Eyewitness Accounts... Part 2

Posted on Mon Apr 11th, 2011 @ 2:34pm by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Lieutenant Colonel Anastasia DeVries

Mission: Renegades
Location: Various
Timeline: Following 'Something worth exploring...'

Marc acknowledged the man as he surveyed the rest of the survivors to see who was in the worst shape and who seemed to be holding up. He reached up and tapped his commbadge. "Ensign Shenk to Major DeVries and Lieutenant Goodman. I'm with the survivors in Room 17 by Transporter Room One and request some assistance, please." He added no security code as there was no emergency before taking his finger from his commbadge. Turning back to the others, he went and began to make his rounds among the people, checking to see if anyone had any special needs or if there was anything that he could do to help them. Stopping by Ms. Denton, he knelt down in front of her and took her hands, looking into her eyes. "You're safe, Ms. Denton. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Having received the near desperate plea of Ensign Shenk concerning the survivors of the Hawl, Stace S. DeVries wasted no time in leaving her current position analyzing reports on the bridge in order to report to the mid-size room where the individuals were being held. Upon entering through the doors the Major could already tell a number of things right away. The mental state of her guests were something left to be desired. This wasn't going to be particularly easy by a long shot.

"Alright Shenk, what do we have so far?" she questioned as she moved in the direction of the slightly overwhelmed newcomer.

The Ensign turned to the redheaded Security Chief. "So far...nothing substantial. This young woman over there, " he said, indicating which woman he was talking about, "Said that she saw a partial reading of the sensors before they abandoned ship, Chief."

Clearing his throat, he added, "Oh, and that man in the corner was in Engineering when it happened but he stated that he didn't get a chance to check the sensor network before the ship started to come apart."

"Very well," she retorted as she turned her attention to the engineering officer. Crossing the distance to the corner in which he occupied, Stace sized him up a few seconds before cocking her head to the side. "Ensign Shenk tells me you were in engineering when this whole thing went down... is that correct?"

"Yeah, that's right. I was working at my console when we went on alert," the man nodded.

The Major nodded slowly. "Was there anything out of the ordinary that you remember prior to the attack?"

"Not in the engine room, no," the man shook his head, "It wasn't until the shield generators came online that things got weird."

"Would you care to explain for me?" she asked with interest. She wasn't quite sure just what the man could offer in terms of 'evidence' but she was more than willing to take whatever she could get.

"I've never seen shield consumption figures like that before... the generators couldn't even keep them stable, let alone take the punishment. I think we got hit maybe... a dozen times in the first few seconds... Unless we were getting hit by some new ship I've never heard of, we were jumped by a horde," the engineer said with a frown.

Stace raised an eyebrow as he spoke. Though she had suspected something similar from the reports she had previously read getting face to face confirmation just about made her day. "Don't suppose you were able to catch what type of weaponry they were using by chance?"

"It looked like disruptor energy. It was powerful but the hit pattern on the shields was a little chaotic to be phaser hits," the man said after giving it a little thought.

The Major pondered the statements over. "Unfortunately both the Cardassians and the Romulans use disruptor energy in terms of weaponry. Was there anything that might give you reason to lean towards one over the other?"

"The fact that the shields came up pretty much the minute the alert started. Usually there's a lag in one or the other. So I think we got ambushed..." the man remarked, "Would make the most sense. Cardassians around here don't ambush cargo ships, they chase them down and overtake them."

Stace fought to keep her sentiments about what the Cardassians would or wouldn't do to herself. This was certainly not the time nor place for that. "So you would be guessing Romulan then. Anything else you remember?"

"Not really, when the shields came down, the ship started to buckle and we all ran for the escape pods... Not as many people as I had hoped made it off the ship before it tore itself apart..." he shook his head.