The Archanis Campaign: Task Force 72 Releases
jonileth
Member
[Task Force 72 Operations Center, Starbase 72]
Captain Bastin sat in his office, a spacious compartment within the Operations Center, walled off by transparent partitions that could be made to shift to a solid color when the need for privacy came about. The first few times the feature had activated on its own, Bastin had found himself flinching in confusion over the sudden narrowing of his field of vision. Now, however, as the walls began to fill up with a slate grey appearance, Bastin wasn’t overly bothered by the change. Instead, he lifted his eyes from the reports he was reading to the holographic screen that had materialized at the far end of his desk.
“Captain Bastin, I do hope I’m not catching you at a bad time,” the face displayed before him said by way of a greeting.
Bastin sank back into his chair, “Not at all, Admiral Beckett. Just the usual neverending tide of reports that come with the territory.”
“I can imagine,” the Admiral chuckled before frowning, “I’m afraid what I have for you will only add to that tide. Have you been keeping up with affairs around the Klingon border?”
“I’ve heard a few rumors, but nothing concrete… why do you ask?” Bastin felt his own face drawing down into a frown.
“Preliminary reports indicate that the Hunters of D’Ghor have begun raiding vessels and planets around the Archanis Sector. We’ve been getting everything from distress signals to out-right condemnations from the locals over the situation and how we are responding to it,” the Admiral explained with a severe tone.
“That doesn’t sound like something we can realistically be blamed for being unprepared for…” Bastin sighed, “Though I suppose the logic of it doesn’t mean a whole lot to the people who are suffering from these unprovoked attacks.”
“Precisely,” Beckett nodded, “Whether we were caught off guard and blindsided by this turn of events, the people in the Archanis Sector expect us to respond. How we do so will have a resounding impact of how Starfleet and the Federation as a whole are viewed for a long time to come. Which brings me to the topic at hand. I’d like for Task Force 72 to send whatever resources they can to assist us. I know you aren’t exactly flush with them, given the most recent developments inside the Cardassian Union, but we need a diplomatic presence around Archanis. Even one ship could make the difference, especially when our enemy isn’t so well defined as they have been in the past.”
“I suppose there’s something to be said for going up against an adversary that’s well known. At least if this were the Borg or the old Romulan Empire… we’d at least have some warning and a plan to respond to the threat as it develops…” Bastin complained as he drummed his fingers against the desk.
“It isn’t the best scenario one could hope for, I admit. But that is what we’re dealing with at the moment and we have to do the best we can to prevent this from blowing up out of proportion. Do what you can to help us, Jon… We need all the help we can get,” the Admiral said, summarizing the situation as an indicator that the communication had reached its conclusion.
“I’ll start moving things around, Admiral. Bastin out.”
When the screen flitted back to the Federation seal before disappearing entirely, the walls of Bastin’s office began to turn transparent once more, prompting him to leave his chair and walk out onto the floor where he could begin making the announcement.
“Listen up,” Bastin said, his voice just below an outright yell, “We’ve got a situation in the Archanis Sector and Starfleet needs us to move manpower and material to support their efforts. Currently, it is believed an extremist group is running raids on the Federation side of the Klingon border, which means either they aren’t organized to any significant degree yet… or they want us to think they aren’t. Either way, time is our enemy just as much as these extremists are. I need a logistics brief on our expendable supplies, and I need a headcount of all the ships we have that aren’t deployed on critical diplomatic missions at the moment. Relevant section heads need to be in the conference room in one hour to discuss this.”
A great many heads bobbed at the instructions being handed out, though in the chaos that was the normal ops tempo of the room, most of the nods went unnoticed. Bastin didn’t waste a great deal of time worrying whether people had understood his orders or not. They were a competent enough group of men and women, which meant even that small bit of information would be more than enough for the various departments to begin working on the problem presented to them. His biggest concern at the moment was how many ships he could conceivably send to the Archanis region, and what they could hope to contribute to proceedings. Time, the great enemy, would reveal the answers to those questions, though only after the events had already unfolded...
- Capt. Bastin receives word from Adm. Beckett that the Hunters of D'Ghor have begun to raid the area around the Archanis Sector.
- Capt. Bastin begins the task of redeploying vessels, personnel and resources to the affected areas.
- Members of TF72 are encouraged (though certainly not required) to begin deploying their characters and avatar ships (should they have one) to the Archanis Sector to participate in the campaign.
Comments
The K'Ehleyr was racing along at well over warp nine directly into Klingon Space. Negotiations with the House of Rahtekk had been a complete waste of time. Even for such a weak and minor house, they should have been able to send some ships to a conflict that was quite literally on their doorstep. If not, they could have at least provided sensor data, but Rear Admiral Belvedere had been stonewalled at every turn. The experience had driven him to even suspect that Rahtekk might not just be a spineless, feckless, toothless old man, but someone who was benefiting from the Hunters of D'Ghor in some way that he had yet to uncover. As a last-ditch effort, Belvedere was employing a technique that had long served him as an expert navigator of Starfleet's rather byzantine bureaucracy: going over his opponent's head.
Just a few weeks earlier, Belvedere had been sitting at a table on Starbase 38 between representatives of the Turei, the Ferengi Alliance, and four independent worlds on both sides of the Barzan Wormhole to negotiate a complex trade, migration, and access agreement between those six parties and the Federation itself. It had been tedious, convoluted, and unnecessarily drawn out, but at least each of the parties had wanted something from the others, so they'd been able to come to an agreement. As a "reward" for concluding this 75,000-word multi-party treaty, he'd been whisked away by the new flagship of Task Force 72, an elegant Resolute-class heavy cruiser, to take over diplomatic operations for the Fourth Fleet.
This new assignment was already proving substantially more frustrating than commanding a starbase. Before, he had almost complete autonomy, but now he had many superiors wanting immediate results. Belvedere couldn't figure out what Rahtekk wanted. There was seemingly no carrot that could bring him to the table. All of his requests to open dialogue had received the same response stating that the House of Rahtekk would not intervene against the D'Ghor unless their own security was threatened, beyond providing the intelligence data required by the Khitomer Accords. The admiral had spent a long career mainly as a logistician, and even within Starfleet everyone wanted something. He was a very transactional thinker; everything to him was at some level a quid pro quo. Given enough time, he would have found out what made Rahtekk really wanted, whether that was mineral rights from the colonies under siege or a case of blood wine, but he'd run out of time to determine what inducement would be enough. For his Hail Mary play, he was taking another tactic out of his Starfleet bureaucrat's book: going above Rahtekk's head.
The House of Rahtekk was sworn to the House of Lorkoth, widely regarded as the Klingon house contributing the most to Klingon diplomacy over the previous hundred years. After all, it descended from the same house that Gorkon himself had been a part of. They wouldn't refuse a personal appeal from a Starfleet Admiral to intercede on the grounds of honor. However, just in case, Belvedere's staff was still scouring intelligence reports to find anything they could use as leverage.
"Bridge to Admiral Belvedere. We have received a transmission from the IKS Gorkon carrying Brigadier Asal. They are on an intercept course and have requested that we hold our course and speed to rendezvous in two hours."
"Understood, Captain. Return signal and say that we will be pleased to have the Brigadier aboard to discuss the urgent concerns of the United Federation of Planets," Belvedere replied.
"Acknowledged."
Asal was the son of Kaltorok, the head of the house of Lorkoth. Belvedere had already studied his dossier, knowing that Kaltorok himself would likely be on Qo'Nos. Not going directly to the Klingon High Council was purposeful: Belvedere could give Asal a chance to handle a foreign relations crisis himself, with the threat of turning it into a domestic political one. If Asal came through, he'd be lauded for coming to a long-standing ally's aid. If he didn't, his house was negligent in its duties, and that wouldn't look good when images of burning Federation colonies were brought to the High Council while KDF forces stood by on their side of the border.
Belvedere was limited by one problem, though: so far, he had no hard evidence that the House of Rahtekk wasn't participating on the Federation's behalf to the best of their abilities; they'd provided mapping data and limited data on ship movements, without direct material support. Based on Starfleet Intelligence's force assessments, it was unclear whether Rahtekk really was as weak as he was acting or if he was purposefully staying out of the D'Ghor's sites just to avoid the hassle of a conflict. Neither were acceptable, but the latter was clearly dishonorable behavior. Ineffectual help was still help if it got down to the Khitomer Accords' minutiae rather than their spirit.
As Belvedere considered his options, the doors to the observation lounge opened, and his long-standing aid Commander Stephanie Lawrence entered. With his promotion had come one for her as well, from aide-de-camp to strategic operations officer.
"Admiral, I believe I've found something," Lawrence said before going over to the large wall-mounted console opposite the table. She keyed in a few commands to pull up a star map, highlighting the Gamma Electra system just on the Klingon side of the border. "One of our scouting teams has located a group of Orion refugees from an aerostat colony in Gamma Electra."
"Well, I'm sure Task Force 93 will take care of them," Belvedere replied. He crossed his arms and gave Lawrence the glance that meant 'get to the point.'
"The Orion colony wasn't independent. It was part of the Klingon Empire. According to their leader, the D'Ghor attacked, which contradicts the official report from the House of Rahtekk. They said it was destroyed as the result of a refinery accident," Lawrence replied, pulling up a classified Klingon data file alongside the report of a team on the Mare Imbricum.
Belvedere pulled up the report on his own PADD. "A refinery explosion that also destroyed two KDF warships and three Orion destroyers? That stretches credulity," he noted. "Does Starfleet Intelligence suspect collusion between the D'Ghor and Rahtekk?"
Lawrence shook her head. "The analysis isn't complete, but their best guess is that the report was falsified to avoid receiving blame from the KDF for the destruction of an important fuel depot."
"We have two hours to try to make it complete then. Get me everything you have, and good work, Commander."
***
After digging through the raw data and getting familiar with Starfleet Intelligence's assessment, Admiral Belvedere felt just prepared enough to deal with Brigadier Asal when the ship slowed to impulse. A few minutes later, the brigadier and his aid were shown into the observation lounge.
"Admiral Belvedere, Brigadier Asal, and his adjutant, Major Kanmurra," Lawrence reported.
Belvedere stood up to greet them and then gestured to the seats opposite him at the table. Rather than the Klingon Defense Force's standard armored uniform, the two Klingons wore garb unique to their house: a high-collared dark leather uniform trimmed in blue, though Asal also wore a blue cloth sash with the emblem of his house.
"Welcome aboard the K'Ehleyr, gentleman," Belvedere said.
"Thank you, Admiral Belvedere. This is a mighty ship, befitting her namesake," Asal replied cordially. He took a seat, but his aid remained standing behind him. "This visit is highly irregular. You can imagine our border station's alarm when they detected a heavily-armed Federation cruiser entering our space at high warp. You could have reached out on subspace."
"This situation is highly irregular, Brigadier, but I've reached the limit of utility in dealing with your vassal house, the House of Rahtekk. I come here on a matter of extreme urgency that needs to be relayed in person," Belvedere replied. He wasn't willing to waste time on any ruffled feathers that arose from him taking his ship into the Klingon Empire, as he could cite any number of agreements that allowed mutual passage for dozens of different scenarios. "Surely my presence in person does a better job of conveying how seriously the Federation Council takes this situation than a call over subspace would."
Asal nodded, his eyes narrowing. "What exactly did you come here to discuss?"
"I came here to discuss the failure of your vassals, the House of Rahtekk, to respond in any meaningful way to raids by the rogue House of D'Ghor along their borders," Belvedere replied.
"As far as I am aware, they are complying with the text of the Khitomer Accords by providing what support they can. Their forces are stretched thin, keeping key worlds on our side of the border secure, so it would be foolish for them to engage the D'Ghor before they are threatened themselves," Asal replied. It was clearly a practiced answer.
"I think we both know that the spirit of the Khitomer Accords would have them answer Federation distress calls, which are being sent," Belvedere replied, with an arched eyebrow. "What good is the Rhatekk fleet sitting idle over their homeworlds?"
"I understand your frustration, Admiral, but I don't know what you expect me to do about the situation," Asal replied.
"I expect you to respond to the dishonorable incompetence of your bannermen by sending in ships of your own."
Asal scoffed. "I shudder to think how you would describe your own forces' inability to handle these disorganized raiders without help if that's how you refer to a long-standing and honorable vassal of the House of Lorkoth!"
"Spare me, please, Brigadier. We both know that the Federation has not fortified its borders with the Klingon Empire in over a hundred years," Belvedere said, shaking his head. "Rahtekk's position is that he won't engage the D'Ghor until they engage him first. That's hardly honorable behavior. I also have good reason to believe it's not true."
"Are you suggesting that Rahtekk is colluding with the D'Ghor, Admiral? That is a serious accusation," Asal asked, the last sentence coming out in a snarl.
Belvedere tapped a few buttons on the narrow panel built into the table, which caused Gamma Electra's holographic map to appear between himself and Brigadier Asal.
"One of my scout teams picked up a group of Orion refugees from Gamma Electra. Were you aware that the KDF fuel refinery there had been destroyed?"
"We received a report that an industrial accident had destroyed the facility. I was unaware that anyone had survived," Asal replied.
"Yes, I have a copy of that report. Rahtekk seemed rather eager to make sure it was of a low enough clearance level that it would be part of our Khitomer data dump," Belvedere said, the admiral's voice stretching into a drawl. "However, the refugees' ship contained a recording of the attack, which clearly shows D'Ghor involvement."
Belvedere tapped another button which started a recording of the event in question, projected as a 3D map of the ships and other elements in motion in the Gamma Electra system. The refugees escaped on a freighter, which recorded the majority of the attack, including many D'Ghor ships' warp signatures.
"As you can see, this wasn't a mere industrial accident."
"We don't know that the Rahtekk knew about this when they assessed the scene, though."
"True. But if they didn't figure it out, that just means that they're incompetent. Either way, this now proves that the Rahtekk have been attacked directly, at the expense of KDF logistics in the region."
Asal just frowned.
"What do you want from me?"
"I want the full might of your military force diverted to the Archanis sector. Immediately. Or I escalate this to the Klingon High Council, which will almost certainly implicate your house just as much as it would implicate your vassal," Belvedere said. "What the Federation populace sees on the news service is Klingon vessels attacking Federation colonies. The distinction between a rogue house and the Empire itself is difficult to see in that context. This is a public relations disaster for your government, and they'll seek a scapegoat."
"My father—" Asal started, but Belvedere held up his hand to interrupt. This was clearly something the Klingon was not used to, though, so he scowled when Belvedere began speaking.
"Your father will support a decision you make that strengthens your house. Send your fleet to join ours and eliminate the D'Ghor at the source. One this is all over, you can present yourself to the High Council as the savior of the Federation border colonies and have a good reason to absorb your vassal's territory."
"And that's it? We get to be the heroes here? I didn't realize that Starfleet was still so... idealistic."
"Well, I think I have something else that might interest you, Brigadier. You rebuild and secure the Gamma Electra IV aerostat colony, and we'll happily resettle the refugees there."
Asal chuckled. "So, we pay to rebuild a colony, and then you don't have to house the refugees?"
"That's one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that you'll have your very own refinery supplying the KDF directly," Belvedere replied, steepling his fingers.
"Very well, Admiral, but this feels one degree removed from blackmail."
"That, Brigadier, is diplomacy."
***