Home Front - Part II
Posted on Tue Mar 9, 2021 @ 8:01pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Caleb Ryan & Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Means III & Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant T'Lul & Captain Tam "Demon" Haican & Civilian Jason Haines & Civilian Melvyn Raddon & Civilian Hydel Turvan
1,679 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: DS5, various
Timeline: MD04 0500
Previously in Home Front>
Upper Promenade:
"Kumot, you and Darvus stay here and continue to observe the movement of the Federation Security teams," Elot'oX said as he stood and began to gather his gear. "Xn'kah, you'll meet up with the other Cardassian Fire Team and secure the Science Department. That's where the research for the Portals will be located; however, they probably won't have any significant security presences there." He said. To the rest of his group he gave hand signals to follow him as they began to rappel down the pylon onto the scaffold below. From there they opened an access hatch and used it to make their way down the numerous decks towards the intended meeting point with the second Xi'Cadian team.
The targeted destination: The Dilithium Chamber
And now the continuation
Deck 74, near fighter control
Not being able to reach Ops, Tam made a beeline to his little section of the station, Starfighter Control. As he hurried to the nearest command access turbolift, he turned a corner and saw a trio of Cardassians, in full battle armor, trying to round up a group of frightened civilians. While he knew he couldn't fully enter his enemy's minds, he could slow them down just enough to even the odds.
Pulling deep from inside of his psyche, he projected darkness in the trio's minds. In return, each one began to think about their biggest fears.
The Cardassians went stiff for a moment, and then began to fire wildly and only vaguely in his direction.
A young, out of breath crewman came out of the turbolift at the same moment. "Order to scram-!" her breathless shout was cut off by a disruptor carving a line across her chest.
Feeling instant rage at the murder he just witnessed, Tam refocused his abilities and sent a single, extremely power mental spike into the responsible Cardassian. He then raised his own phaser and shot twice, hitting the other two Cardassians center mass, vaporizing both instantly.
Looking over to the third Cardassian, he saw the man, lying on the deck, twitching. In a moment of uncontrolled rage, Tam raised his phaser and vaporized him as well.
After a beat, Tam moved his attention to the civilians. Slapping his combadge, he called for the computer, but got no reply. Moving to the bulkhead console nearest him, he tried to access the system manually, but discovered that he was locked out. "Hells," he murmured to himself. Turning to address the civilians, he spoke aloud, so he was heard over the alarms. "Everyone! The computer seems to be locked out, so transporting you to the shelters is not possible!" He moved to the opposite bulkhead and opened the hidden jeffries tube access. "Everyone inside! Stay together! You, and you!" He pointed to two of the calmest looking adults. "You two will be responsible for getting everyone inside and safe! One of you goes in first, the other pulls up the rear. Get a few sections deep, but keep a solid mental map of where you have moved. It is a maze in there. Now move!"
After ushering the group inside, he closed and locked the hatch. Then, moving over to the dead crewman, placed a hand on her shoulder and said a silent prayer for her soul. Then, standing, he raced towards Starfighter Ops. It was time for the Demon to earn his pay.
Main Computer Core, Deck 16
Lt. Kivan Ta'Gas found himself climbing through a secondary jefferies tube just below the tertiary processor core. He had been able to isolate a particular subroutine that he had discovered running throughout the system. He knew that if he could stop it from replicating, then he would have the chance to get a better hold of the situation they were facing.
He slid into the confined area and withdrew his padd as he brought up the schematic.
"Damnit! The damage is more extensive than I thought," he said to the petty officer who had come with him.
"It's more than just one junction, sir?" Petty Officer Kujall asked.
"Yeah. It's a lot more. Whoever did this spent some time studying our systems and, more importantly, how the station's defensive subroutines would have responded to an external threat," Lt. Kivan said with frustration.
"How was someone able to do this without us knowing what was going on?" Petty Officer Kujall.
"I'm not sure, but whomever did it had experience with Federation and Starfleet protocols. They were able to bypass some of our detection systems by using valid access codes," the Chief of Operations officer replied.
There was a noise to their left, a soft metallic clink, like something small being dropped
Lt. Kivan heard something from further down the hall. He knew that he and Petty Officer Kujall were the only individuals in this juncture of the tube. He withdrew his phaser and slowly made his way over to where he believed the sound was coming from. He held his weapon in the low ready position as he pivoted on his foot and came around the corner and raised his weapon at...nothing. The Chief of Operations was confused as he looked down an empty hall.
"I guess a lack of sleep is causing me to hear thi--" Lt. Kivan started to say as he turned back around toward PO Kujall. Instead, his words were caught in his throat as he saw the younger Petty Officer struggling, ineffectively, to grasp at the drawstring that was being pulled tightly around his neck, cutting off his airway.
"Kujall!" Lt. Kivan shouted as he started to run back towards the crewman, but he was struck in the face by a black blur as he tried to move forward. His body slammed into the corridor wall and he slowly slumped to the deck floor. As he faded in and out of consciousness he could feel blood beginning to trickle down the side of his forehead as he saw the prone form of PO Kujall being unceremoniously dropped to the deck as well.
"...half-breed...rid of...useful...Legate said..." were the only words Lt. Kivan could make out before he blacked out.
Gil Morsah turned away as the other Cardassian began to bind Lt. Kivan's hands together.
"Gil Morsah to Fire Team. Respond!" he yelled into his comm unit again. He had lost contact with three of his men as they made their way towards the secondary junctions within the Main Computer Core. The last they had informed him they were near the command access turbolift near the Starfighter Control. He had ordered them to sabotage as many starfighters as they could. However, their lack of response to his numerous comms told the Cardassian gil that his men had been captured or even killed.
Main Promenade
Thereen Tera wasn’t sure why she had come to the Bajoran temple. It wasn’t as if she was particularly welcome here. Occasionally the vedeks were kind and attended to her spiritual needs, as they should. Usually they were new, though, and didn’t know her father had been a Cardassian collaborator. Certainly any Cardassians wouldn’t honor any sanctuary the Bajorans thought to seek from the temple.
Tera was surprised to see Tianys and some of her people there. The heightened adrenaline of fear somewhat offset the Rowa’ni’s pleasure pheromones, and they were likely keeping them tamped down in public, but they had somehow gotten hold of a kettle from the tea shop across the gardens and were offering soothing herbal tea to the milling civilians to keep everyone calm.
As the team moved through the Promenade on their way to the docking bay, they linked up with a few guards already on duty. Ovenden was one of the newer arrivals, while Boggess had been on the station for just over a year.
"Lieutenant, we've been working to get the civilians cleared out and into shelters. Any further directions?"
At the moment there were no reports of direct threats security could deal with, so Annora sent Akioka's team on ahead. "Not at the moment. Commander Ryan's orders are to clear the promenade. The SRU teams and any Marines on the station will deal with any early threats to the station. Hopefully that gets done before the Cardassians can gain a major foothold."
Ensign Jessica Mayhew rushed up to Annora with her partner, Petty Officer Travis Nottingham. “Sir! I have reports that there are some civilians refusing to leave the Bajoran temple,” she told the security chief.
As if they didn't have enough things to deal with, the Bajoran temple had somehow become a focus point for civilians ignoring the order to move to emergency shelters. With a sigh, Annora responded to the news. "Of course they are. Has anyone given a reason for their actions, or are they hoping this all blows over?"
“The Bajorans think the Prophets will protect them,” Jessica said. “And…” She looked over at Travis.
“We’ve suspected that with the recent troubles with the Cardassians, some elements of the Bajoran community on the station may have hidden a weapons cache in the temple,” Travis said. “They may be thinking of forming up a resistance. Even after this long, there are plenty of young Bajorans who missed out on the occupation and are fired up by the tales their parents and grandparents tell.”
The last thing they needed was a bunch of civilians taking matters into their own hands.
"Normally I wouldn't violate the sanctity of a temple, but if they're hiding weapons inside they lose all protection. Let's go see what we can do."
To be Continued…
Thereen Tera
Owner
Ten Thousand Worlds
Tianys Dalav’ni
Owner
The Lotus Lounge
Kivan Ta'Gas
Lieutenant
Chief of Operations
Ensign Jessica Mayhew
Security officer
Petty Officer Travis Nottingham
Security officer
Captain Tam Haican
CAG
Xi'Cadian Guardsmen
NPC - Thom
Cardassian Assault Team
NPC - Thom
Raddon Corporations Employees
NPC - Thom
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