Stone-faced Witnesses - Part One

Posted on Fri Mar 20th, 2020 @ 4:14pm by Captain Tolian Brevik & Commander Malcolm Walters & Commander Gaggeva Stark & Commander T'Shamsu & Lieutenant Martin 'Pharma Bro' Shkreli & Lieutenant Rosalie Avila & Lieutenant Grovian T'Mass & Lieutenant Riycal Shonan & Lieutenant Stozg & Master Chief Petty Officer Gwen Adams & Lieutenant Megan Delgado & Lieutenant Colonel Athaw "Warlock", son of Tohrnn & Colonel Anthony "Ironhide" Raynor & Chief Sergeant Nadine Jes-Tereth

Mission: Mission 103: The Rumblings of Discontent
Location: Various Locations - USS Solemn Penance
Timeline: 0900Hrs - August 26th, 2393

Captain Martin Shkreli sighed softly as he walked back onto the bridge that was now his, he felt it should have always been his. To him, aliens existed only to serve humans and their manifest destiny. He knew he couldn't control the crew as many of them simply refused to follow his orders, citing the legality of his command change over by force, many of them had protested the suddenness and dramatic of the matter. Others had suspected that he was lying and had outright refused to follow his orders as a result of this. Then there was the curious case behind Ironhide and Warlock, who both had seemed to vanish.

Skherli narrowed his eyes as he suspected that 'Endor' had something to do with the matter, as she had been dating Ironhide and she was also missing as well, but the good news was that DeCrescents had remained in his little box due to his verbal agreement with Captain Brevik, he made a mental note to double the guards keeping an eye on the Marine and he pressed on with the next item on his list.

He needed to cull the unfaithful from the loyal. Now law and order on the USS Solemn Penance were falling apart as he now needed to do something about it. He sat down in the command chair as he tapped the display. "Attention all crew, this is your Captain speaking. Anyone on this crew who cannot or will not take my orders, assemble in the main starfighter hanger bay on the double... Further instructions will be delivered at that time." as he smiled cruelly. "Anyone who does not, I will assume you are able to follow my orders and do as you are told."

The various people scattered around the bridge all began trading looks but opted instead to say nothing at all, all the while as Skherli proceeded to lash out at his crew.

Newly promoted Commander Darrell Todd frowned as he turned to face Skherli. "Sir. I just lost the internal sensors, as soon as a switched to the backup, the system shorted out, we've been sabotaged," he growled. "One of the crew sabotaged it."

"Ironhide," Shkreli growled ever so softly.

"Sir?" Todd answered.

"Get down to the science lab and deal with the matter in question Todd," Skherli answered. "Take whoever you need but I want the system working again," Skherli answered evenly. "Until we get crew we can trust... We're stuck working with what little we have." he sighed softly, as his right hand clenched into a fist.

Meanwhile, lying on her side in a Jefferies tube somewhere on deck eight lay Nadine Jes-Tereth as she worked at an access panel, her small nimble fingers doing what manner of evil works, she and Ironhide had run into Warlock almost twelve hours earlier and they had perfected their sabotage of the ships security sensors, now they needed to take the entire computer system offline so they could start their little war against Skherli and his band of mutineers.
Ironhide knew she was working and didn't like to be nagged every ten minutes. "Almost there..." she said quietly. "Just need to get the last of the security lockouts..."

"Nice," Ironhide answered, he was keeping watch while she worked.

Jes-Tereth tapped the display twice. "Got it, I'm in... Uploading protocol worm now... and now disabling the system with a fractal encryption code, my own design... They'll want me to disable this later." as the middle-aged female grinned rather malevolently. "It will spread from here and eventually disable the entire ship but it'll take about twenty hours to take full effect, until then it'll swarm-replicate itself using the computer processing power to do it, what's worse is that its designed to mimic the computers normal patterns, so the system won't tell you its been hacked... Until the system dies." She added the last as a joke.

Ironhide was impressed as a smile graced his lips, as Nadine went to exit the Jefferies tube as he sighed softly but he was interrupted as someone stuck a phaser into Nadine's face but there was nobody else present. "Come on out of there, you two." Nadine did not seem intimidated in the least. Ironhide quickly understood why someone had gotten the jump on him as a face who had seemingly been disembodied had appeared before them. "Ensign Todd... What are you doing mixed up in this...?" Nadine inquired of the bodiless man before the two of them.

"Captain Skherli relieved Captain Brevik of command on account of possible war crimes," Todd answered. "I have a duty to-":

"Look into the matter and decide for yourself, no one is gonna yell at you for double checking..." Ironhide answered evenly. "Put the phaser and we can discuss this.."

"You have committed an act of possible sabotage against this ship and this crew, endangering us all," Todd answered. "The Captain will want you both for questioning, come on... Let's go." Todd indicated the door. "Start walking... If you don't then I will shoot her and then you."

"Stay frosty, kid... No need to get all hot and bothered. You got the gun after all..." Ironhide answered as he smiled. Todd raised an eyebrow as he suspected something was amiss when he suddenly started looking around but saw nobody nearby. "What!"

Ironhide simply laughed aloud, as he decided to help the poor man out with his search. "I believe you are looking for.. this," Ironhide responded as he held up his tricorder. "I have it set to jam all weapons within twenty feet. Not far but far enough to be effective..."

Thew Ensign went for the tricorder, he was quick but Ironhide was fast but Nadine was even faster still as she smashed the pointy end of her boot into her attacker's groin, Todd felt the world fade from view for a moment as he felt a wave of pain surge over his overloaded nervous system as he dropped to his knees, he could feel tears emerge from his eyes as his nervous system slowly started to recover from the surge of pain.

Ironhide gently grasped the large man, holding him up rather than let him drop to the deck. "Todd, why are you siding with a mutineer... a Traitor..." he paused. "You know that Starfleet Command is going to shaft you... right?"

Todd growled. "The Human Defense League will win, so it matters little..." he shook off the pain as he went for Ironhide, as Nadine grasped Todd's head before she quickly snapped his neck, saving Ironhide as a knife clattered to the ground, which landed next to the body of Todd, now quite dead. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Ironhide sighed. "I was... hoping..."

"I know..." Nadine sighed as she knew he needed a moment. "But come, we can grieve later..."

"Yeah... right." and with that, the two departed.