Waving The Flag (Mission)

Waving the Flag
Season:	Season 1
Episode:	2
Date:	July 2280
Template:Mission

Repaired, refitted, and restaffed, the USS Lexington is dispatched not to the border, but to former Federation worlds hoping to rekindle the fire. Some are enthusiastic, while others, want nothing to do with humanity. Can the crew of the Lexington overcome these odds to drum up enough support to mount a new offensive in the Beta Quadrant?

Summary

Repairs and Refit

The Lexington warps back to M-11 at a sluggish Warp Four, roughly half its maximum speed. En route, Captain Marty Collins begins to assemble his Senior Staff from among the insertion team he'd brought with him. Roscoe Mayhew agrees to stay as Chief of Security as long as the ship is indeed used for why it was sought. Harlow Harcrow happily accepts the job as Chief Helmsman, finding the opportunity more joyous than piloting shuttles here and there. Alanna Morrison agrees to stay as Chief of the Boat to remain close to her uncle. Kibyr gets acquainted with the ship and a future working with Starfleet. Others like Daniel Bishop and Morgan Ryan decide to move on from the Lexington, neither of them seeing much of a future for the damaged vessel.

Days later, after the Lexington is put into drydock for repairs, Captain Collins stays aboard the mighty starship to stay involved with the repairs. He climbs through the ship's every nook and cranny to learn as much about the Lexington has he can. Just a few days into the repair process, the Lexington is visited by three members of Starfleet's Command Chiefs, including Rear Admiral Hospers, Chief of Operations; Vice Admiral Chipheni, Chief of Security; Admiral Jocelyn Bachelet, the Commander in Chief; and Captain Hugo Aamaya, the Commanding Officer of the USS Callisto. It is announced to Collins that Aamaya will be taking over the Lexington and that Marty will be reassigned. Collins adamantly refuses, citing several controversial and compromising decisions that Aamaya had made during his entrenchment in the Triangle. Marty goes so far to claim that the Captain is corrupt, and that as such, Starfleet's new ship should be left free from corruption. Aamaya tries to punch Collins, forcing Bachelet to step in before the men resort entirely to fisticuffs. Bachelet orders Aamaya to return to the Callisto and to the Triangle. Aamaya elects instead to resign, having lost confidence in the Command Chiefs. Hospers and Chipheni leave with Aamaya, and Bachelet informs Collins that this had all been a test. Not only did she need to see where Aamaya's loyalties lie, but she also needed to see that Marty had rekindled his fire to make it back to Earth.

Collins continues to stay with the Lexington, leaving only to recruit more crew members, including a Chief Medical Officer, Syrial J'naii from the Interspecies Medical Exchange, and a new Chief Engineer in Lieutenant Lynn Tayler. By early July, the Lexington is mostly restored to working order.

On Tour...

At the start of July, the Lexington is relaunched, albeit commandeered by Admiral Bachelet. The Lexington begins a tour of former Confederation worlds, starting with the ones the Admiral deems most essential to the continued survival of the Confederation, and by extension Starfleet. The first two worlds, the Grazerites and the Tellarites, were not receptive of the Lexington and its delegation and declined the opportunity to return. The ship then visited the Efrosians, who gladly entertained the Lexington, but ultimately chose to remain independent.

The Admiral selects the Zaldans to be the next world to visit, and Captain Collins reluctantly agrees to the destination. By now, the crew of the Lexington had grown weary of waving the flag and receiving no tangible return for their month-long effort. Several, including Commander Mayhew, express their displeasure at the situation and demand that the Captain oppose the Admiral. Before the debate can continue, the Lexington intercepts a distress call from an Andorian convoy. Marty diverts the starship, without approval, to answer the call. The ship arrives to find the convoy and its escorts under attack by three Klingon birds of prey. Collins instructs the bridge crew to join the fight, quickly disabling one Klingon ship and destroying another. The third bird of prey retreats, but not before destroying its crippled, and dishonored, wingman. Of the Andorians, a damaged freighter and only one member of its escort team remain, prompting Collins to offer assistance to the struggling Andorian escort.

Engineering and Medical details are transported aboard the Andorian escort to provide assistance. The situation appeared to be dire with half of the escort's decks uninhabitable, and radiation leaking from the engines. Lieutenant Tayler and her team head for engineering, and come across one of the ship's senior engineers trapped under rubble. Together, they manage to affect emergency repairs to the ship, rendering it safe for interstellar travel once more. The medical staff make their way to the ship's infirmary, only to find it overwhelmed with patients. It's quickly determined that the most critical patients need to be evacuated to the Lexington, which Doctor J'naii quickly does, hoping an undamaged medical facility would give them the best chance at life.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Lexington scan the twisted wreckage from the Klingon ships. Kibyr detects an intact computer core. Hoping to gain any sort of information, Captain Collins orders him to lead a team to extract the core from the wreckage. Kibyr enlists Lieutenant Harcrow and Chief Petty Officer Cooper to join him on the mission. Together, the trio work quickly to free the computer core, but before the team can return, Kibyr and Cooper are abducted by a pair of Klingons outfitted with stealth technology. Both abductees are soon tortured for information, but neither provide anything valuable to the Klingons. The Klingon Captain confronts Kibyr, and threatens Kibyr to return him to his people to suffer a terrible fate.

Lieutenant Harcrow, having returned to the Lexington with the computer core, informs the Captain that the rest of the Away Team is missing. Collins directs the crew to scan for any evidence that a Klingon ship is floating in stealth mode. While the crew does find proof of a stealth ship, the Lexington has trouble detecting it. Mayhew runs a few calculations and computes six possible locations for the Klingon vessel. A volley of three torpedoes is fired at each location, with one of the locations proving to be a success. A damaged Klingon vessel decloaks even though its engines and shields are disabled.

The Lexington is positioned in between the Klingon and Andorian vessels, using itself as a shield to protect the Andorians. Collins also sends over a HRT team, led by Commander Mayhew, to retrieve Kibyr and Chief Cooper. As Mayhew's team recovers the captives, they are ambushed by Klingons. The HRT team is successful in overcoming the Klingons, and most of the team is beamed out, along with the dead HRT members. With the shields down, a Klingon boarding party beams into sickbay. Before the boarders are repelled, several security members are killed.

Three more Klingon vessels arrive. The Andorians jump into action, quickly disabling one of the new arrivals. The surviving Andorian escort unleashes all the fury it can, destroying a second ship before colliding with the third. The crew abandons ship just before impact. Meanwhile, Kibyr and Mayhew infiltrate the Klingon engine room and steal the cloaking device. As soon as they beam out, the Lexington destroys the final Klingon vessel.

As the smoke clears, the crew begin to assess the damage as the Lexington sets a course for the Andorian homeworld. A brief rendezvous with the Ganymede enabled Collins to transfer Admiral Bachelet off the Constitution class ship. Bachelet's parting words to Marty contained little praise for his actions with the Andorians. In fact, she was quite disappointed that Marty refused to continue waving the flag with the remaining former Federation worlds. Nevertheless, as the Admiral was leaving, a communique arrived for the Admiral, receiving several salutations and gratitudes from high ranking members of the Andorian militia.

Andoria, as it seemed, was on the verge of leaving humanity's disintegrating alliance. The Lexington's actions changed all that. At the conclusion of the day, the crew meet in the forward lounge for a celebratory drink. The mission may be over, but the journey is just beginning.

Timeline

June 2280

• June 7, 2280: The New Chief
• June 8, 2280: Step Up On The Ladder
• June 8, 2280: Death Be Not Proud
• June 8, 2280: A Cupfull of Sugar
• June 14, 2280: Matters of Command
• June 14, 2280: In The Doctor's Office
• June 24, 2280: Engineer Enthusiasm
• June 26, 2280: A Personalized Tour
• June 26, 2280: A Change in the Lineup

July 20, 2280

• 1000 hours: A Pauper's Life
• 1030 hours: A Hopeless Quest
• 1100 hours: Needle in the Haystack
• 1100 hours: Damage Control
• 1100 hours: On the Clock
• 1115 hours: Blue Blood and Shrapnel
• 1115 hours: Reclamation Gone Wrong
• 1130 hours: What Happened?
• 1145 hours: Waking Up
• 1145 hours: Klingons!
• 1200 hours: Rescue
• 2200 hours: Nightcap

OOC Information

Mission 2 began on October 18, 2020 and ended on May 2, 2021. Since then, 28 posts were published in the mission.

External Information

Complete Mission Logs for Episode 2: Waving the Flag

	MISSIONS OF THE USS LEXINGTON
SEASON 1	1: Fool's Errand • 2: Waving The Flag • 3: Extinction
BACKGROUND	ALTERNATE UNIVERSE TIMELINE