In Enemy Hands (Part I of IV)
Posted on Tue Mar 23, 2021 @ 10:40pm by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Caleb Ryan & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Captain Tam "Demon" Haican & Civilian Jason Haines & Charghwl'IH of the House of Soval & Civilian Hydel Turvan & Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan
2,666 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Pangaea Colony
Timeline: MD04 0500
[ON]
It looked like the Klingons were winning. The small Klingon section was littered with bodies, mostly Cardassians, and they had been pushed back slightly. Gil Salat strode up to Gul Denat, and saluted briefly. "The Klingons are pushing us back, sir. They're trying to link up to the Federation buildings, defend them too. And we've detected a small squad of Federation Marines in their area."
Gul Meran's face remained neutral as he studied the video footage he had just received from an infantry company that was involved in a small arms firefight with a group of Klingons.
"Just researchers and scientists," Gul Meran said. "That's what the Klingons said they had stationed on the planet: Just researchers and scientists." Gul Meran scoffed as he shook his head.
"I used to be a scientist myself," he said. "Right before the Federation War began, I was serving on Gildarf III at a research station studying a nearby binary star system," Gul Meran said as he stood and walked over to another console. "That was around the same time the Klingons decided that they were going to invade Cardassia." He brought up a schematic.
"We were a small station, no more than a handful of disruptors between the entirety of the facility. We tried to hail the leading vessels and tell them that we were just researchers and scientists, but they either didn't get the numerous messages or they just didn't give a damn, because for the next three hours they slaughtered any Cardassian they could get their hands on," the Cardassian commander remembered bitterly.
"My escape shuttle was within the crosshairs of a Klingon assault fighter and was about to be destroyed like the rest of our comrades when a small rapid response fleet led by then-Gul Tharek Getal opened fire and vaporized the fighter before moving on to the other Klingon raiders," Gul Meran said with a smile.
"Salat, it's a shame you never got a chance to meet Getal prior to his incapacitation. He had his moments of greatness," the gul said, recalling more fond memories of his former friend. He shook his head and brought up a schematic of the Klingon Complex and opened a communication channel to the fighter squadron that had just been dispatched to the planet.
"Regiment HQ to Flight Leader Gil Pundray," Gul Meran said. "I have uploaded the schematics to your systems. You are authorized to begin your strike run."
"Flight Leader Pundray to Regiment HQ. Acknowledged," the Hideki pilot responded quickly.
Gul Meran turned away from the console and looked towards Gil Salat. "Klingons have no concept of the word mercy, but today I am going to teach them the meaning of justice," he said, turning to the main viewscreen.
***
The Cardassian flight of five Hideki-class fighters broke away from their squadron and made their way to the Klingon Complex. The HUD gave an overview of the Klingon Complex with specific identifiers showing which building was for which purpose. The fighters had been modified in preparation for the Pangaea campaign by upgrading their disruptors to Galor-class phasers.
Explosions lit up the pre-dawn night as the fighters opened fire on the buildings. One fighter broke away and began a strafing run on a group of Klingon fighters that were in an open field after fighting with Cardassian forces. The pilot felt a pang of guilt as he saw his fellow Cardassian soldiers being consumed in the white hot flash of the spiral wave disruptor. The fighter burned a trail across the field, instantly killing any figure that found itself in its path.
The other four fighters continued their assault on the Klingon Complex, concentrating their firepower on the communications building. Flight Leader Gil Pundray broke off from the other three fighters and targeted a structure that his HUD identified as the "Honor Ring". The fighter locked in the coordinates and unleashed a fury of rapid-fire on the structure, causing it to go up in flames and plasma explosions.
***
Twizl darted through the streets of the Ferengi sector of the Pangea colony, avoiding the Cardassian patrols moving into the sector. Why, oh why had he given up on contraband for a legitimate job? Who would have thought signing up to be an enforcer on the colony would entail actual fighting?
Twizl had ditched his weapon and uniform coat. Life was so much easier when his Uncle Nazl was still alive. Starfleet seemed to have given up the investigation into his murder, and Ambassador Qinee didn’t seem to care to press the issue. The bitch. Females!
Twizl managed to make it to the administrative office without being stopped, darting inside, barging past the front office and straight into Grand Proxy Rikava’s office, gasping for breath.
“Car-Car-Cardassians!” he panted, hands on knees.
Rikava blinked, staring at the small Ferengi male that had barged in. “Yes, I am well aware, Enforcer Twizl,” she said, and the tone in her voice gave the young Ferengi yet another reason to detest all these females in power over him.
“Where is your uniform, Enforcer?” Rikava asked. Was that accusation in her tone?
“Lost it…” Twizl panted. “Came to warn--”
“Of course.” Rikava sighed. “I have already instructed the enforcers to stand down. If we do not provoke the Cardassians, they have assured us we will be allowed to continue our activities unmolested.”
“They’re...the Klingons...Federation…”
“Are in charge of their own sectors,” Rikava said. “The Ferengi have never been involved in an interstellar war, and by the Blessed Exchequer, I will not be the one to instigate the first until we hear from Ambassador Qinee or the Grand Nagus himself. What are the Klingons and Federation to us? Need I remind you of the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Rules of Acquisition? War or peace, it is all good for business.”
***
Aleczandra stopped running for the moment once she and Shay reached the waterfall. She removed her shoes, careful of leaving prints in the wet grass, and motioned for Shay to follow her. Nearer the cliff face, the grass around the pool turned to smooth stones, which wouldn’t leave tracks. They moved along a slim ledge. There was a nearly invisible cave entrance behind the waterfall they had found during one of their little trysts at the falls, and it would serve as shelter for the time being. They would have access to water, and had some food stores. Her survival kit had hunting snares and fishing line.
“Get comfortable,” Zandra told Shay, peeling off her bloody shirt. She cleaned her knives on it and sheathed them, then removed her wrist sheaths and the rest of her bloody clothes. She went to the falls and ducked into the cold water, cursing, and washed clean, cleaning her clothes as much as she could, too.
“We’ll lie low for the night,” Zandra said, turning back, naked, rainbow hair dripping. She saw Shay getting the camp fusion generator out of the survival pack. “No,” she told him. “No heat. Not tonight. The ionization in the atmosphere plays havoc with scanners, but a power signature would still be able to be picked up if they’re close enough. We’ll just have to get cozy,” she said with a leering smile, squeezing water and Cardassian blood out of her hair. “You don’t usually seem to mind that.”
Several dozen meters above the young couple, a squad of Cardassian troopers dematerialized at the top of a large slope overseeing the valley and the adjacent waterfall. It took several moments for the troopers to recognize what had happened to them.
"Wh-where...damnit!" the Cardassian gil shouted to himself as he looked around and realized what had happened.
"The Federation must've used some form of transporter device once we got close to the Portal Complex," the Gil said as he studied the terrain and took stock of which troopers had been beamed away with him. He ordered them to take several minutes to take inventory of their supplies and ammunition.
"Gil Tacion to HQ, Fourth squad, Second plato---" Before he could finish the sentence, the feedback from his comm unit stopped him. Gil Tacion grunted in frustration as he turned back to his squad and several additional Soldiers that had been caught in the transportator.
"Everyone break up into teams of two, spread out, and canvass the area. Look for any natural landmark or formations that can tell us where the hell we were in relation to HQ or the Central Complex," the gil commanded his squad. If he knew where they were, then he could triangulate a signal that could be used to beam them back to the battle, or at least Cardassian Complex.
"Stay close. We don't know how far of a range our squad-based communicators will work," he said. "Dismissed," he said as he and another trooper started to proceed down the rock cropping near a waterfall.
Now dressed, and with her clothes still wet from the washing in the pond, Aleczandra pulled out the tricorder from the survival kit. She cursed moderately. Scanning was cranky on Pangea. She set it to a silent proximity alert, and went to place it at the mouth of the hidden cave when it started blinking an alert.
“Shhh!” Zandra warned Shay, freezing. She studied the tricorder and dropped a knife into her free hand. It looked like two life forms climbing down the falls. She tossed the tricorder back to Shay and pulled out a Type II phaser, just in case their hiding place was discovered, squatting silently behind the fall of water at the cave entrance.
Gil Tacion made his way down the slope of rocks to the base of the waterfall. He immediately took notice of the water as it cascaded down from a height of about four meters above.
"Well, we may have been beamed into the middle of nowhere, but at least it's a middle of nowhere with a scenic view," the Cardassian trooper said as he and the gil continued to walk forward.
"Keep your eyes peeled," Gil Tacion said as they stepped closer to the waterfall and what looked like the opening of a cave just beyond the far side of it. He gestured for the trooper to follow him as they slowly stepped through the cascading water, momentarily blinded by the rushing water.
Zandy took the opportunity to strike, firing her phaser at one of the Cardassians, her knife stabbing at the unprotected throat of the other Cardassian. She hoped Shay stayed hidden in the back of the cave where she’d left him!
Gil Tacion only saw a quick blur of movement out of the corner of his eye before he felt the shot grazing off of his left shoulder. As the shot spun him around, he saw the blood splatter from the neck of the Cardassian trooper that was beside him. He did not have time to scream out in pain, as he could feel the adrenaline flowing through his body as he struggled back up to his feet.
He wanted to immediately fire; however, this confined space prevented him. Instead, he reached for his dagger and gripped it in his left hand as the the girl struggled with the now gasping trooper. Just as she retrieved the knife from his throat, Gil Tacion took the opportunity to swipe in a high arc towards the female figure's head. She ducked, as he anticipated, thus giving him the opportunity to drive his knee into her face, knocking her off balance. He grabbed her by the hair and threw her against the hard surface of the cavern wall.
He adjusted his stance and gripped the dagger even tighter as he circled around her, just outside the reach of her arm.
"I don't know how you got here, but you will not leave here alive," he said as he gave a quick glance to the still convulsing body of his comrade.
Zandy wiped blood from her mouth and nose and grinned. “I’ve heard that before,” the teenage girl with rainbow hair said, a wicked gleam in her eyes. She flipped a second knife into her other hand. “Now you can take your soldier and maybe save his life, or you can die right here with him, and no one will find your body.”
Gil Tacion was not one for witty banter. Instead, he chose action as he lunged forward, swiping in a downward arc, causing her to jump back. He spun on his back foot and tried to sweep at her legs as she repositioned herself just a couple of feet away. Just from the few moments he had studied her he realized that while she had speed over him, he had the advantage of a longer arm span. He could use that to keep her at a distance until he was able to catch an opening and take advantage of it.
Zandy danced, light on her feet, whirling just shy of the Cardassian’s blade, keeping just out of reach. She kept back on the drier stones, trapping the Cardassian on the slick wet rocks near the falls, laughing as he struggled to keep his footing before kicking him in the face as he stumbled over his dead companion.
Gil Tacion lost his balance and fell backwards over the other Cardassian. Just as he fell, he rolled to his side, trying to quickly get into a defensive position before the girl could attack. As he did, he grabbed a lump of hardened dirt in the palm of his hand and threw it at her. Instinctively she dodged the clump of dirt and mud, but it hit the cavern wall just beside her, exploding into small fragments that sprayed her in the face.
As the girl was distracted with the particles in her face and eyes, Gil Tacion took the opportunity to make a tactical retreat. This girl was obviously trained in close-quarters-combat. Her ability to quickly neutralize his fellow soldier demonstrated as such. Gil Tacion knew that the remainder of his squad was nearby and were properly armed. A fair fight was a lofty idea, but not realistic. He would find his squad and return with overwhelming firepower. He scrambled to his feet and ran out of the opening of the cave and through the cascading waterfall.
Zandy cursed and yanked out her phaser, firing on kill after the Cardassian. “Son of a bitch!” she cursed. She turned and snapped at Shay. “We need to be gone now!”
Turning back to the dead Cardassian, she quickly stripped him of anything valuable, his weapons, his field kit and medical kit, and his Cardassian communicator. Then she vaporized the body with his own disruptor before tugging Shay through the waterfall and back into the thick forest.
Gil Tacion managed to get outside of the cavern and make his way up the slope from which he had originally descended. He collapsed in a huff and gripped the shoulder that had taken the glancing, but still piercing blow from the phaser. He grit his teeth as he tried to stagger to his feet and keep moving. A few meters ahead of him he saw the other members of his unit.
"Ov-over here!" Gil Tacion shouted to the other Cardassian soldiers who made their way over to the gil. "There...was a soldier, female, highly trained… There may be more of them using the cave as a base camp," he said through clenched teeth as one of the other soldiers performed medical aid on his wounds.
"We...need...to deal with her," he said slowly. "Wherever she is...whatever she is," Gil Tacion said. A soldier who looked like a child had nearly bested him. He was not going to rest until he had gotten his revenge.
***
To be Continued…
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