Very Bad Missions

 Episode Name:  Very Bad Missions

   Written By:  Lopez

         Cast:  Foster, Goodwin, Green, Grey, Krylow, Lopez, Nabrun, Payne and Revere.

  Produced By:  Starfleet

  Directed By:  Lopez

     Aired On:  Sun Oct 02 01:00:15 2005

     Stardate:  55305.2

Time: Sat Oct 01 20:01:17 2005

Stardate: 55304.7

Green steps into holodeck 1 from the Dream Factory.

Green has arrived.

Goodwin steps into the holodeck, looking around the default black and golden line matrix. "Well, Lieutenant," says the Commander, looking to Lopez. "Do you want me to head up the mission team, or should I watch and evaluate tonight?"

Lopez is crouched in the arch, making some settings and switching out a few strips of greenish material. "I'd prefer it if everyone here played an active role in the testing. Even myself... just a minute, I have some tinkering..."

Krylow enters the holodeck a moment or two after Goodwin, and gives Lopez a little grin. "Good evening, Lieutenant. I heard that you want us to try and break some stuff tonight," he says, grin widening.

Foster steps into holodeck 1 from the Dream Factory.

Foster has arrived.

Revere leans up against the wall near the rear of the holodeck, arms folded loosely over his chest as he waits for the breaking to begin.

Green steps out of the holodeck.

Green has left.

Payne walks in, and looks around. He remains silent and waits for the others to get things going. He nods to those he knows, Goodwin, and Nabrun.

"Then I'll lend a hand, Lieutenant," promises Goodwin, nodding his head to the operations officer making her final adjustments. "This should be an interesting test, at least."

Lopez finishes what she is doing with settings for the program, and stands up straight. "Oh, there'll be stuff for everyone to try and break, that I can promise," she says. "Thank you all for coming. Before we start, I wanted to explain a few things about this simulation. It is absolutely imperative that you behave in regards to your equipment as you would were this situation to occur without the holodeck's safeties. That is the only thing that is going to make our data valid. Who here knows about the RDM program already? A show of hands or shaking heads will do."

When Lieutenant Foster comes through the doors, he's not alone. Back in uniform, he carries a small duffel bag, but he also wears a 'frontpack' full of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby girl. Said baby girl is awake, and she's carrying a big pink stuffed ... rifle.

Oh, and he's accompanied by about six men wearing Security gold, bearing insignia indicating ranks from Crewman all the way through Petty Officer, Third Class.

Krylow lifts his hand in response to the question, but otherwise remains quiet.

Nabrun shakes her head in the negative, smile a touch wry.

"Sorry, Lieutenant, I've not heard of it," Revere offers with a rueful grin.

Payne listens intently to Lopez. He doesn't say anything when she asks her question. Obviously he is here as a helping hand, and knows little of the RDM program. He quirks a brow at Fosters' entourage.

Goodwin raises a hand, slowly. "I think I'm sort of cheating, though, since I read all the reports and am a vague, omniscient presence with regards to the Station." Josh may or may not be kidding.

Foster lifts his hand as well, but none of the NCOs do. Looks like Foster just grabbed a bunch of men and brought them along. He quirks an eyebrow at Goodwin, saying, "If you say so, sir." His professional look is somewhat modified by getting whacked by his daughter with that pink stuffed rifle of hers.

Lopez smiles, and nods. "Maybe. If you think you'll skew the data, you are free to duck out of observe from a feed, sir. Lieutenant Foster... and company. Cute. Oof... so many. I didn't more than enough for one shuttle, though if they're will to do another test in a few hours...?"

Ana explains briefly for the benefit of those who aren't in the know, "The RDM program was originally intended to, very simply, shave time off our departure for those events that we have minutes to respond to, giving mission organizers and planners more time to do what they do. It involves, at its base, packaging most of the SOP items together in a kit, which is called by the RDM code for disbursal by the Quartermaster. The question you are going to help me answer is whther, so packaged under high-stress situations, they all still function and are accessible."

Nabrun listens to the explanation given by Ana, intent on it, though she does give Foster and his entourage a quick smile.

Revere nods as he listens.

Payne listens quietly. Eager to assist in anyway he can. He glances at the others and gauges there reactions perceptively. Perhaps its an old habit.

Goodwin nods his head slowly at that, understanding. He looks over at Foster. "I didn't know you could get them in pink. They come in pink, now?"

"I'm here to play neutral party," Foster says. "I figure that I will probably be using the results the most, so I might have some kind of bias either way that it would be good to eliminate from testing procedures." He looks around at the others. "I can dismiss them, certainly. Even if these guys can't come back, there are lots of people on the station I can call in at another time. I just wasn't sure how many you had and how many you needed. Well, that and I have Anastasia for the night." A pause. "Er, not meant to confuse things, Ana." He chuckles at Goodwin. "Present from Lieutenant Green."

Lopez responds to Foster, "They can be dismissed... I'm really grateful for the thought. I'll set it up so you can observe, but I think it might get loud for your daughter, if that is going to be an issure." To the rest of the group, she folds her hands behind her and explains, "Certain parts of this sim have already been run to get the test to the point where I need live bodies. Using statistics from Fleet, a formula has been applied to give us an 'average' amount of personnel errors that may have occurred in the 'launch' phase. Because the test is blind, I do not myself know what they might be-- so, this is not a 'perfect universe' sort of test. When and if you discover one, verbally make a note of it, if you can remember."

Nabrun looks over toward Anastasia and Foster, smiling a touch crookedly, then back to Ana. Someone's taking mental notes as this goes on.

Lopez says, "I'm pleased to tell you that this method does save on average ten minutes. Now if all goes well with the packaging, its usable. So," Ana explains, "The scenario itself is an amalgam of missions that have actually occured. Basically, people, we were looking at putting together a 'mission from hell' sortof experience. Its not that I'm a sadist, its just that our stuff don't take a beating if things go swimmingly. Again, equipment errors -are- going to happen. Things are going to not work, be missing, or be destroyed. The kits have all been programmed to as close to their exact true-to-life tolerances as possible. Questions before I give you the scenario itself?"

Goodwin nods his head slowly at the explanation, but then ends up shaking his head. He has, apparently, no questions.

"I'm not too worried," Foster says. "She'll actually probably fall asleep at some point. I took the precaution of adding a hood to this pack that lets me muffle sounds for her. And then, of course, it's quite possible my daughter will stomp in and demand her baby." He turns back towards the NCOs and says, "Thank you, all of you. Dismissed." They troop out, though some of them look longingly at the group that are staying behind.

Krylow shakes his head slightly at the question, before saying, "No, no questions Lieutenant." He glances to Nabrun for a moment, but remains quiet as he does.

Nabrun chuckles and shakes her head. "No questions, Lieutenant," she says, the female echo of Krylow's voice. She glances toward him, smile a touch wry. Someone looks, well, intrigued about what's going to happen.

"I don't have any questions right now, but I'm certain I will," Revere offers brightly.

Payne nods, "sounds good, sir." he says. His demeanor is stiff, and to the point. He is a man who holds duty, honor, and loyalty in high regards. He chooses his words carefully, and it reflects on him.

"Computer, show setting and pause." Lopez says.

Interior. The flight deck of the USS Amazon. All stations are currently lit up with information regarding transit from the station to their destination.

"You can all take your places. You are on the approach path to your destination, a small moon-sized class M extra-planetary mass that is not, repeat, not supposed to be there or anywhere in fact. One of Fleet's scouts has gone silent since having been sent to investigate, with its last communication having indicated some sort of power surge. There are other vessels inbound, but you are the first on the scene."

"Commander, take the point, Lieutenant Foster will be effectively invisible, Lieutenant Krylow at Engineering, Lieutenant Nabrun... sciences station, Mr. Revere, you may have the rear guard swing position, and I'm flying-- ha ha ha."

Goodwin glances around, and then nods his head, going to settle into the Chair of Bigness. "All right, Mister Lopez, what's our time to target? I hope I don't get hit with a pink rifle, by the way." A glance towards the girl of doom. But he settles back into target. "Mister Nabrun, do you have the scout on scope?"

Krylow nods to Lopez and moves into the engineering slide, sliding into the chair and tapping on the controls for a moment. "Engineering standing by," he says while watching the screen.

Nabrun settles into her chair at Sciences and taps for a moment before shaking her head. "No, sir," she says quietly. "Nothing on the scope. No debris. There's no sign anything was ever here."

Revere settles into the back jumpseat, waiting.

Payne taps a few buttons, and shakes his head, "No sign of the scout, sir."

Payne nods as orders are issued, "Aye, sir." and makes his way over to the Tactical console. Moments later, he taps a few buttons, and shakes his head, "No sign of the scout, sir."

Lopez reports, "ETA 5 minutes and counting sir, on a orbital approach," she reports. It seems to be smooth sailing, and the rock, with is atmosphere appears dingy, and small, but definately class M.

GAME: Revere contests his Search vs Routine and Succeeds.

"All right. Bring us in through the atmosphere Mister Lopez," says Goodwin with a nod of his head. "Shouldn't be too bumpy with that atmosphere, at least." He continues to watch the read-outs, quietly awaiting all heck to break loose.

Almost as if she realizes she's being talked about, Anastasia waves her pink stuffed rifle at Goodwin. Of course, she's holding it by the 'barrel,' so it's really more of an oddly-shaped mace than anything else.
Foster settles to a quiet corner, taking a moment to instruct the computer (via his PADD) to provide him with something to sit/lean on, but instructs the holodeck to ignore him otherwise. He says nothing, just watching everything in much the same way that he sat and watched Ensign Valentine on her live-fire Line Officer's Exam. It's impossible to read his face for this.

"I'm reading power spikes in the warp core," calls out Krylow, frowning slightly. "Now reading a drain from the core, sir. At this rate we're going to lose our warp field within thirty seconds. I'm trying to compensate, but I'm not having any luck."

Nabrun tilts her head slightly to the side. "Noth...I just got a blip, Sir. It was there, and then it wasn't." Her voice is quiet, enough to be heard, and she continues to tap and search, scanning the screen.

"The equipment's ready for deployment," Revere offers as he waits in the back.

And just about then, there is a crack, like a thunderclap if one is savvy of such things, or like. The overheads go, as do several of the subsidiary in the back. Notably, helm goes utterly dead, and one of the instrument panels in front of the big chair and Engineering... pop, discharging energy mercifully away from their occupants. The runabout bucks, and plunges... straight toward that non-threatening litle rock, like an iron-filing to a magnet. There's a smell from the rear of the flight deck... suspiciously like smoke. In fact... it probably is.

. o O Nabrun thinks, "Oh, this can NOT be good. Focus, don't think about Alek over there at Engineering."

There we go. Josh begins barking out his command. "Mister Revere, damage control! Mister Lopez, try to glide us on in. Tactical, I want shields if we got them in case something's out there stalking us." And, oh, right. "Mister Krylow, report, please!"

"There are multiple sub deck plasma fires and with the damage the fire suppression systems are either failing or not helping," calls out Krylow. "The warp core appears to be functioning, but I can not restore helm control. The circuit appears to be fused solid."

. o O Revere thinks, "Oh, great. Like I know anything about damage control."

And the Betazoid, well, she's at sciences. So rather than tapping at anything, she makes sure she's secure in her chair prior to landing. "Energy discharge of unknown origin," she calls quietly. Barana takes a deep breath and scans the bridge briefly, looking for injuries, then goes back to her screen.

Revere pushes up from his seat, tugging out a palm beacon as he heads aft. "Smoke's coming from the cargo bay, sir. I'll check it out." He also grabs a fire extinguisher as he opens the aft doors.

Payne nods, "Aye, sir." At the same time, he taps his console a few times and smiles approvingly, "Shields holding, sir."

GAME: Payne contests his Coordination vs Challenging and Fails.

GAME: Goodwin contests his Coordination vs Moderate and Marginally Fails.

GAME: Revere spends a courage point.

GAME: Revere contests his Coordination+A vs Challenging and Succeeds.

GAME: Nabrun contests her Coordination vs Moderate and Fails.

GAME: Krylow contests his Coordination vs Moderate and Marginally Fails.

GAME: Lopez contests her Coordination vs Moderate and Fails.

Drops like a stone through the atmosphere, does the Amazon, all the viewports fiery from where the shield take the heated resistance. And the altimeter of one of the science stations beeps furiously. In short: Not good.

Lopez and her non-functional helm are not helping-- fortunately the pitch is just so. With luck there will be no crater. 500 hundred meters, 250 meters...100, 50, 10... The shuttle impacts.

For lack of anything that they can actually do. "Brace for impact!" calls Josh, being pitched slightly forward into the arm of his Big Chair, but at least not falling down. He grips on for dear life.

Krylow is shaken in his seat, tossed foward right out of his seat. He ends up half trapped under the edge of the engineering console.

And with the shaking and what not, one Betazoid - shaken, not stirred - goes flying from her chair, skidding a short distance to come to rest -under- a row of terminals off to one side. It would appear that Barana's fall is, of course, accidental, though also fortuitous. About half a second after she comes to rest under the terminals, a ceiling tile plummets down to land exactly where she used to be.

"What the hell was that?" Revere calls as he sticks his head back into the cockpit. "Did we hit something?" Apparently he didn't fall over, but doesn't have time to wait for an answer as he goes back to putting out the fire.

The runabout comes to an immediate halt. Ensign Payne does not, however, as he is flung and dangled over the Tactical Console, missing it completely as he lands in a nice and neat pile on the deck near Goodwin. Immediately, he stands up, and brisks himself over to the Tactical console, brushing himself off en route. He taps on the Panel a few times, in silence.

A moments pause before he spreads his lips to speak, "Sir, shields are now offline, weapons.." a pause, "Useless." he conveins.

Lopez has been flipped over her console and smacked the forward wall. Lots of noise, but evidently, unhurt. Safeties for all. She slowly starts to move, and to get up. The sim has marked out her arm from the shoulder in red, indicating an injury. "Aw, caca."

Gases hiss when all is still again, and an acrid smell fills the cabin. A little fire erupts at sciences, but doubtless, there are other smoke-producing problems. Red lights strobe and flicker in the smokey atmosphere, wires dangle from overhead sparking. Hey, weren't the kits in the back with Revere? There is of course a side-hatch, neatly lit up, but flickering.

"Mister Lopez, send out a distress signal, all channels, as long as this ship will hold. Everyone else, grab the kits and let's move, move, move!" Goodwin gets up from his seat and begins to scramble towards the back, realizing, perhaps, that the shuttle is not the safest place to be at the moment.

Krylow pushes himself up from the floor, pausing to glance around the flight deck. "Come on, everyone clear the flight deck," he calls out, waiting on the other before trailing them out of the area.

Nabrun pulls herself to her feet, dusting off even as she starts for the back...and the kits, presumably. "Any injuries other than LT Lopez?" she calls quietly, slipping out ahead of Krylow.

Revere reappears from the back, lugging several kits. "Here they are."

Payne looks at Goodwin, and swallows. Without hesitation, he states, "Sir, request permission to stay aboard with Leuitenant Lopez. Its my responsibility to bring everyone back alive, and anything can happen to him while he is here by himself, that could be prevented if someone was here to help if things got worse." He does, make his way to the exit to leave with haste, if permission is denied.

"No dice, Sir, comms are fritzy at best, and whats left of functionality at my station says... uh... the emergency beacon is water damaged. Fully submerged, actually." Truly a blind test. "We should have beacons and biomonitors in each of our packs. Lieutenant Krylow, which way out?"

-says Lopez.

Goodwin sighs and stands up, but seems to be waiting to follow after Lopez. "Move it, Ensign! We need you to secure the perimeter!" shouts Goodwin to Payne. "Mister Krylow, lead the way. Come on, this isn't a party!"

Krylow raises a hand and makes a moving gesture towards the exit out. "Head this way Lieutenant," he says, from where he had taken up the rear. "Sir, one moment," he says moving through the ranks to take the point and the lead, as ordered.

Nabrun steps aside for her husband without any hesitation and continues out. Not having heard of more injuries, she's apparently planning on treating one - once she gets her hands on her kit.

Foster, still sitting unperturbed, watches the goings-on and smiles slightly when the RDMs are brought out. He enters something on his PADD.
Anastasia, apparently, has fallen asleep, for her 'daddy' has lifted the hood to cover her up with. Perhaps the only thing the little girl can hear is the calm beating of the RRO's heart.

Revere shoulders his kit and heads for the exit. After all, the back end of the runabout is on fire.

Payne nods, "Aye, sir." he pulls his phaser out, readying himself as he steps outside, in a quick paced manner.

Payne wields his Type II Phaser.

Lopez shoulders her pack, the nearest one to grab with difficulty. It appears to have had its strap singed off. Which, being one-armed alread seems oddly appropriate. No sooner is the hatch opened then a small wave of cold, murky water flows in to cover their boots. There is vegetation beyond the threshold, and the muddy water is evidently not of sufficient depth to suck the shuttle down. There is higher, albeit unfriendly looking higher ground some 20 meters away. They have landed in a muddy swamp.

Goodwin goes to grab his pack, checking it quickly. "I'm good," he announces to no one in particular. He stands near the side of the door, waiting for the others to go ahead of him. "Come on, folks, head for the higher ground! Keep sharp, try to keep the equipment as dry as you can!" The shouting is necessary to be heard above the burning of the shuttle.

Foster makes another notation on his PADD, but says nothing.

Krylow shoulders his pack, shrugging and moment to settle it into place. "Mister Payne, take my right flank. Let's stay in a tactical column, with a five meter spacing," he calls out, slushing out out the shuttle and scanning side to side as he begins to move.

Nabrun falls into the back of the group as she grabs a pack and wades out with the rest, with the water coming up to her chest. She glances around, apparently counting people. "All accounted for," she calls, voice loud enough to carry.

Revere leaps into the water, wrinkling his nose. "I already hate this place, and I don't know where it is," he mutters as he heads to follow Krylow's lead.

Payne emerges from the shuttle and immediately looks around. He hears the order given by Krylow, "Aye, sir." he says, as he makes his way over to flank Krylows' right side. He glances perceptively at his surroundings, and remains quiet for the moment.

Lopez jumps in, up the her chest. She wrinkles her nose as the mud squishes underfoot. "Sir," she addresses Goodwin, "-don't ever let me use this program ever, ever again." And wading we will go, a wading we will go...

"Nonsense. Who doesn't love a good slop around in the mud following a shuttle crash? Did you ever notice shuttles never crash in say, the middle of a major shuttleport in these exercises?" asks Goodwin with a nod, the last one out. He tries to keep his pack above the mud, but finds it slow going to say the least.

Krylow slogs ahead, moving through the twenty meters or so until he reaches the higher ground. Reaching it he immediately settles his kit to the ground. "We should set up a medical triage area in the center so its protected. I'll start on the emergency beacon. Mister Payne, do you see anything of concern?" As he turns to his kit he frowns. "Lieutenant Lopez, something punched a hole in the shell. The gear in this kit is likely waterlogged."

Revere wrinkles his nose as his hand vanishes beneath the surface of the water, then cones up with a tricorder. Thank goodness for waterproof Starfleet equipment. "There are stinging beetles in the mud, and the moss in the trees is poisonous," he offers. "But... well, we can eat the reeds."

Payne turns to face Krylow, following him up the rise to higher ground, "Not at the moment sir, no." continuing to glance around, he listens to Revere as he speaks, making a mental note of what is going on. He wades through the slush waist high to the top of the rise, with the others.

The raised ground is adequately dry-- particularly at the top when the dent forms as reported an adequate lea. Some of the saurian occupants of the reeds do not seem pleased to have company, but they skuttle off into the water, hissing as they leave their purple egg-laden nests. And to add insult to injury, the water bubbles suspiciously with a stench behind them.

Lopez says, "We need to check the packs, and activate our beacons. Try EVERYthing to make sure its working. This sim is bound to end sometime."

"And if we click our heels three times..." murmurs Josh, going for his pack. "All right. Mister Krylow, start work on the beacons. Mister Payne, cover us. Counselor Nabrun, see to Mister Lopez and set up a medical area. Check your packs." He goes to look through. "No tent, I'm otherwise good."

Krylow cracks open his pack and then shakes his head softly. "Yes, my kit is water logged. Much of the gear is water logged," he says, moving a few things inside of it before giving up.

Nabrun had, of course, held hers up slightly, but it's still wet as she opens it. Flipping through things, she starts setting things out to dry. Triage gets set up, and she works pretty quickly and efficiently.

Revere opens up his kit, frowning at the contents. "My survival manual is missing," he calls toward Lopez. "But I think everything else here intact."

Payne nods to goodwin, and scans the area slowly and accurately. Once he is satisfied the area is secure for a moment, he shuffles through his equipment. He finds everything to be well entact, except for his water purifier, its got a crack in it, and yea, he is pretty sure that the water is contaminated. "Busted Purifier." he says, to nobody in particular, before he continues his scan of the surrounding area with precision.

Lopez smacks her type II against a muddy stump. The beam is... well. It MIGHT boil water, but its just not going to be much help otherwise. She tosses her beacon, flipped on, to Krylow. "Better, tougher straps, better liners, more fire retardants... more care packing the stuff. The water purifier is ill-designed."

Cheerfully, the arch appears. As does Foster. "Simulation complete," says the computer, soothingly.

Goodwin sighs and gets up to his feet. "Well, everyone. Thanks for coming out. Hopefully, we'll have learned a lot of important things to improve the kits. And that's what these drills are all about."

Foster nods at Lopez's assessment, "And finding some way to reduce the overall weight. In this kind of situation, how much it drags you down could, quite literally, be a matter of life and death. Alternately, set up the packs to act as floatation devices, so they can be pulled along instead of dragging the wearer down."

Krylow stands from his crouch as the simulation ends and gives Lopez a smile. "The kits are looking good, Lieutenant. This is a great start," he says, glancing to Foster for a moment before looking back to Lopez. "I look forward to helping you test these out more in the future."

Nabrun grins, stretching. "Same here," she says quietly. "And waterproofing. Definitely waterproofing."

Revere smooths his hands down his uniform. "It was a good run."

Payne stands and looks at the others, "Indeed, Its a good start, and with these modifications, the end result should be.." a moments pause, "life saving." he adds. He too dusts himself off after the sim ends.

Lopez slogs toward the arch, nodding thoughtfully. "I think we can send it off now, with recommendations. Sector will know how to fix the process most quickly. Thank you, for doing this, all." Her arm recolors itself on the other side.

Goodwin nods his head at that, tossing Ana a bit of a smile. "Good work though, Lieutenant. Good to see the project finally come to fruition. Let's just hope we won't need the kits in the near future, huh?" And with that, Josh makes for the exit.

There is the sound of light breathing, coming from the infant child against the RRO's chest. Said RRO comments, "It was very well-done, Lieutenant. I can definitely see use for the kits in Rapid Response missions, even as they are now. They can be better, but everything can be better in one way or another. Not that I really want it to be necessary to use them."