[Caymen Greener]

Mission: Cumaen First Patrol

Involved Ship(s)

IRW Cumaen, erei'Riov S'Havraha (Caymen)

Mission Summary

The Cumaen is ready for her shakedown cruise, which will take her on a simple patrol of the Romulan Neutral Zone. The Federation are good neighbors, but others might be lurking about, still trying to take advantage of the Hobus incident, still fresh on everyone's minds and hearts. The Cumaen must be prepared for anything or for nothing at all.

[Caymen Greener]

Romulan Neutral Zone

S'Havraha paced the bridge, eager for the main shift to cease. This was a very tedious, mindless, and mind-numbing mission. It was necessary for sure, as the borders needed to be patrolled. At this point the Romulan-Federation border was no danger really, as the two entities had formed a bit of a treaty, or more of a gentleman's agreement, in light of Hobus. But they had to be sure. Other more powerful warbirds were down on the Klingon front, surely under more fire than the Cumaen would be.

S'Havraha was pacing because after that shift, the Cumaen would pull away from the border a bit and allow him some rest. He had put the senior staff on 12-hour shifts to keep things simple, but it was hard work and could be trying at times.

Amongst the blips and hums of normal operations came a few of different tone and tenor.

"Sir," came T'Lorin's voice from the flight control console. "We have a sensor reading, long range, possible cloak residuals."

S'Havra's pacing ceased and he went to his chair in the middle. "Khnai'ru, erei'Arrain." He turned his head to the side. "Fraeta, ir'Sorso," asking for a report from warfare control.

The Uhlan, fairly new to the Galae, spoke up after a few seconds of tapping. "Daie, rekkhai. We have a cloak on the Federation side of the neutral zone, tracking along the border."

S'Havraha tilted his head, wondering if the Klingons would be that stupid or that bold, or both. "Farrol, report this to the nearest Starfleet outpost."

"Aye, rekkhai." came the voice of his subcommander.

"T'Lorin," continued the commander. "Take us to the last known trace, maximum warp."

---

Within a few hours the Cumaen was at their target destination. Starfleet had responded, although they're nearest cruiser was a bit farther out. The Cumaen was given tacit approval to cross into the neutral zone to explore the findings. S'Havraha had them go in, still cloaked, with scanners and sensors on full. With their fairly superior cloaking device, the Cumaen would in theory not be picked up by the Klingons.

"Following close behind, rekkhai," came T'Lorin's voice, piloting the Cumaen in a weave pattern in case any tracking was possible.

"Commander, I'm getting a stronger signal now, just up ahead." ir'Sorso was proving his worth in just a short period of time.

S'Havraha stood and looked at the main viewer. "Remain cloaked, put this up on the screen."

The screen came alive with the stars all around. There was nothing at first, not even a blip of a border beacon or even a star system. But as one might expect, the familiar wobbly visual of a ship decloaking happened right before their eyes. It was a Klingon B'rel class warbird, and it was pointed straight at the Cumaen.

S'Havraha's face turned to anger. "Decloak and raise shields. They know we're here..." How they knew was a puzzle, but they'd have to get out of this mess first. The Cumaen was armed well and would be fine against the B'rel as long as they kept their wits about them.

"Communication coming in from the Klivam, rekkhai," said Farrol. S'Havraha nodded and the viewer changed to the filthy warriors.

"You should have stayed on the Kholhr, commander." The Klingon was familiar to S'Havraha but a name was not coming to bare. "We could only test our plan on a small ship such as the T'Varo, or whatever you call that thing."

S'Havraha breathed in deeply and turned his face into a sly grin. "We'll blow you out of the stars, captain."

"Act fast then, commander." The Klingon laughed an annoying and gruff growl familiar to their kind, as three more B'rel class warbirds uncloaked behind the first one.

Now things were a bit more of an even match, and S'havraha's sly grin, still showing, had a million gears of planning working behind it. The game was afoot.

[Caymen Greener]

"Come about, decloak, high-yield torpedo spread." S'Havraha was sitting in the command chair and so far the Cumaen was doing well in combat. They had engaged the Klingons - although unprovoked, they were over the border and S'Havraha was taking no chances.

"Rekkai, we will not be able to recloak for several seconds after that," came the tactical analysis from ir'Sorso.

The Riov nodded. "Boost aft shields as much as possible and swing away."

The Rihannsu followed orders without reply and the small warbird decloaked, fired its plasma load, and turned back around. The torpedoes slammed into two of the Klingon warships that were already damaged by fire, and almost immediately - due to kinetics or the plasma burn - they became disabled and one of them saw several explosions as it was destroyed.

The lead Klingon fired disruptors and torpedoes seconds later, all-but-piercing the bolstered rear shields of the Cumaen. The entire ship shook, knocking one of the command deck officers out of her seat.

"Report!" shouted S'Havraha, gripping his seat tightly.

Priol piped up. "Two of the Klivam disabled by the yield, aft shields down to 50% from that hit. Cloaking back online in 10 seconds."

That was a lot of time. S'Havraha breathed in and exhaled. "Rapid fire from the turret on that lead ship, low power. Prepare a plasma venting in case the cloak takes longer."

"Yes, rekkai." The various control officers were on their game today, which was a good thing. The turret did its job and fended off some of the Klingon shots, one ping even hitting a torpedo mid-air.

And as if by their own magic and logic, the secondary Klingon warship cloaked itself, the lead staying put taking very little damage from the turret. By the time this was all happening, the Cumaen was able to cloak as well.

"Cloak engaged, rekkai," said Priol.

"Thank you, Arrain." S'Havraha nodded, watching T'Lorin maneuver the warbird around in a zig-zag patter and off to the [i]side[/] of the battle. "Now what about--"

"We're being hailed again, Riov," said the Subcommander. S'Havraha merely nodded to Farrol.

"I told you - you should have stayed out of our way," came the Klingon voice. And that voice was more recognizable now. "Our mission was simple, but it was not meant to interfere with the Galae. Although it gives us a change to quench our bloodlust."

The Riov stood and took a few steps forward. The face and voice matched and S'Havraha tossed a grin up on his face. "Captain Gurn, you really should have chosen a different ship to play games." The Riov looked kept his gaze on Gurn but gave a slight hand signal to Farrol, off the video of course.

"Ah, so thats you, S'Havraha." Gurn chuckled in his annoying Klingon gravel. "The years have not been kind."

"Ah but they have to the Galae. Hobus was not our end, but a new beginning. I'm sorry you have to see it." S'Havraha made another signal and the communique cut. The commander came back around to his seat.

"Move us directly under Gurn's ship," he began barking. "I know these ships, so we can..."

"Rekkai, I've tracked the cloaked vessel," exclaimed Priol.

"Exactly!" said S'Havraha with a grin. "Now they will see what we can do!"

[Caymen Greener]

"Fire all weapons on her!" barked S'Havraha.

ir'Sorso was more than happy to oblige as the canons, turret, beams, and torpedoes blasted into Gurn's ship, utterly destroying the shields and most of her underside. It was a massive display of sheer Romulan-green disruptor and plasma weaponry.

Priol chimed in. "Cloak is down, rekkhai. We have at least 30 seconds before we can get her back online."

ir'Sorso nodded. "Riov, the yield pummeled their engines and most of their weapons. Their shields are balancing around her at about 10%. The direct hit was successful."

Their subcommander, Farrol, did not have so much good news. "Rekkhai, our own shields are down to 25% power, and our weapon reloading will take an additional portion of that power. Recommand we stay away from them until our cloak comes back online."

"Warp engines?" asked S'Havraha.

T'Lorin chimed in. "Online, their use would prolong our cloak by fifteen minutes at least given the damage we've taken... and dealt."

S'Havraha nodded as he rubbed his chin, looking at the tactical readouts on his chair arm, coming to a decision rather quickly. "Get me Gurn."

Farrol tapped a button and the channel was opened.

"Captain, you have very little time," said the Romulan.

"I see your shields and cloak are barely operational, commander. I think you need more time than I." The Klingon grunted, not as smiley or smug as before.

S'Havraha had Farrol cut the channel after his own chortle. "Fire what we have left at Gurn's life support systems, and prepare for warp."

ir'Sorso let loose and the remaining torpedoes that were loaded and the beams that were recharged did their work. They sliced through the weakened shields and disabled life support systems. What little emergency power the Klingons built into life support and artificial gravity systems would inevitably kick in. "Direct hit again, rekkhai."

"Send an outgoing message," said the commander. "Romulans three, Klingons zero. Leave the neutral zone immediately." S'Havraha gave a grin to Farrol and looked over at Priol. "Warp us out further into Rihan space."

And that was that. The Cumaen was ready.