The Fall of Caleb Xeod (Part III)
Posted on Thu Oct 15, 2020 @ 1:22am by Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Caleb Ryan & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Civilian Jason Haines
1,956 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Asteroid field near Xi'cadian Space
Timeline: MD 08
Previously in
“Caleb wants revenge. And he gets to find out who's organizing the latest attempt to hobble him. These ones are good." The Andorian looked over the asteroid field to the point of light that was the Akira class. "I don't suppose you want to tell us who they are?"
Jason stared at the Andorian intently, his tone got very serious, and then he spoke to the man in Andorii. "Listen here, you slimy worm. Unlike you, I won't betray my friends."
The Andorian chuckled, confident that he had all the cards. "Patch us into the ship. Let's see if we can watch all your mates die."
And now the continuation
USS Pioneer - Bridge
The security on the Commodore's ship was impressive, but Rob did manage to slip onto the bridge. He stood quietly out of the way, listening to the exchanges. He muttered, "It's taking too long."
Soran heard him. "You think? We were expecting resistance. Wouldn't it take some time?"
"Yeah," Rob said. "Where they boarded, it should have been pretty quick shots to the jeffries tubes to go up to get to the secondary bridge and down to get to engineering. Of all Starfleet vessels, Akira's are amongst the easier ones to board and commandeer. They've been delayed, and that only works in Xeod's favor. Now that the team has boarded, I imagine Xeod would blow the ship up before letting them take it. The ship is of no use to him now, even if he does get away. He'll blow it up one way or the other; he's been found out."
Maritza looked over to Commodore Stewart, who was watching a data stream on the main screen, little dots marking the location of the strike forces. Her adjutanant, the Ktarian Commander Helige, saw Martiza looking. "Can we tell if he sets the auto destruct?"
Helige looked grim. "It will depend how long the sequence is."
"If you can get into engineering," Rob said. "If I remember correctly, in chip bank three, take out chips five, fourteen, and twenty-six, and in chip bank eleven, take out chip thirty-six, that will stop any access to both the matter and antimatter containment units, which is what self-destruct uses when containment is dropped to combine things in an uncontrolled manner. This will need to be done on the redundant system as well."
Soran nodded her thanks, "Soran to Away Team Beta," they should have engineering secured, "Disable the self destruct mechanisms. Instructions being sent." She had to hope this would be enough.
“Acknowledged,” came Caleb’s reply, and then his barked orders to his lieutenant about the destruct system.
Akira Vessel
"Can't say I didn't give you a choice." Xeod's voice came across the shipwide and a mist began to fall on both teams and all around them. "I must say, you have some impressive body armor. I wonder what explosive force it can handle at such close range. See, the Romulans have made great strides with nanites, which you are seeing fall because of the sheer volume of them. They've even weaponized nanites. The explosions from these are a sight to behold. So all I have to say is five...four..."
Caleb spun about to his team. “Air purifiers, full power,” he ordered, hoping they had sufficient control of the ship’s systems by now. Xeod was supposed to be locked out! If these things did explode, they’d cripple the ship too, wouldn’t they? He was thankful for the seal on his armor. “Focus on Engineering and where Team Alpha is located. Can we get a location on his signal?”
“Not with our jammer up,” he was told.
“Do we have the transporters?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Drop the jammer and get me a location on Xeod!”
"Uhm, sir, scanners say he is everywhere pretty much. There is at least one instance of him on every deck." He tapped on the tricorder.
Xeod's voice continued to drone on. "Three, ah, the hell with this, I'm getting bored. Four, five."
Towards the back, one of the team started saying, "Damn, it burns."
There was an explosion around his knee area that sent him and blood flying. He landed about ten feet away. His left leg was missing, and he didn't move.
The team looked to Ryan as if to say, 'What do we do?'
“How is the air purifier handling the nanites?” Ryan asked, as someone else ran over to their fallen companion to staunch the bleeding from his leg.
Annora's team had been coated with the nanites as well. Team members were brushing at their armor, hoping whatever it was would come off. After Xeod got to five, one of the team members started to rub at her neck.
"Not like this," were the final words she growled defiantly, and all the nanites on her exploded, and the rest of the team was knocked back and showered with remains and fragments of body armor.
The whole thing seemed like a bluff. Explosive nanites sounded farfetched, even for the Romulans. Apparently it wasn't though, as evidenced by the death of Yiwu.
"May the Prophets guide you to Valhalla," whispered Annora in a quick prayer for her fallen comrade. Once that was over, it was time to finish the mission.
"The jeffries tube is just ahead. Once we set foot on Deck 1, there's no stopping. The moment you see anyone, you shoot them. Ensure rifles are set to maximum stun."
Taking the lead, Annora paused just below the upper hatch. "Durham, open the hatch."
As soon as there was an opening, Annora tossed out two stun grenades. She barely waited for the blast to settle before scrambling out. She paused just long enough for the other four to join her before pushing forward.
There were no screams, no sounds of bodies hitting the deck, just the sound of computer terminals. Despite the life forms the tricorders were supposedly detecting, there was no one on the bridge.
"Come now," an annoying voice said over the comm system. "You didn't think I would keep sitting in my chair on the bridge once I had an idea of where you were going, did you?"
They had the bridge which would help with control, but their main target was not present. "Mejia, Durnam. Stay here, see if you can get internal sensors online. Tihr, Pavoncello, you're with me. We're going hunting."
As they head back to the corridor, Annora activated the secure comm to Caleb. “:Bravo team from Alpha Team. Bridge is empty, but secured.”
“We have Engineering,” Caleb Ryan reported, “but we lost Jacobson. Those nanites.” He growled. “Ah’ve got the air filtration system workin’ overtime, but not sure if it’ll work. Can our jammers block their signals? Anythin’ we can do about ‘em? An’ where the hell is Xeod?”
USS Pioneer - Bridge
As half a dozen life signs winked out, Maritza covered her mouth to keep her frustration and anger contained. Commodore Stewart was half out of her chair in shock. "Where's Xeod? Scan the ship again. Find him!"
Helige was compiling the reading. There were plenty of ghosts. "Strongest options are mid-section Deck Six. That's the shuttle bay."
"And warp core access," Maritza pointed out.
"Alpha Team," Stewart opened a channel. "Head for Deck Six, mid section. We have potential locations in upper warp core access and main shuttle bay."
Akira Vessel
Apparently the Pioneer was able to get better information to guide the away team; hopefully their Intel was solid. “Alpha team copies. Heading to deck six.”
After collecting Mejia and Durnam, Alpha Team headed to the nearest jefferies tube. Climbing down the ladder, they covered the distance between the decks as quickly as possible. Once they emerged, the team moved towards the warp access. It was a smaller area and would be quicker to search than the shuttle bay.
“We’ll take the shuttle bay,” Caleb told Annora, motioning for his team to get moving. They moved quickly to Deck Six and headed for the shuttle bay.
Shuttle Bay
The entrance into the shuttle bay was much easier. There were three runabouts in two rows spaced so there were openings for all of them. On the sides of the shuttle bay there were five photon torpedoes laid out on each side of the wall. After the door closed behind them, one of the team members said, "Force field four meters out."
"Greetings, Commander Ryan," Xeod's voice came from the shuttle bay intercom. Looking up, Ryan and team could see Xeod. "I commend you for making it this far. Now you have to make a decision. Everything on the shuttle side of the force field is magnetized. The nanites that have gotten all over you can do more than just explode. They like power sources, such as those in magnetic boots. Your choice is simple, both Commander Haines and Ensign Haines here in this shuttle bay in ten minutes, or I drop the force fields both on the shuttle bay door system and in front of your band of merry men here, and you go flying into space, and then I will blow this ship up and your other team is scattered across space. Is that clear enough for you and your command team who are lurking safely in their ship just out of sight?"
“The self-destruct system is disabled, Xeod,” Caleb said, holding up the removed chips. “We go out, there’s no way for you to destroy the ship. You get caught either way. We got enough ships out there an’ on the relay station ta play transporter catch with a small team like this. It’s over, Xeod. Turn yerself in and it’ll go much better than if ya try an’ put more counts of attempted murder on your docket.”
X'eod laughed.
"Mister Ryan, I am not a fool to leave certain details to automated systems," Xeod replied. "I was pretty certain this was a trap, but I wanted to see if I could get Mr. and Mr. Haines. I know that this ship is no longer useful, which is why there are so few people on board. Did you miss the five photon torpedoes in the bay? They and a few others in other places on the ship are armed and I have the trigger. Your relay station and ships won't be able to get a lock on you fast enough to get out of the blast radius. You now have nine minutes and twenty-five seconds to get me what I asked for."
“And just how are you gettin’ outta this, then?” Ryan asked. “There’s no way ya’ll can beam out. We’ve got the system locked down.” He motioned his lieutenant over to whisper orders so Xeod wouldn’t hear. “Find a way to get around that force field and get to those torpedoes. Disarm them, or demag the shuttle bay so they’ll fly out of here too.”
"Come now, Commander Ryan. I would have thought a man of your experience might not be so short sighted," Xeod remarked. "I don't leave too many things to chance. Eight minutes and forty-five seconds."
“We’ve got some of yer crew in custody too,” Caleb reminded. “Ya gonna leave ‘em ta die? Ya can’t beam outta here with that dampenin’ field up.”
Caleb’s lieutenant motioned him over. They’d manage to pry off one of the panels to get at the force field emitters. Caleb nodded indicating they should get the field down.
To be Continued…
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