Post 103: Getting brought in

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 3:54pm by Captain Marius Pontmercy & Admiral Christopher Bradley
Edited on on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 3:56pm

1,991 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Obsidian

On:

Chris sat at his desk. Dakota had basically told him off for doing things and keeping everyone else out of the loop but this was what he job was. After much discussion with Dakota and Talbot, Chris agreed he would call Captain Pontmercy and bring him in.

Chris punched in the code and reached communications for The Obsidian. "Admiral Christopher Bradley for Captain Marius Pontmercy on secure line 11678."

Onboard the Obsidian, Marius had just strode into Operations and was gazing at a data padd in his hand when a Communications Officer flagged him down.

"What is it," he said, turning his attention to the young woman?

"Excuse me sir, but Admiral Bradley is contacting you on a secure channel." Marius blinked. He hadn't spoken to Chris in years, so it must be important. "Send it to my ready room," he ordered. He walked the short distance to the room just off of Operations, and locked the door behind him. Striding to his desk, he typed in an authorization code, and Bradley's face filled the screen.

"Hello Admiral, what can I do for you?"

"Hello Captain. It's been a while. I'm glad you are the one in command of the Obsidion. There are some things that I believe we should... I should let you know about where you are. And why you specifically along with your crew were requested." Chris said. "First of all, I need to start with an apology for not telling you sooner. But your intel officers searches and my nephews searching brought up red flags so we realized it was time to bring you in." Marius frowned. An Admiral with secrets was nothing new, but one that decided he had to share them... that was something different.

"Wait wait wait," Marius said, holding out his hands, "Are you telling me that my crew was hand selected for... whatever this is?" Something flashed in the back of his mind. "Is this about the base itself, and why we were pulled from the front lines?"

Chris nodded. "I'm going to make this a long story short Marius. The original destruction of the base. I was there. I was on the base. The base had been built to be a prototype. It was black ops. No one knew what we were doing except those who knew. We were going to make her the first base that could move from place to place, stealth and do many things a star ship could do. We had been doing a lot of research. It was somewhat of a project of mine. Just when I became DoI. We had so many plans. And then we were attacked. An unknown species. They wanted our plans and our research. We refused of course. They killed so many..." Chris drifted a moment remembering what happened. "I went in and changed all the codes. It would never show what actually we were doing. We gave a fake story and set the station up so no matter who would look they would never find the real reason. Our true purpose. Those of us that escaped went in different directions. The majority were on the Saratoga. The species came back and found them. Destroyed their ship. Forced them to crash. I have no idea where their crew is." Chris stopped waiting for Marius to respond before he continued.

For a long moment Marius didn't speak, and instead he took in all of what the Admiral had said up to this point. Finally, he shifted in his chair and looked back at Bradley.

"So you are telling me that this base was designed to be black ops, but after all of the money and time that Starfleet invested into whatever technology you were working on... you all just left it? Why couldn't you rebuild after the end of the attack?"

"Because of the Synthulans. No matter where we went or tried to go to work on this project, they found us, they followed us. There was so much damage. They wanted the technology we hadn't even built or made yet. It, at the time, was better for all involved if we left it alone. No crew or group of people were able to handle them. Until now. Until after all these years, we were able to get this crew together again. Marius, we need you. We have to deal with a new enemy and contiue to work with and build the technology. " Chris thought for a moment. "However, I'm going to do something I rarely do. I'm going to give you a choice. You don't have to do this. But I would really appreciate the help. You are already helping by trying to find out what happened to the Saratoga's crew. I don't think they are all dead. But I fear they may have been taken hostage. Then we want to bring my group together to work with your intel and engineers. With the Marines and your crew I have hope that we can succeed. But I will give you the chance to say no."

"I am not saying anything either way... yet. What I want to know is specifics. What exactly where you trying to accomplish here? You gave me the abridged version, now I want the details." Marius was not intending to be rude, but he had a right to know what it was they were messing with here. There were a lot of lives on the line.

Chris answered. "We were.. are trying to accomplish getting the upper hand. With the wars going on, with this new species and others we've never encountered. We wanted to have abilities other people had never seen. It had to be bigger and better than what others had."

Chris pulled up what he knew about the Synthulans and shared his screen with Marius. "This is what we know about the Synthulans which isn't much. We know what they look like. We know they seem to have abilities I didn't know existed. They fight dirty. We've adapted a bit based on what we saw and dealt with. Your base was sent the parts in the shipment to repair that we know can protect us a bit longer from their weapons. They are ruthless. I watched them... never mind that. I have been working with my group here to upgrade our weapons and cloaks for when they come again. Their leader would like anything to get to me. I've got the plans here."He said tapping his head. "The crews only get a little at a time to work with. And their leader has tried. But that's not important now."

"I see... and this technology? You said the bases could move? I mean, we already have bases that can do that, some. Are you talking about at impulse? How in the world would that be possible?"

“That is what we were working on. This base has the ability. Well it would have the ability. We could even potentially get it to cloak while moving. There are so many things we were working on.” Chris said remembering the project. Marius thought for a moment.

"That has interesting possibilities," Marius admitted. "Alright, I have a few things I would have to have before I say yes to this," Marius said as he shifted. "You can of course decline, but these are my conditions. First, I get operational oversight. I want the authority to pull the plug if necessary, or choose what they are working on. I am not going to do this if I am bound by red tape." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Second, this will stay a secret, even after it's complete, until such time as we have determined its viability and that it is no longer a liability. I do not need every Captain in the fleet contacting me, wanting to get in on the action. This is a war zone, not a circus. And finally," he said, "I get to choose the missions for the Obsidian." This was a risk, but he knew that the Obsidian would become vital to the war effort, and he wanted to keep his crew safe. "I want to make sure that we are going to be useful, helpful, and damaging to the enemy."

“I am fine with your conditions- however I will be coming here while the project is being worked on and moving my team here as well. I am not going to take command or anything like that. This is my project and I want to be here to make sure it works and everything goes as well as it can. I will also offer you my assistance in whatever you need. Including missions should you wish. But other than that, I will be working with the project and team to get it all together.” Chris replied.

“Oh this also means that Dakota may be coming as well. I’d also like you to tell my nephew. I think he’s not exactly thrilled with me right now.” Chris added. Marius frowned.

"You are more than welcome to come here," Marius said cautiously, "but are you going to be able to handle me calling the shots on both the project and the operations on the base?"

“Marius, if I didn’t think I could, I wouldn’t do it. I have faith in you. I’m so attached to this project and want it to succeed that I need to have someone else calling shots.” Chris sighed. “I won’t have what happened before happen again.” Marius nodded, taking him at his word.

"I will need you to send over everything you have, as well as all mission data involving the Synthulans. There is just too much at stake, and we need to be ready."

“Of course. I’ll give you what I have. It’s basic right now because we don’t know a lot about them. I will also give you and only you my plans, just in case. I’d like you to keep those to yourself and only give out the information as needed. We don’t need too many people knowing.” Chris said.

"I understand the need for caution, but I trust my crew. What are your concerns?"

“I saw what the Synthulans did to those who they thought had an idea as to information about what we were doing. I saw the fear and pain and death. I won’t do that to anyone. They seem to know who knew anything or any part of the project. As opposed to the men who were just working on it. It’s not that I don’t trust them. I just don’t want them hurt. But I will relent if you insist.” Chris said. Marius thought for a moment.

"I will tell Haines and McMahon. We will discuss who needs to know, and bring them in slowly from there. When can I expect this to begin?"

“I will let you decide that. I still have to get everyone on my team ready to move. I’d like business to be handled as usual otherwise- don’t let others get their suspicions up. My moving here has to do with admiralty presence.” Chris said.

"I will be relying on you to keep this information off of the computer systems. I want to keep all Security, Intelligence, and Black Ops divisions off of this. I do not need flags in the system drawing attention."

“Not a problem Captain. I will take care of that on my end. I will see you soon Marius. Take care.” Chris said signing off of the chat.

Chris got up from his chair and yelled into the next room. “Dakota pack your bags. We are going to the Obsidian”

Off:

Captain Marius G. Pontmercy
Commanding Officer
USS Arcadia / Starbase Obsidian

Admiral Christopher Bradley
Director of intelligence and Director of research and development
Fleet operations

 

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