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MISSION REVIEW
STRANDED IN SPACE
An Admiral's personal reflection his first official mission, which started his career.
Voleron's personal log, stardate 86998.62. Not two days out of Starfleet Academy, I'd already been promoted and awarded my late Captain's command. My stellar performance in successfully manoeuvring the pride of the fleet (the U.S.S. Miranda-Z) out of dry dock, obviously left a lasting impression on Admiral Quinn, who must have been properly astonished by my mad skillz as he undoubtedly watched on from Earth Space Dock with pride. No doubt, the celebrated departure of our ship on this all-important cadet training cruise to Vulcan, was observed by Starfleet brass, diplomats and foreign dignitaries alike. Obviously, my superior ability did not go unnoticed, as we navigated gracefully out of the Sol system, like a leaf on the wind, without so much as scratching the paint on the hull.
My lasting impression, left for the consideration of Captains and Admirals alike, obviously played a part in my quick ascent of the command chain. Soon after I allowed my Captain to be captured and murdered by the Klingons, I'd found myself relying on that initial awe-inspiring impression with the Admiralty, to thrust me into permanent command of the ship without so much as an inquiry. My greatness was known, and my career path set!
My first assignment as master of my vessel was to respond to a distress call from the S.S. Azura, which was believed to have come under heavy enemy attack. As we completed our pre-departure checklist outside of the Sol System, I noticed literally hundreds of battleships and heavily armed escort class vessels in range of the distress call, and I took a certain pride in knowing that Starfleet had selected ME, out of all of the seasoned commanders within range, to respond to this unknown threat in a 129 year old ship. This was just additional confirmation of my greatness and of the confidence that my commanders had of my abilities. This was the beginning of my path to joining the highest ranks of the Admiralty, a short five weeks later.
Not soon after arriving at the Azura's last known coordinates, we found ourselves under attack by a superior Orion force. Luckily, my many minutes of spacebar mashing training at the academy paid off, and we were easily able to destroy multiple attacking ships with only two phaser beam arrays, even with our weapon systems set to half power. It wasn't until some time after this mission that we even realized that we could re-allocate power to different ship systems, so needless to say, we were quite pleased with our decisive victory in the face of what one would have thought to be overwhelming odds.
I decided that we should board the Azura, in order to save as many crew from the distressed ship as possible. I stepped onto the transporter pad with a full away team but found myself the only one to re-materialize on the ill-fated freighter. My tricorder could see that the members of my away team were alive somewhere in the distance, but no matter how far I ran on the ship in any direction, it seemed as though they were becoming more and more distant, as though I was in some sort of hellish fun house at a carnival. Although panic initially began to set in at the thought of rescuing the entire freighter crew while fending off crowds of adversaries by myself, I soon realized that this must be a further test of my combat prowess, possibly ordered as far up the chain as Admiral Quinn himself. He probably wanted to make sure that I was a Lieutenant (Junior Grade) of many talents, and not just a good drydock departure pilot.
Committed to proving myself worthy of the Admiral's faith, I Leroy Jenkinsed my way through the rooms and corridors of the ship on my own, with nothing but a Mark nothing hand phaser. Apparently I also had a phaser rifle strapped to my back, but didn't realize until after the mission that regulations allowed me to alternate between the two weapons during combat, or that it was even there to begin with.
I encountered several groups of Orions just standing around in various parts of the ship, seemingly unphased by the critical condition of the warp core or the gravity of the looming disaster. It was as though they were completely entranced until I stepped within a few paces of them, and I can only assume that they'd interrupted their boarding operation to allow for some sort of afternoon prayer or solemn, silent reflection. Of course, I capitalized on their hesitation by murdering them all where they stood, rather than engage in tedious negotiations as per my Starfleet training.
I gallantly fought my way to the engine room where I found Captain Blott. She wanted me to stabilize the warp core, but having only attended classes on tactics during my entire four years at the Academy, I knew there was nothing at all that I could do. Once I realized that the situation was hopeless, I decided to make a break for it, back to the transporter room and get the hella off that ship. I saw several of the injured freighter crew laying on the ground and calling out for help, but I ignored their pleas and sped past them, knowing that without the benefit of any science training, there was little I could do for them... not even carry them back to the transporter pad or anything. Since my first aid training had also expired, I recognized that rendering any sort of assistance could have placed myself and Starfleet in a precarious position and may well have exposed the organization to civil litigation, so I further demonstrated my command decisiveness by committing to leave them to die in the looming explosion, a decision for which I was later praised by the legal department.
Ultimately, I happened to rescue two able-bodied crew members who must've followed me from engineering and got caught in my transporter beam as I rushed to beam back to the ship. I was kind of surprised to find them on the transporter pad with me when I beamed back, but rescuing people without ever knowing it is the mark of an excellent officer in the making.
One easily won space battle later, and my first mission as acting Captain was complete, paving my way to the Admiralty! As a reward for my efforts, I received a new set of energy resistant body armour, tailor made to my endowments by Admiral Quinn's personal tailor in Milan, as well as a monogrammed pen and pencil set!
I look back upon my first mission with pride and encourage all new Captains to seek out similar challenges that will help to shape their character as they freshly emerge out of Academy training. Five stars!
