Chief Petty Officer Joran Tel leaned back in the pilot seat in his flight suit of his Valkyrie as it flew through warp at a measly warp 3. He thought back to his last posting, he was going to miss the old Akira, the USS Radiant Storm was a beautiful and brilliant ship but after 3 and a bit years he felt it was time to move on as she was being pulled back from the Cardassian border. He heard through an old friend at fleet HQ that they were looking for a new Chief Flight Control Officer on the USS Altai, a steamrunner, alone on the frontier and the idea of that intrigued him. Thinking on it for a while he decided every ship, especially one that far out, can use a good pilot and requested the transfer.

Glancing over at the display he could tell he was only an hour or two from his destination, well the rough area anyways. He was given the coordinates of the asteroid field where Outpost 1-SZ, which the USS Altai had reestablished was located but that was it. Thinking to himself he marvelled at how Starfleet at times seemed woefully disorganised while at other times everything seemed to fit perfectly into the great mechanism that was the federation. A prime example of this was having the Radiant Storm fly lightyears out to the edge of Breen frontier from the Cardassian border to drop him off at the absolute limit of the Valkyries range was irritating, to say the least.

Shifting slightly in his seat he looked forward to arriving at the outpost and taking his new posting aboard the USS Altai as the CFCO, not that he was an officer out of the academy he thought with a slight laugh. At the moment what he was really excited about was stretching his legs and having a shower. Four days cramped in the Valkryie and in the flight suit was pushing it a bit.

To pass the remaining time he pulled up the latest reports from the USS Altai to familiarize himself with what they had been up to in the recent weeks and months since their assignment. He had to admit it was an interesting read. He was just getting to a part where they had uncovered a massive nest of some sort of space spiders in the outpost and one of the officers had their leg operated on after an incident when the proximity alarms in the cockpit went off.  

Quickly pushing the reports aside he drew up the sensors but nothing appeared on them beyond what looked like a sensor echo where maybe something had been. Curious he dropped the starfighter out of warp to get a clearer picture of what caused the alarms to go off, the USS Altai would likely be interested to know what was out here with them. As the Valkyrie flashed into normal space Joran performed both a visual and sensor sweep of the area. Beyond a could large asteroids 100 thousand clicks distant which marked the outer edge of the field that Outpost 1-SZ was located in the empty black was just that empty. 

Comparing his location to the approximate location of the outpost he realized he was only a short flight away at impulse. “Well, might be nice to have a flight through this asteroid field before I arrive,” he says aloud before changing course and flying at full impulse towards the asteroid field.

As he approached the field the coms system lit up as a series of garbed voices came began to come through. “What the hell?” he says as he pulls up the sensors again showing everything was in the clear.

“Computer, can you pinpoint the location of the transmission?”

Negative – No source identified

“How very odd. Computer record transmission. I am sure someone on the Altai will be able to make heads or tails of this.”

The transmission continued for the next 20 minutes cutting in and out at times before going silent just as Joren brought the valkyrie up and over a large asteroid. As he did he couldn’t help but let out a gasp as a Breen Dreadnaught appeared before him from warp.

“Shit Shit Shit”, Joran gasps as he quickly flips the small sighter 180° and slips behind the asteroid for cover. ‘Of all the asteroid fields why this one. What the hell is a Breen Dreadnaught doing here.’

“Computer, any indications that they Breen spotted us?”

Negative – Breen ship is showing no power signs

Quickly pulling up the readings from the ship he shook his head. “How odd, guess I should go take a look then. Computer benign scans of the ship and record all visuals.”

Slowly he edged the Valkyrie out from behind the asteroid and approached the Breen vessel. Looking up at it from the cockpit the sheer size difference between the two vessels was astonishing. “Now, what are you doing all the way out here?” he muttered as he flicked on the forward spotlights illuminating the dark jagged hull.  He guided the ship along the dorsal spine of the vessel staying at least 50 meters distance. “Nothing seems out of the ordinary…” he starts to say when the valkyrie shakes as if something had just hit it. 

Pulling up the sensors he cannot see anything and brings to pull back from the Breen ship when the interior of the Valkyrie is filled with the sound of metal rending from just behind the pilot seat. Reaching for his phaser Joran beings to turn and bring it to bear when something smashes into the back of him and the lights go out.