A little over two weeks ago, the Liberty was descending through the atmosphere of a class-M planet, and got caught in an unexpected gravimetric storm. Their stability and thruster systems were damaged, and they had to make an emergency landing in a desert biome. They came down hard, impacting a sand dune. Structural damage was, thankfully, only minimal, however, without operational thrusters, they were unable to relaunch. They managed to send up an orbital distress beacon, but were forced to remain on the planet surface. The runabout did retain power, so they were able to survive in a temperature-controlled shelter.
The Liberty did not have suitable spare parts to repair their thruster damage, so their only option was to await a likely rescue mission. My SS Jackson crew had extra parts, and was able to salvage elements of our own systems to get the Liberty space-worthy. We made it back through the wormhole earlier today (the Liberty was operating under her own power), but both vessels will need to be repaired. All personnel – from both runabouts – are safe, well, and accounted for.
There was one other concern, of note, that the Liberty crew reported. While crashed and helpless in the desert, their sensors picked up two unknown vessels in orbit. Apparently, those two vessels had picked up the Liberty’s orbital distress signal, and were reconning the crash site. The Liberty crew was unable to identify the vessels, but did classify them as likely scavengers, possible pirates. Both vessels had left the area, and were gone by the time the SS Jackson arrived. It is likely that they were planning to return with additional assets, and take possession of the crashed runabout. Our rescue may have averted further disaster.
As far as the Liberty crew reports, those were the only signs of civilization discovered during their Gamma Quadrant mission.
Everyone is safe; we’re all back aboard the Enterprise. Thank God for runabouts!
-Lieutenant Sam Archer
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November 27, 2365 -- (Original Devron Timeline)