COLONIAL FLEET MEMORANDUM
Dec 1, 2004
FR: MAJ Marcus Petra
TO: RADM Louis Jameson, CDR Gillian Faulkner
CC: None
RE: Frigate Reese Rescue
INCIDENT SUMMARY
At 1200 hours on December 1st, 2004, a single Raptor from the Orion was dispatched to return to the Reese with orders to board her and make contact with Command Staff, and barring that, to salvage the Reese's security hard drive, and return to the Orion. Upon arriving in the proximity of the Reese, a large DRADIS contact was noted in the same position it had been left in at the end of the recon operation on November 30. The Drake continued to show no signs of life or activity.
The Reese's hangar bay showed signs of a gunfight: specifically one Raptor had been rotated to face the hangar bay's cargo elevator, with several hundred empty shell casings scattered around it, signifying that the raptor's guns had been fired for several seconds. The raptor's canopy windscreen had been smashed with bulletholes. Conclusion: It had fired at something that fired back. There was no sign of any bodies left behind near the elevator or the raptor. Medical verified the Reese's air was breathable before the team continued onward.
As team proceeded up the Reese's stairwell, significant debris was discovered in the stairwell and the ship's corridors. Uniforms, mugs from ship's mess, and other mundane items littered the floor. Petty Officers Jones and St. James discovered a dusty film that appeared to pervade almost every internal surface, and collected samples for return to the Orion. These samples are currently under medical quarantine, and have not been researched as of the filing of this report.
Upon reaching CIC, the Reese's DRADIS system was confirmed off-line. However, the ships flak cannon system was online and ready to fire, and the drive system was online and idling. Several film and dust coated uniforms were discovered, two with rank and insignia pins that would be consistent with Commander Hargity and the XO, no signs of their bodies. An attempt was made to broadcast over the ship's intercom for survivors, but no answer was received.
At this point, some members of the team began showing signs of disorientation, so further search of the craft for command staff was abandoned. SecHub showed significant signs of sabotage, with the entire wall of security machines and tape drives having been destroyed by fire. The only terminal left functioning held a freeze frame image of the Reese CIC's last operational moments, with CMDR Hargity's XO apparently already dead or incapacitated on the floor, her shouting orders to her crew, while her Weapons Officers were launching the Reese's emergency beacon. The blurry image of their DRADIS system showed a large red contact directly on their position.
As there was no surviving drives to recover, the team returned to the Raptor and the Orion. All personnel are currently under decontamination quarantine until ship's Medical staff clear them to return to active duty.
From the limited information and observations the team was able to make, it would appear the Reese went down with all hands and should be considered lost due to unknown hostile action, forcing an unknown toxic or corrosive substance through the Reese's ventilation system. The ship itself is pervasively contaminated with an unknown toxic substance. Medical staff will be working on the samples taken by Petty Officers Jones and St. James, as soon as they are cleared from Quarantine.
PERSONNEL
- MAJ Marcus Petra, Tactical
- SGT Bear McBride, Marines
- LCPL Nathaniel Wheeler, Military Police
- PO2 Andromeda Jones, Medical
- PO2 Afton St. James, Medical
CASUALTIES
- None
FULL REPORT
Please see attached.
