Rear guard (part 2 of 2)
Posted on Wed Dec 21, 2022 @ 7:11pm by Second Lieutenant Sh'Zera & Master Sergeant Jian Zhao & Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Means III & Master Sergeant Miranda Schultz & Civilian Melvyn Raddon
2,313 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: DS5, various locations
Timeline: (during Evacuations)
Previously in Rear Guard
Velez to the door panel. "I'm going to over load the door servos and we go in hard and fast. I'm on point and will take center. You next and sweep left, you right. Once inside we secure the area and get to work on the sensor controls. Understood?"
"Top, what about the Fleeters?"
"Well for starters, don't shoot them. If they can help we put them to use and extract them when wepull out."
And now the conclusion
[Inside Sensor Control]
Cadet Relaan had indeed heard the thoughts of the Marines as the planned their entry. She had had to control her reaction to remain calm as to not tip off the Cardassians trying to access restore the station's internal sensors. She looked to her Lt. Gaxin was in bad shape having been beaten severly to get into the system. Fortunately they over did it and he blacked out before getting what they needed.
Sensing the Marines were perparing to move she yelled out. "He's stopped breathing! Help him..."
At the same instant the door flew open an the trio rushed in just as the Cardassians looked towards the Bolian lying on the floor.
In a flsh of phaser fire it was over.
"Clear!"
"Clear!
"Clear!"
While one of the Marines secured the door, Velez and his other Marine moved to the Star Fleet personnel on the floor.
Pulling the Cadet to her feet, "Thanks for the distraction. Report Cadet."
"Third year cadet Relaan. The Lieutenant managed to disable and lock out the system. The Cardassians caught us as we were leaving and tried to beat the codes out of him. He didn't say a thing. I..."
Shaking his head, "There was nothing you could have done to stop any of this." Looking down. "How is he?"
"He's in bad shape Top. Multiple lacerations and contusions, broken jaw, nose, concusion, a broken arm, seven broken ribs, and internal bleading. There is no way we are getting him out of here. He needs a sick bay like, now. Hell, moving him without a strecher would probably kill him."
A thought flashed in Velez's ming and the Cadet cried out. "YOU CAN'T..." and Velez clamped his hand over her mouth.
Nodding to his next thought Velez lowered his hand. "Can you access the sensor contols?"
"Yes. Will you help Lt. Zaxin?"
Putting his initial thought from his mind he nodded. "Get to work and we'll think of something. Can you..."
"Send out a feed back the wll over load the entire internal sensor grid and blow the main station here? Yes." Without another word from the scruffy ol' Marine she manned the console and got to work.
Velez moved to retrieve the med kit from the far wall and stopped by the entrance "Anything?"
"All's quiet so far, but there is no telling when those Caradssians were supposed to report in or if and when a relief is scheduled to arrive"
"Right. Keep scanning."
Crossing the room he handed the med kit over. "Any way you can get him stable enough to move?"
"Top...I'm no medic. Basic first aid is all I can do and the nearest sickbay is fourtyyyy-one decks below us."
"Do what you can."
As he moved towards the console one of the cardassian communcators sounded. =^= Sensor team report your status.=^=
"Cadet?"
Sweat instantly appeared on her forhead as a wave of panic rushed through her. "I'm almost there..."
She was interupted adn the Cardassians were hailed again. =^=Sensor team report immediately!=^=
Velez barked an order as he stepped over to the young woman. "Seal that door, use your phaser to weld it to by us more time."
Putting a hand on her shoulder. "Taking out the internal sensor grid is your only concern. Let us worry about the rest.'
"I'm just supposed to be here on a training tour..."
"Not any more Cadet. Can you do it or not?"
Swallowing she nodded rapidly. "Yes sir."
Velez patted her on the shoulder as she returned to work as he turned to the Bolian laying on the floor.
"Top, about all this kit let me do was give him something fot the pain and take care of his surface wounds. I could given him a stimulant but with the internal bleeding...
"I won't need a stimulant but another shot for pain would be appreciated."
Velezspoke with a gesture, "You heard...."
It was at that moment the Cardassian cavalry arrived. With the door sealed they began blast away in an effort to force their way in.
"Get ready to move! Cadet..."
"I'm hurrying but..."
Lieutenant Zaxin tried to force himself up but gasped sharply from the white hot pain shooting from his broken ribs. Pointing to the console. "Get..me up there."
As the lift him he shouted in pain and was gasping as they lowered himto the seat vacated by the cadet.
As disrupter fire continued to work at he door the Leiutenant rapidly looked over the Cadet's work. "Good job Relaan", pushing past the pain his hands flew over the console and finished the job.
"There. Now get out of here and take her with you!"
Even as a Marine was taking her to the access hatch Relaan jerked her arm shouting. "NO! I'm not leaving you here!"
"That's...an order! Master Gun..."
"Save your stength Lieutenant. You two take her now."
With Relaan still protesting to the point of tears they watched as the junior Marine forced the Cadet into the crawl space and disappeared. Velez looked at the Bolian, "she was in love with you wasn't she?"
Nodding in admitance to his indiscretion. "Yeah...It shouldn't have happened but it did...You...better go...they will burn through any....minute. Don't worry when this thing goes it's gonna burn out every sensor and relay in the station."
Opening the top of his uniform Zaxin pulled a chain from around his neck. "For her..."
Velez nodded and took the Lt's commbadge as well. Nodding sharply he turned and closed the hatch behind him.
Zaxin sat and waited. He glanced down at his sceen to see the counter hit zero as the overload reached critical. As it did a searing blue light was the last thing he saw as energy arched out through him destroyinng the console an every terminal in sensor maintainance.
All throughout the station sensor relays showered sparks on anyone and anything near by as the overload traveled through the station.
Velez had caught up wih Relaan and his team in the nearest junction just as a conduit sparked. After brusheing some singed hair away they began their climb back down.
About twenty minutes later, the whole group had regrouped. "Report, Top." Mot said briskly. Things were starting to get dangerous, as the Cardassians tripled their patrol coverage. It was getting to the point of when, and not if, they were discovered.
"Senor control is out. We managed to send out a surge to blow out the internal sensors. Any relay, not severed by other damage should be off line. I recommend we break into small teams and stat moblie. Do whatever we can do to undermine the Cardassian efforts."
Mott nodded and turned to the group. "You heard the Master Guns. If you are willing to stay, step forward. Those that want to evac, hand over your weapons and gear."
Velez watched as none of the Marines chose to leave and while Mott broke them up into teams Velez turned to the Cadet they had picked up. "You should go, but he wanted you to have this."
Pulling the necklace from a chest pocket he handed it to her.
Relaan shook her head. There were no tears, just a fire behind her eyes, a look Velez knew all to well. "I'm staying."
Looking down at her he could see that if he forced her to go she'd probably do something stupid and get herself killed. He let out a breath and nodded. "Your with me then. Grab a weapon and lets go."
The Marines, broken in squads, scattered in different directions all with the same orders....undermine the Cardassians.
[Tube]
Lt. Kivan Ta'Gas groaned as he dragged himself along the floor and into the corner of the junction. He had managed to avoid the sparse, but still too frequent Cardassian patrols throughout the several levels of the Engineer department. It had become increasingly hard to stay on his feet as he could see the blood seeping through his bandages.
His fight with the Xi'Cadians and Cardassians in the lower bowels of the station had taken its toll on him. He had managed to escape without suffering the same fate as his fellow Engineers, but he could not risk going to Sickbay for treatment. From the scant communications that he had been able to access, he realized that the Cardassians had managed to secure the vital areas of the station: OPS, Sickbay, Security, Armory, Main Engineering, and even the Promanade.
Although they controlled the station, they didn't have complete control over the station. After making contact with Captain Soran he managed to make his way into the less patrolled areas. But before he did, he was able to prohibit access to various portions of Station computer control. As the Chief of Operations, Ta'Gas was one of the few Officers on board who had the ability to shut down complete departments outside of his own. He had hoped that the other people in his department had managed to either escape the station or simply just stay in their quarters. He couldn't imagine too many would willfully choose to help the Cardassians.
He stopped puling himself and simply leaned against the wall. He could feel the pulsing of the power conduit on the other side of the panel. He closed his eyes and just focused on the continuing pulsating. The rhythmic sensation gave him something to focus on rather than the pain that radiated throughout his body. He looked down at his bandage and saw that the bleeding had not gotten better. He knew that he was not getting better, but in fact was getting much worse.
He knew that this very well might be the end. At least he knew that he fought to defend the station and didn't just throw his life away for nothing. However, the irony was hard to ignore: The Station's only Cardassian. . .killed by other Cardassians. He took a deep sigh as he leaned back and felt himself drifting away.
"Wake up, damnit!" Dorian Gabrial said forcefully as he kicked the bulkhead just to the left of the Operations Chief. "Don't think you're going to get out of this shitty assignment by just dying." The former Security Chief said as he lifted Kivan's arm and hefted him to his feet. Dorian had awakened in sickbay shortly after the Order had been given to surrender the station to the Cardassians. Dorian still couldn't wrap his mind around what had happened in such a short period of time.
First the Breen had attacked the Raddon Mining Facility with some new type of propulsion system. Next, the Federation is caught completely off-guard by a Cardassian - Xi'Cadian attack fleet that seemed to come out of absolutely nowhere and lay siege to the base. And as if all of that wasn't bad enough, he found himself having to play nurse's maid to one of the few people that could unlock the station's full capabilities for the Spoonheads: Ops Chief Ta'Gas.
Dorian and a handful of Raddon Corp employees were still onboard, trying to salvage what equipment and technology they could before the Spoons got their hands on it. While in the process of trying to avoid the patrols he managed to run into the weakened Operations Chief as he made his way to a new hiding position. So far they had managed to get a good bit of distance away from the more populated areas of the station; however, Dorian could look at the Officer and tell that he was not in the best of shape.
One of the Marine squads that that was now moving through the station, to cause whatever problems they could, came upon the civilians and the wounded fleeter. "Who's in charge here?"
"I am." Dorian said, slowly lowering Lt. Ta'Gas back to a sitting position against the panel. "The rest of us work for the Raddon Corporation. We've decided to stay here to keep Raddon technologies out of the hands of the Spoonheads." Dorian said. "This here is the Ops Chief, but he's not doing too well." He said as he glanced back down at Ta'Gas.
"Well, those who are going to stay need to understand if they stay in the general population, they are probably going to get interrogated at some point. If anyone comes with us, they better be ready for harsh living and ready to fight. Anyone else needs to get to an evac site."
"It's a bit too late for us to get to any reasonable evac site since the bulk of the staff have already disembarked." Dorian said as he reached back down to pick up Ta'Gas. "The more important issue is that he needs medical attention ASAP. I'm certain one of your jarheads is a Corpsman and can help him." Dorian said.
"Yeah we can get take care of him but not here. Doc, see to him. You two rig a stretcher...we'll move faster." Turning back to the rest of the group. "Looks like you all are with us."
As soon as the wounded was ready to go the group moved out. The squad lead was keeping watch as the everyone began filing by. Seeing to people was a part of the job, but this corporate tech had better be worth it.
END
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