The phase concluded with the assembly of a substantial evacuation fleet, led by the flagship STV Basilisk, supported by a diverse array of escort vessels, prepared for the complex task ahead.

With meticulous coordination, the fleet embarked from Solas Tempus space, marking the operational phase of Flintlock. Under Admiral D’Amico’s leadership, the fleet, notable for its size and armament, surpassed historical precedents such as the Federation’s engagement at Wolf 359, indicating the scale and importance of the mission at hand.

Act 2: Conflict

First Stop: Gamma Ovalos Terminal

The fleet’s arrival at the Gamma Ovalos Terminal on the moon of Gamma Ovalos 2 facilitated a critical check-in process, ensuring all vessels, including the newly identified STV Bonhomme Richard, were present and fully operational. This juncture allowed for a strategic reassessment and logistical evaluation before advancing into less secure regions.

STV Bonhomme Richard Scouting

The STV Bonhomme Richard, under the command of Captain Tal Ravis, detected an anomalous signal during its mission in support of Operation Flintlock. Preliminary analysis indicated the presence of a Romulan T’Liss class Warbird, displaying unusual behavior consistent with remote piloting rather than manned operation.

Upon closer inspection, the Bonhomme Richard’s crew observed that the Warbird’s warp signature and power output were inconsistent with standard Romulan military vessels, suggesting potential modifications or sabotage. Captain Tal, adhering to protocol, initiated communication with Admiral D’Amico on the STV Basilisk, requesting guidance on engagement rules given the suspicious nature of the Warbird.

Admiral D’Amico’s directives emphasized caution, advising against direct confrontation and instead recommending surveillance and intelligence gathering. Captain Tal ordered the Bonhomme Richard to shadow the Warbird discreetly, aiming to intercept communications and ascertain its intentions without revealing their position.

The Bonhomme Richard’s attempts to decrypt the Warbird’s transmissions revealed that the vessel was not transmitting standard communication signals but rather telemetry and control data, confirming suspicions of remote operation. This unusual finding prompted a reassessment of the threat level and potential strategies.

As the situation developed, it became clear that the Warbird was on a course that would intersect with the convoy’s trajectory, posing a direct threat to the fleet’s safety. Captain Tal, with approval from Admiral D’Amico, made the decision to prepare for a tactical engagement, aiming to disable the Warbird without causing its destruction, thereby preserving the opportunity for intelligence recovery.

The engagement resulted in the successful neutralization of the Warbird’s operational capabilities, allowing a specialized team from the Bonhomme Richard to board and secure the vessel. The operation yielded valuable intelligence, including the recovery of the Warbird’s AI core, which was subsequently analyzed for information regarding its origins, controllers, and objectives.

The incident resulted in minor injuries among the boarding team and superficial damage to the Bonhomme Richard due to unexpected defensive measures activated by the Warbird in its final moments of operation. These casualties were treated promptly, and the ship’s systems were restored to full functionality with minimal impact on the ongoing mission.

STV Insane Prince Scouting

The STV Insane Prince, under the command of Vladimir Zima and Oscar Masing  was dispatched by the Basilisk to investigate sporadic energy readings approaching the convoy at a distance of approximately 1,580 AU’s from the convoy’s path.. Upon arrival, the vessel encountered an anomalous space-time distortion, displaying chaotic energy patterns and a sizable spherical disturbance in space-time, approximately 50,000 km in diameter.

Upon closer inspection, the anomaly exhibited intense distortions in space-time, with light bending and reflecting in unusual ways. The crew identified the source as a T’Liss class Romulan craft at the heart of the disturbance, presumably causing the chaotic space. Attempts to communicate were met with static, prompting a decision to engage. Initial attempts to penetrate the anomaly were unsuccessful, leading to a series of recalculations and maneuvers to breach the event horizon and approach the Romulan craft.

After several attempts, the Insane Prince successfully penetrated the anomaly, revealing the Romulan craft with a significant portion of its structure obliterated. It was concluded that the craft was not mined but instead, the chaotic distortion was a result of an unusual energy field generated by the vessel. The field, once stabilized, revealed the craft’s damaged state, with the central bridge and upper decks destroyed, indicative of a catastrophic internal failure rather than external munitions.

Infestation Aboard the NVV Duzitzapa

The NVV Duzitzapa experienced an unexpected shutdown of monitoring systems in one of its cargo bays, leading to the discovery of a significant infestation by unknown arachnid-like entities. The situation escalated rapidly, requiring immediate containment and eradication efforts. The malfunction of cargo bay sensors prompted an investigation by Engineer Itza, who discovered the cargo doors unresponsive and the monitoring systems offline. Upon manual override and entry, she encountered numerous head-sized spiders with red-glowing teeth, seemingly consuming ship materials.

Itza immediately requested security assistance while attempting to stun the entities with modified phaser settings. The creatures dispersed, utilizing the ship’s ventilation system and access corridors to spread throughout the vessel. A coordinated effort between engineering and security personnel ensued, focusing on containment and eradication.

Investigations revealed the source of the infestation to be contaminated food crates, likely harboring eggs of the Aloftex Arachnid species, known for their potential to infest and damage spacecraft if unchecked. Efforts to seal off ventilation and access points were partially successful, with some entities evading capture.

The use of electro-static fields and targeted pesticide applications, combined with manual eradication efforts, significantly reduced the threat. However, the incident highlighted vulnerabilities in cargo inspection protocols and the need for enhanced biosecurity measures. The ship sustained minor structural and system damages due to the infestation and subsequent containment efforts.

Recon Mission Authorized

Classified intelligence about a potential hostile stronghold near Romulan and Cardassian space was brought back by scout ships. This unknown force appears to be in or near the Bone Nebula. Fleet Admiral D’Amico has authorized a mission for the Force Recon division of the Solas Tempus Marines to gather valuable intelligence about this potential new thread.

Reports are that the unknown force destroyed or severely crippled the Romulan Fleet detected on the move recently. The mission will be to go into the nebula and determine if there is a threat, if so, neutralize it.

Recommending Reconnaissance Romulan Forces on the Move

Long range sensors have indicated that Romulan forces are moving into an previously unexplored region of space. It is unknown at this time why the task force is on the move. Command is recommending a reconnaissance mission be organized to track the group and investigate possible reasons for the fleet movements.

It is believed the task force consists of 2 Romulan Warbirds and 6 frigates with as many smaller vessels. The vessels were tracked heading out of Romulan space 3 days ago where the group cloaked shortly after passing through the edge of Cardiassian space, the group remained visible through that space passing through the tachyon detection network on the opposite side of Cardassian territory before cloaking.

Projected course puts the group heading out into unexplored space. Command recommends a scout mission be organized to track the group from the point they left Cardassian Space and attempt to locate them undetected.

Proceed with Required Refits

All Solas Tempus vessels should report to their designated repair and refit facilities for required sensor array refits to install the VAM Enhanced Sensor Pallets. All facilities will immediately begin upgrades to installed sensor systems as well as upgrading all fighters and auxiliary crafts.

In addition to sensor upgrades, vessels will receive upgrades to the Mark 1S Active Repair System which will also be augmented be Astromech Droids to improve internal repair effectiveness.

Contractors are encouraged to receive the upgrades and are eligible to receive access to a fully functional HAL Computer Hub for vessels receiving the upgrade. A minimal HAL installation is required for effective sensor operations but not for repair system upgrades. Contractors should contact their military liason or direct superior for further information.

Operation Stellar Horizon Update

Progress report was transmitted by the Stellar Horizon on schedule and was received at 0300Z via the transdimensional receiver array at Janus Station. Recon proceeding for uncharted star system, so far no hostilities have been found. The Stellar Horizon is holding position pending study of entertainment broadcasts received. At the time of the transmission the vessel had not encountered any resistance, hostile or otherwise. See file TDO-SOV-0010-1 for details.

OOC: Remember this feed is kept under wraps from the general public, internal Solas Tempus communications.

New Restricted Area

No personnel is to enter the given region without permission from their immediate superior and due cause.

The area of the most recent splices has been identified as a restricted area until further notice.  The bounds of this restricted area [corrdinates given] lie within the eastern grasslands of the Astarte Continent, where one of the groups of new arrivals initially appeared.  The area is exhibiting curious sensor readings and a recent research team has been evacuating after severe symptoms of nausea and headaches, the cause of which is yet to be determined.

No personnel is to enter the given region without permission from their immediate superior and due cause.  A 2nd research team is being formed, any personnel who would like to participate in the 2nd expedition into the area, which is officially designated zone Alpha-Gamma-5, should contact the office of Vice Admiral T’Breana, who is heading the research project.

Players who wish to participate or help plan this event should reply to this with a comment or contact me on Discord., this notice will be released to all contractors and Solas Tempus personnel, it is not classified

Scouts Requested

The recent loss of contact on the other side of the Grtul Gate and the recent loss of contact with the Severed Grace into a large anomaly has prompted the need to investigate further.  At this time Vice Admiral Timol of SPECCOM is requested contractors to volunteer to investigate these two occurrences.  Please send a message to the Vice Admiral for deployment information and compensation information.

OOC:  Players interested in this should comment on this post via the forum IC.

ASR Superseded by Astromechs

The Automated Service Robot or ASR has been a long-standing automated repair robot for the last two decades within Solas Tempus. With the successful advent of the Solas Tempus Astromech Droid based largely on designs from Imperial and Rebel Alliance vessels, the ASR is being replaced by the new Astromech Droids which have tested to be stable and more versatile than the long-used ASR’s.  All vessels will be outfit with a number of Droids commiserate with their current operational needs.  It is critical to understand that these new robots are sentient under ALFRE Act.

ASR’s still within operational capacity may be retained by vessels wishing to do so as a backup to the new Astromech Droids being brought on board.  Again, while the Astromech Droids are sentient, the ASR’s are not.  Sentimental attachment should not be accepted and only operational uses for remaining ASR units should be accepted.

Recovery of Lieutenant Commander Shepard

As per official news today Captain Laurena Bowells recovered escape pod with unconscious Lt. Commander Shepard.  There are still a few facts unknown to public. Lt. Commander Shepard was found aboard escape pod from Sovereign Class vessel with valid Federation transponder signal. She was heavy injured and unconscious, in addition there were traces of drugs found in her blood system.  After Lt. Commander Shepard woke up she admited to not remembering large part of time spent aboard vessel that holded her, possibly side effect of one of the drugs she was injected with.

With curent information we cannot exclude possibility of a security breach, nor possibility that Shepard could cross sides under extreme duress.  Currently all evidence and intel point to the operation of a Federation starship at same time and same area as kidnapping took place. It is highly unlikely that Federation as a whole was directly involved in the kidnapping. However, it is possible that some factions within the organization were directly involved, since they were delivering hardware and likely intel crucial to succed in capturing small vessel like Aerowing in open space. In addition, the flight recorder was missing from the craft.  While that doesn’t prove that the Federation took part in the incident, it is still important information.  There was clearly some intent to hide whatever was recorded by sensors by unknown parties.

Any information related to status of Lt. Cdr. Shepard is to be classified and not to be discussed unless proper authorization is obtained and security procedures followed.

Unknown Signal Intercepted

Operations officer of Nimbus Station has confirmed with crew of INV New Hope existence of unknown signal leaving planet, location was confirmed to be at or around of any colony, station, or ship identified within the Schatten System itself, but it was impossible to get proper coordinates.  It is also possible that signal was somehow encoded and / or relayed as to be especially difficult to detect.

Signal is strongly encrypted and teams at working on decoding it.  It is possible, though unconfirmed that some faction was at work within the system to produce the transmission.  The signal has been sent to Starbase Tranquility for concurrent efforts to decode along with the crew of the New Hope and specialists here on Nimbus.

At this time it is crucial to find way to intercept and fully decode signal like this if it will happen again.  The facts that we know at this time:

  • It is scrambled and encrypted.
  • Appears to be transmited using long range coms, possibly using hyperspace related technology according to New Hope technicians.
  • Appears to be transmitted from area of the system which uninhabited, but sensor scans don’t show anything unusual.