Poll of the Week: You're the Captain now! A Pirate's Menace

[+ Nadeshiko]

As part of a new series in the Poll of the Week, we're bringing you into the centre chair. When presented with a situation, how would you react? What would you do?

The USS Penda has been sent out on convoy duty - escorting a merchant convoy back towards the Federation core. However, one of the merchants is hijacked in the time it takes you to fight off several pirate ships. Thanks to a nearby Galor-class ship, you were able to defeat most of the attackers, except for two who fled with the hijacked merchant ship. However, the pirates warn you that any attack will result in them killing the captured merchant if you send a team or attack their ship. The Gul is already turning to escort their convoy out of the sector, and will shortly be out of immediate range. Your convoy needs to be escorted to the Starbase at the edge of the sector, and after you send a message to Command, they warn you that the Quick Response Force is already deployed to deal with an issue with one of the colonies in the sector, and cannot come to your rescue. Still.. it seemed the Gul was unhappy with these attacks too, perhaps you could work something out?

Edited April 8, 2021 by Zhanyt Lafizatar
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[Jona ch'Ranni]

The reality of command is that sometimes the tough choices must be made. There are more lives at stake than the hijacked crew and ship. Ask the Cardassian Gul to continue with his escort mission and assure him that you will do the same. Invite him to return to the sector at a prescribed time to carry out a joint mission to recover the missing crew and deal with the pirate problem.

After leading the rest of the convoy to the nearest Starbase, return and feign a ship-wide systems outage to lure the pirates in. The distress call can be the Galor warship's cue to lay in wait and spring the trap on the attackers. Jam their communications so they cannot inform their compatriots of the deception and injure the hostages. The goal should be to disable the pirate ships so that they can be questioned on the whereabouts of the missing merchants and recover them if possible. Secondary goal should be to arrest and rehabilitate the pirates to send a clear message that piracy will not be tolerated by either government.