Security Training (Part 2)

Posted on Mon May 13, 2019 @ 12:09am by Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Ensign Tizo Criteser & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Civilian Jason Haines & Ensign Jessica Mayhew

3,043 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Holodeck 24
Timeline: Day 7/0547 hrs

On:

"Threat Level: Alpha-Foxtrot-Six. Security teams to Deck 570. Repeat, Threat Level: Alpha-Foxtrot-Six. Security teams to Deck 570."

“That’s only a few decks above,” Jessica said. “And there are transporters on that deck.” It would be much faster than trudging up half a dozen decks via turbolifts that might be crowded with civilians, or via jeffries tubes. She motioned for everyone to get into a standard transporter defensive formation. Being shorter, she crouched down with her rifle out, giving the much bigger Travis room to deploy his phaser standing above her. She tapped her comm.

“Security to Transporter Room 57. Emergency security transport. Lock onto my signal and beam the security team to your location.”

Jason got into the rear guard position. He wasn't security personnel, so he was not familiar with their basic forward move tactics, so he took the position that made him less likely to cause a friendly fire incident. He would bring up the assumption later, now wasn't the time. For now he waited for the holodeck's transporter simulation, which was very close to the real thing.

Farrokh positioned himself to the left of Jessica and Tayla automatically fell in behind him and alongside Jason. She turned herself slightly so she had the left flank covered in case what they were about to confront was positioned to their left and rear as a group. She could see that Travis would have the right front and first quadrant of the right side from his elevated stance and Jessica would also have the front covered as well. She trusted Jason would have the rear and the right flank and she knew Farrokh would have the left front and left first quadrant in the same manner as the rest of them so the standard pattern would cover all eventualities. She checked her weapon was on stun setting and readied it in her hand, steadying her feet and weight in full preparation as she had been shown.

There was a bit of sputtering of the transporter beam before the security team materialized on the platform of the transporter room. The room was dim except for emergency lighting and the acrid smell of electronic smoke hung in the air.

The Tellarite grunted an apology.

"Sorry about the rough ride. We lost main power just before you called for transport. Not sure the cause, but I blew out half the relays in the process of bringing you here."

Jessica nodded. “See if you can fix it, but stay out of sight. Can you give us an idea what the threat is?” she asked the transporter chief. “Did you see them?” She motioned to Travis and Jason to cover the door while they got their bearings.

Farrokh and Tayla automatically filled the spaces left and covered the group to as full an extent as they could, shuffling in position to facilitate the uptake.

Jason said, "Aye," to Ensign Mayhew's order. Moving to the door, he covered the right side, watching for trouble.

"Unsure the nature of the threat, ma'am. A standard security team popped in several minutes ago. They asked if anyone had beamed out recently. The answer was no, and I told them so. As they told me not to beam anyone out without authorization from Ops, I'm guessing they were after someone."

He grabbed a toolkit from under the control panel. "If that's all, I have a transporter to fix."

Jessica nodded. “Anything?” she asked Jason and Travis if the corridor outside the transporter room was clear. She turned to the rest of the team. “Right, left,” she said, dividing them. “To the end of the corridor only. Check around the corner.”

Tayla followed Farrokh as if she were attached to him by some invisible string, keeping close and flicking her eyes in all directions, concentrating to try to be ready and instant in her responses when the time came.

"Clear," Jason said, moving to a covering position for when the team exited the door.

They were moving a bit slower than some other teams had, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, a previous team "died" when they moved too fast at the sacrifice of situational awareness. Annora was interested how this group would do with a ticking clock, but at the moment she was content to let the scenario play out as planned.

The transporter room was at the end of a shorter corridor that made a sharp left turn before opening up into a long wide corridor. A set of small restaurants were prevalent at the start of the corridor before giving way to two main companies, MonarcTronics & Griffin Productions.

As with the transporter room, the only lighting came from the emergency systems. A thin layer of smoke had drifted down the corridor, having gotten past the struggling environmental systems. The team checking around the corner would find a chaotic scene. The smoke was thicker there and a large number of wounded civilians could be seen wandering around in shock. Debris was strewn around the floor while a few brave souls attempted to put out a plasma fire.

The fact that the corridor turned left meant that Farrokh was first to reach it, positionally. He moved to the edge of the wall just before it folded back and away, and with his phaser ready in his hand he moved cautiously to the edge and peered around, signalling silently for the others to hold back slightly out of the main sight line, just in case anyone might be aiming a weapon down the new walkway they were about to move into.

As he looked around and into the corridor beyond he was shocked to see the mayhem. He flattened himself back against the wall on their side of the corner and indicated to Jessica that there was something she should see and decide upon. He covered her as she approached his position and moved into the space he had occupied a moment ago, with a clear view around the edge.

Jason looked all about as he waited for Farrokh and Mayhew to signal to move forward. He started to mentally count as he kept an eye on the rear.

“I don’t see any hostiles,” Jessica said. “Radio emergency medical and damage control teams.” She calculated where the next nearest transporter was located. “Have them stage in this corridor. They’ll need to take a different transporter though. Might need a site to site if that Tellarite doesn’t get his fixed. Farrokh, there’s an emergency kit fifty meters to the left. We’ll go that way. You grab the kit and start triage on anyone we come across. There should be small transporter tags in the kit for anyone who needs emergency transport to Sickbay. Haines, take your team to the right. Sweep the Griffon side of the Prom. Nottingham on triage, med kit fifty meters to the right.”

"Yes, ma'am," Farrokh replied, and took himself off to find the emergency kit as indicated. Tayla looked a bit undecided, but just fell in behind Farrokh and followed him, since she hadn't been told different.

Jason smiled as he was his team, given that she had set Nottingham on triage, which he didn't think was appropriate given what he believed the goal of these teams were, but he was not in charge and this was not the place to question. Annora was the observer, so wasn't in use.

Moving to the right, he kept pace with Nottingham as long as he could so they could give each other cover. When they had to diverge, Jason took to the wall as much as possible, checking his surroundings as often as he could without being too slow. Being cautious was one thing, being over-cautious made one late to the party and people died.

Jason came to a slight turn and he peeked out the corner and didn't like what he saw. There were three Cardassians and one Starfleet Security guard. It was obvious that they were not chatting for coffee, as one Cardassian was about to stab the Security guard. Jason fired, hitting the Cardassian, sending him to a knee. It was enough for the guard to break contact and get to a more advantageous position.

"Contact," Jason said into his tactical communicator as he adjust the power level on his phaser up a couple of notches to. "Three Cardassians, hostile intent."

With the call of contact, Tizo poked his head around the corner to see just where the hostiles were located. The smoke was making everything hazy, but he could see a group of Cardassians near the entrance to MonarcTronics. "Confirmed. They appear to be wearing light body armor, suggesting this was not a random attack."

From the far side of their locations Farrokh and Tayla kept close to the walls and moved forward to keep pace with the rest of the group. They were able to come up on the Cardassians’ location from a different angle, but they didn't engage. They waited for Jessica to indicate her orders.

"Weapons down now!" Jason barked at the Cardassians, trying to make himself a lower profile. They had him out numbered 3-1, 3-2 if he counted the other security guard. "You have to the count of 3."

“Okay, converge on Haines and the hostiles,” Jessica said, visually scanning. She wasn’t far behind Haines, working for cover. “Farrokh, Nottingham, leave the victims for the med teams. They should be here soon.”

Jessica moved up behind Haines, patting him on the shoulder to let him know she was there. “You got this?” she asked. He’d made first contact, so she wouldn’t interrupt whatever rapport he had developed. She pulled a stun grenade from her tactical vest, offering it to Haines just in case. She also pulled her tricorder to see where her team was. Good. Farrokh and Tayla were moving along to the other side of the Cardassians.

“Farrokh, Tayla, try and keep them cut off from going into MonarcTronics. Keep them in the concourse. We don’t want to play cat and mouse with them inside of a store. Nottingham, see if you can get to the next level for overwatch.”

“On it,” Travis commed back.

"Aye, ma'am," Farrokh replied and edged his way around the walls, keeping as much out of the Cardassians' sight line as possible at first until he and Tayla, who was keeping close in his shadow, got far enough to fire cross shots to alarm and herd the culprits back towards the main concourse by directing their fire in such a way that the suspects were being nudged along, no matter what they felt they wanted to do.

Jason nodded to Mayhew, and before he could take her grenade, the Cardassians lowered their weapons. One had a smile on his face that easily said that their actions were a ruse of some sort.

"What's so funny?" Jason asked, wondering what they were about to pull.

Farrokh kept his weapon raised and trained. He wasn't taking chances in case this was a trick.


"You Starfleet types are so predictable. Cardassian forces would have neutralized the threat by now." The Cardassian shrugged. "But that's none of my concern."

At that boast, two events occurred in quick succession. His compatriot to the left raised his rifle at a forty-five degree angle. From the launcher beneath the main barrel he fired a grenade that covered two-thirds of the distance between the Cardassians and Starfleet personnel. Thick gray smoke poured forth from the canister as it landed with a metallic thud on the deck plating. The main purpose was to provide concealment, although it also contained a mild irritant to further aid an escape. Just before the grenade landed, an overhead EPS conduit exploded in a shower of sparks. As further panic spread through the gathered civilians, the Cardassians moved towards MonarcTronics.

Jason saw where the Cardassians were heading, but given the smoke, he wasn't going to fire and risk hitting a civilian, he did call out, "On the deck, get down!"

He then said into tac comm, "Hostiles are heading to MonarcTronics." He was about to order everyone to converge, but then looked to Mayhew, remembering his place and said, "Orders, Ensign?"

Jessica studied the grey cloud. “How long can you hold your breath?” she asked wryly. She pulled a small rebreather and pair of goggles from her her tactical vest and then scanned the cloud with her tricorder. The standard kit would protect eyes and lungs, but if there was skin irritant or contact poison in that cloud, they were in for an evening in sickbay.

Jason prepped for the smoke and replied with a smirk, "As long as I have to or until I pass out."

On the other side, Farrokh took Jessica's lead and pulled out his smoke protection mask and turned to check if Tayla had hers out yet. She did and was pulling it into place adeptly. He raised a thumbs up to her, and when she responded he began to creep round further, readying himself for Jessica's orders, expecting them to be to go on in after the suspects.

Tizo wasted little time in pulling on his protective gear before scanning the smoke in front of them. Aside from standard particles there was a large concentration of tear gas mixed in with it. The main concern was the eyes and lungs, although there was always a small risk of skin irritation, especially in prolonged exposure. While the security team was largely protected, he doubted the civilians and the med team that had just arrived would be similarly protected. What calm had settled over the corridor had likely given way to chaos as the effects began to hit the shoppers and business owners.

Jason glanced at Mayhew and said, "If we don't move soon, Ensign, we could lose them."

Jessica nodded, judging the exposure risks minimal. “Go,” she said, ducking into the cloud, peering through the mist “Nottingham, hold back the medical teams and work on getting the civilians clear. Backup teams should be arriving soon.”

They passed several coughing and scrambling civilians, pointing them in the direction of clear corridor. It was hard to distinguish friendlies in the mist. Several times she had to call out a challenge to a figure before allowing anyone to approach.

One hunched figure straightened up and green disruptor fire lanced out. “Watch out!” Jessica yelled, shoulder checking Jason clear of the beam. She felt the burn on her shoulder, a graze. If this were real, it would hurt like hell, but as a holodeck simulation it was just painful.

She was about to prod Jessica into moving forward, but thankfully Annora didn't have to intervene. She moved forward with the bulk of the team, helping to move civilians towards the back of the corridor. The green disruptor fire continued to pierce the smoke, but slowed down as the security team continued their push towards the Cardassians.

Tayla moved in closer to Farrokh and kept close to him. The two kept their designated flank covered and returned fire to where the green laser tags were being sent from. "Be ready to duck or jump out of the way if we get too close or get any of them cornered," he whispered loudly enough to make her hear him, but hopefully not loud enough for anyone else.

Jessica found cover, dragging Jason along with her, shaking out her numbed arm, her fingers prickling painfully. Using her partially disabled arm as a rest, she aimed into the smoke and a quick, precise phaser beam lanced out, taking down the shooter.

Jason felt embarrassed that he had been caught flat-footed like that and the ensign had been shot. He had been lax, a mistake that he would be certain not to make again. The smoke was starting to clear a little and Jason saw what could be a good clearing for he and Mayhew to take to move forward.

"Forty-five degrees right, Ensign," he said. "It looks to be a good lane to move forward."

“Roger,” Jessica said. She slipped out of their cover. They passed the prone body of the Cardassian that had been shooting at them. She knelt a moment to run a tricorder over him. “He’ll be out for a while,” she said, kicking the alien’s fallen disruptor away and zip tying his hands. She tapped her comm. “One down,” she called out. “Anyone see where the others went?”

One of the security crewman from the initial team took advantage of the situation and approached the officers. "Ma'am, Crewman Paisely, myself, and Shives were sent to investigate reports of Mr. Ziangam being spotted in the area. There are multiple warrants out for his arrest by several governments. We were talking with several residents when Zingagam and two others appeared and started causing chaos. Considering recent events, it's plausible they're using MonarcTronics as a front. Although I doubt the rank and file employees are aware of that fact."

"Who's Zingagam?" Jason asked. "Friendly, baddy, or target for the Cardassians?"

“Ziangam,” Jessica corrected, running through her head on what she knew about the man and why there was a warrant out on him. “Baddy, and target for just about everyone,” Jessica said. “Cardassian who came up during the Dominion War. Lef the military after the war. Used to run with some weapons dealer a decade ago, Moia Ilmater. Was one of her lieutenants. After she fell off the grid, his bid to take over was checked by the remaining four capos, Dys, Tejera, Graeca, and Torm. He worked for the Syndicate for a while, but now even they want him dead. Tejera and Dys were arrested years ago, though Dys got out two years ago on a technicality and has been lying low since. Tejera apparently recently escaped. And Torm was killed within the last year. Ziangam might be making a play for the chaotic arms sector.”

FIN

Lt. Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer

Ens. Tizo Criteser
Security Officer

Ltjg. Jason Haines
Chief Intelligence Officer

Ens. Jessica Mayhew
Security Officer

PO3 Travis Nottingham
Security Officer

CPO Farrokh Caspara
Security Officer
NPC - Amia

PO2 Tayla Balann
Security Officer
NPC - Amia

 

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