In Enemy Hands (Part IV of IV)
Posted on Mon Mar 29, 2021 @ 5:42pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Captain Tam "Demon" Haican & Civilian Hydel Turvan
2,601 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Pangaea Colony
Timeline: MD04 0500
Previously in
Activating his small gauntlet map, Tam zeroed in on where he should go. Closing down the device, he replied. Got it! I should be to you in about ten minutes. I'll be coming from your northeast. See you then.
Then minutes later, Alanna was waiting just above the tree line. She sensed Tam's arrival. A quick check of her sensors assured her that no one else was nearby. She engaged the small transporter and beamed him aboard. "Hi," she said, turning to smile at her new passenger. "I'm Alanna. Have a seat. I have one more pickup to make."
And now the conclusion
Initially, Tam was surprised by the sudden transport sequence that grabbed him from the edge of the forest. Then, when he came face to face with the woman he had been talking to earlier, he calmed down. An easy smile crossed his face as he replied. "Hi. Thanks for stopping. Don't think I'd make it to Albuquerque on foot." He hoped the human joke came out correctly, but he was nearly certain that he just sounded like a fool. Sitting down, he asked, "Who's the next pickup?"
She grinned. "Welcome aboard. Well, we'll turn left at Albuquerque and pick up Jason. He's currently a fisherman. I don't know who we'll find along the way." She engaged the cloak and headed away from the fighting to circle around to Jason's current location. She checked his locator and nodded. "It won't' take too long. Then we'll see what trouble we can come up with for the Cardassians and Xi'Cadians."
Tam gave a feral grin at the mention of causing troubles for their enemies. "I'm your huckleberry." He knew that he had said that Human phrase correctly. It was a line from an old Human video, a western, it was called, that he had stumbled upon during his time on Earth. He had watched and rewatched it several times, as it quickly became a favorite of his.
Alanna didn't know the term, but she had an idea what it meant. "Happy to meet a fellow troublemaker."
Tam gave a thumbs up. "I've got a whole pack of payback to hand out. Those spoonheads shot me outta the sky! I just had my starfighter washed and detailed too!" He chuckled softly.
Alanna glanced at the console, then turned to address Tam. "How bad is it? I only know what's going on down here, and it's not looking good."
The Betazoid shook his head slowly. "It's bad. There's a whole fleet up there, of Cardassian and Xi'cadian capital ships. Plus, saboteurs somehow got on the station..." he stopped, as his thoughts went to Sabina. He couldn't read her at this distance, but he could get a general sense of her emotional state. She was terrified. All other things considered, the simple fact that his baby was experiencing such fear made Tam want to rip apart every enemy with his bare hands.
The mental images of everything that he had experienced thus far bled out and into Alanna's mind. The most painful thought was not being able to properly protect his daughter.
Finally, he simply said, "It's bad. If we don't get a break soon, I'm not sure how it'll all end."
The images he projected were far worse than she'd thought. "I'm sure your daughter will be safe. I don't think they're after civilians." She was glad she'd moved her portal research to her cabin. She had to keep that information from the Cardassians. She hoped T'gan and Brianthe would keep what was left from falling into their hands. Even more, she hoped they'd be safe.
Tam couldn't help but hear Alanna's thoughts, she was broadcasting them so loudly. Furrowing his brow, he transmitted to her, Okay, two questions. One, what portals and what research?
She didn't mean to project so loudly. She'd already picked up that he was the new CAG on the station. Temporal portals here on Pangaea. The Cardassians want control of them. That's why they're attacking the portal complex as well as the colony. The portals are officially under Federation Sciences, but the sentinels are protective of Captain Soran. She sent him a brief image of one of the portal sites. I'm not sure what will happen if the station is not in control of them. They might not respond to the Cardassians, but if they take over the station, then the treaty may mean they also control the portals. It's complicated. Whatever happens, we need to keep all information about them from falling in enemy hands.
Tam tried to comprehend everything she had sent him. While he was intelligent, there were some things that, he would admit willingly, were above him. Temporal mechanics was one of them. Okay, he finally replied, so basically, the portals are doors to what? Different times, different locations?
Both. Don't worry about it. It's a lot to grasp all at once. We'll get Jason, and anyone else we find along the way, and see what kind of trouble we can cause.
With a fierce sneer, Tam replied, I'm more than ready to end some Cardassian lives. For no other reason than scaring my little girl up on the station. Fly on.
Federation Blocks
Francoise Donac, like most of the colony's research scientists, had been asleep when the Cardassian's decided to blow the whole of the Klingon’s share of the colony to little pieces. It had taken her a few groggy moments to realise what was going on, and then she'd hurriedly dressed and gone down, unsure what the protocol was. There were only a handful of security down here, mostly to keep the peace after the Klingons had been on the bloodwine and the Romulans on their ale.
But the Klingon section was burning. And Cardassians were running through the streets of the independent sector to the south. They had to get out. Get up to the station. She'd heard plenty of stories from the Dominion war, and the Bajoran occupation, of what Cardassians did when they took over a world. She saw her lab assistant a few doors down at the door of his own shared house. She ran towards him. "Tran! Get your roomies and head for the shuttle. There are Cardassians everywhere, so be quick!” He nodded and disappeared inside again.
She started to check the houses behind the labs. They had to get out, or they'd be sitting ducks here. There were normally at least a couple of shuttles there, always ready for ferry duty if Pangaea decided that beaming was not going to happen on any particular day. She started seeing more people she recognised. Agnetta from the geology team, Seretse from Chemistry and William the fungus guy.
Seretse stepped over to her. "I can't raise the station," he said. "We're alone."
"Merde," she muttered. "Can you fly a runabout?"
"Badly," he admitted. "But good enough to get into space. Let’s get as many as we can to the landing pads before the spoonies look our way. It won't be long now."
"I had the same idea," Francoise admitted. "I'll raise the other's and meet you there." He gave her a brief nod, and joined the growing crowd of people trying to hurry as best they can.
She managed to rouse another dozen or so lab techs, research fellows, and a handful of support staff, and get to the landing area without trouble, though the sounds of phasers were getting closer and closer. But when she got there her heart sank. There was just one shuttlecraft left. And what looked like a chunk of Valkyrie fighter had smashed through its windscreen and into the main deflector. They weren't going anywhere.
And then someone shouted a warning, not quite a scream, but loud with fear that was threatening to break to panic. Cardassians were sweeping up the road towards them, all armed with long disruptor rifles.
Sergeant Stone and his squad had finally made their way to the civilian section of the Federation part of the colony. When they had started, they were platoon sized. Unfortunately, the heavy fighting had dwindled their numbers drastically. In the beginning, there were forty Marines. Now, there were six.
“Move!” He was shouting to the civilians. “Get to the shelters and seal yourselves in! It’s your only hope!” As his group reached the scared civilians, he signaled four of his Marines to take up positions on either side of the approaching Spoonheads, hoping to catch them in a crossfire. Both he and his Marines were under no illusions that today might very well be the last of their lives. However, they, each one, would gladly give their lives to protect Federation citizens.
"There aren't any!" Donac shouted back. There were labs and living quarters, which weren't reinforced. And out here by the landing pads, everything was bare, to prevent collisions. "What do we do?"
Stone turned to the scientist who seemed to be in charge of the group. “MOVE! We’ll hold em as long as we can, but you don’t have much time. Now, GO!” He practically shoved the people away from the danger.
"Where to?" Donac pushed. "Our shuttles are broken."
Growling aloud, the Marine took hold of the woman's left upper arm and moved her to the left of the landing pad. He then pointed into the fields. "Half a klick that way you will find hidden shelters, buried underground. They were put in when the colony was built, for an emergency! Get there. Once you're close, a sensor will activate, see that you're all Federation citizens, and the hidden hatch will open, allowing you to get down underground! Now, move your ass!" He practically shoved the woman into the direction she should go, then he kept shuffling the rest of the civilians after her.
Donac looked across the meadow in surprise. She was clearly unaware they had been built. Then she pulled herself together and started shouting to the other civilians, herding them off towards the small bunkers a little way off from the landing pad.
Once they were all clear of the pad, he rolled his eyes and cursed. "Damn civilians!" he muttered under his breath. "If they don't have someone bottle feeding them, they just fall to pieces!”
Watching them leave, Stone took a breath. He did what he could to get them moving. Now, to give them as much time as possible. Slapping a fresh battery into his phaser rifle, he turned and hustled to a large pile of rubble and knelt behind it, his eyes on the approaching enemy. “Alright, Ghost Platoon,” he called out over their short range comms. “Or what’s left of us, it’s our job to give these scientists as much time to escape as we can. Aim true, make each shot count. Let’s take as many of those pale bastards with us as we can!”
The remaining members of the platoon, feeling charged by their sergeant’s words, each reached deep down and tapped their remaking stores of energy and drive. Two said their final prayers to their respective deities, then, one by one, they started to engage the enemy. At first, the sudden act of eliminating the advancing enemy did slow their forward progress. Then, after realizing that they were facing a numerically weak force, the Cardassian shock troops pressed their advantage again. Destroying the floor of one building from where Private Jeremiah Davidson, of Clarksville, Tennessee, Earth, had been sniping several of the Cardassian NCOs.
Then Private D’molta el-Alta, a male Betalgeusian, from Deep Space Four, who had bravely leapt into the middle of a platoon of enemy troops, taking down seven single handedly before being cut down by disruptor fire.
Next to fall were Private Shawn Mathews and Corporal Fiona Hartley, both from the same section of New Berlin, but five years apart in age, so they never met until they were assigned to Ghost Platoon a year ago. Since then, they had become fast friends, nearly inseparable. At least, they faced their end suddenly, when a Cardassian mortar round detonated less than a meter above their heads. If there was an all powerful being watching over everything, hopefully it allowed them to pass without feeling any pain.
Lance Corporal Liam Reece was not spared such an easy end. He had his heavy repeater cannon going full bore, eliminating or crippling a dozen advancing Cardassians, before his position was overrun and he was literally torn apart by the angry enemy troops.
This left Sergeant Stone. During the entire battle, he had ended up draining three phaser battery packs for his rifle, two full magazines for his carbine, all the ammo he had for his ballistic pistol, and even his Type 1 palm phaser. Finally all he had left were two grenades. He pulled the pin on the first and was about to throw it, but his throwing arm was vaporized by an aimed shot from a disruptor rifle, causing him to collapse to the ground, rolling onto his chest in agony. When the Cardassians finally surrounded him, one stepped forward and rolled him onto his back. As he did so, a small metal grenade spoon flicked up into the air, a few Cardassians watched it in curiosity. “Kiss my ass, you mother fu....”. He didn’t finish his curse because the other grenade he had been holding detonated, taking Sergeant Roger Neville Stone, of Sydney, Australia, from this world of pain and delivering him to wherever his faith taught him was next.
While their sacrifice was heartrending, it was enough to allow the civilians to get to safety. As was their professional goal as Marines, protect those who could not protect themselves.
The entire row of buildings stood in silence after the detonation of the grenade. Fragments of weapons, clothing, and even body parts laid strewn in a two meter radius around the area. Several Cardassians that had been outside of the blast radius, but still close enough to duck for cover, began to stagger back up to their feet.
"Sound off!" shouted a nearby Cardassian NCO as he tried to get a headcount on who was left in his unit. Within seconds he received a quick headcount, informing him of just how many troops he had lost in the skirmage. He coughed roughly as the smoke from the damaged buildings filled his lungs and burned his eyes. He fully climbed to his feet and surveyed the area.
"Send word back to Battalion HQ. Let them know that we've seized the Federation landing pads and are in the process of securing the Federation labs," he said through various coughing fits. "Civilian sector is now ours!" he shouted as he turned and walked towards the body of a fallen Cardassian trooper. He could tell by the look on his face that he was no older than nineteen.
"Rest well, for you died as a true son of Cardassia," the Cardassian NCO said as he collected the trooper's weapons for one of his other troopers to gather the bodies and prepare a burial detail.
[OFF]
Captain Tam Haican
CAG
DS5
Enforcer Twizl
Ferengi security
Grand Proxy Rikava
Ferengi administrator
Aleczandra Ryan
Civilian
Gul Denat Meran
Cardassian Empire
Gil Seron Tacion
Cardassian Empire
Jason Haines
Resident Beach Bum and Insurgent
Sergeant Roger Neville Stone (et al)
NPC- Haican
Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Resident Archaeologist and Rabble Rouser
Deep Space 5
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