Re: Chapter 07: Cost of Truth
Reply #65 –
[ Command Center | EOC Tower | Starbase 84 ] Joint-Post by Striker N7 & Auctor Lucan
"Guys, we'll have to get moving soon!" Ensign Henshaw tried to warn the rest, yet her voice was hoarse and lacking in power to carry over the fighting parties.
When Ida raised her eyes, climbing back on her feet, she did not just see the viewscreen. In front of the display loomed the sillouette of Hawthorne, yanking Drauc's rifle out of his hands and sending him rolling across the floor as he did so. Hardly missing a step, he stepped up to Zaraq with the rifle in hand, and brought it straight down into the Klingon's head. The sound of the thick skull breaking like a melon against the floor hit Ida's antennae, and she saw his lifeless limbs twitching.
Leon "Striker" Marquez had almost fully dodged Hawthorne's earlier fatal swipe with his bionic hand, owing his survival to the Andorian Lieutenant Marquez was fast, but even he was caught off-guard and Ian's backhand blow knocked him several feet away, leaving the XO clutching at a gash that tore through his outfit from navel to ribcage. Wincing, he lept to his feet and gasped when he caught a glimpse of the new arrivals on-screen "What the Hell?!" Striker blurted out.
By Marquez's own estimate, the alien vessels numbered at least thirty ships, he calculated the odds at a glance, but he assumed there had to be more. Whatever the friend-or-foe situation was, Starfleet was facing the horrifying prospect of losing many good people today. The death of the Klingon was one of them. For these precious seconds, Striker had time for one last gambit. Striker took his defiant stance, giving diplomacy one last attempt, gauging that this skirmish was going badly, and he had to stall for time, if only for a moment to tip the odds for his allies. Recuperating for a moment as he cradled a cracked rib, Striker finalized his last stand.
Rolling away from the commotion, Marquez followed the security officers' example and re-secured his powerless but still-useful carbine. It was considered unwise aboard the USS Resolve to use phaser weapons as blunt instruments, but Striker didn't care; he had to use as much--if any at all, force as he needed to neutralize the alien controlling the Station Captain-- and millions of other lives depended on it.
"IAN HAWTHORNE!" Marquez shouted, drawing the Captain's attention, "This is your last chance! In the name of the Resolve and the others you've betrayed, Stand Down!" Marquez took a sideways stance, hiding his carbine behind his frame, held by the barrel like an axe with the gun's handgrip to be used as the point of impact, like an executioner's axe-head.
"I already had the Resolve destroyed," said Hawthorne with rueful excitement and turned towards Leon Marquez, bloodied rifle in hand. The eldritch timbre of his voice echoed beyond the fabric of their mortal existence. "And while Admiral Sankolov will finish what I started... I will enjoy eating its First Officer's face while his heart still beats in his chest..."
Knowing Hawthorne was immune to taunts, Striker managed sneered again as he managed one anyway. "All right, Let's settle this. Man-to-*Freak!*"
Then, the creature that used to be Ian Hawthorne leaped against Marquez, his speed and strength no longer bound by the laws of physics in their universe.
In one quick, instinctive movement, Marquez barely managed to throw himself away when Hawthorne lept at him. As Ian passed, Marquez had begun swung the carbine at the point of maximum impact in the opportunity he had. He hit the back of the traitor's neck, and they both hit the metal floor at the same time. Marquez bared his own teeth as he growled angrily. "I'll be eating revenge at the temperature your planet will burn at, you murderous bloodsucker!." Marquez mocked the alien's own spiteful enunciations, making direct eye contact with the murderer of his vessel and possibly, entire crew, just as the Aerowing appeared outside the glass canopy of the Command Center.
[Going somewhere, Hawthorne?] The sound of Captain Kendrick's voice filled the area, and he opened fire into the Command Center, shattering transparent aluminium glass and tearing the area apart with his Aerowing's pulse phasers.
Marquez followed his instincts, ducking for cover nearest the Andorian Security officer at the moment of Captain Kendrick's timely intervention, even though Striker's carbine was clearly damaged, it could probably still work. Glass and phaser energy riddled the area. During the ensuing chaos, he had time to silently thank the Andorian for saving his life from earlier, making a silent prayer for Captain Kendrick, figuring he would owe his life to his friend and Captain. Leon wished he could salute his CO one last time, the most he could utter before his wound took his toll on his consciousness was "Thanks, Ken... Vaya con Dios."
Ida, having covered her eyes as they were being fired at, caught the pinkskin that had ended up behind the same duty station as her. He was bleeding from his side, likely from Hawthorne's metal hand tearing uniform and flesh alike. This, Ida could make out without much trouble, but her immediate concerns were elsewhere. She tried to see Henshaw, Sel and the Romulan named Drauc, but neither of them were could be seen from her vantage point - merely the crack of exploding EPS conduits and metal debris cast towards one side of the center. Whoever was flying the auxillary craft outside the glass dome of the center meant to kill Hawthorne, as much was clear, but Ida could not make any more sense out of it than that.
[This is Thea,] came a faint voice from Ida's combadge, [the shields are down. Transporting all of you out of there now. Energising.]
Before the shimmer of the transporter beam encompassed her and the bleeding pinkskin in her lap, Ida laid eyes on Captain Hawthorne. He was still on his feet, shoulder and neck blistered and burned from pulse phaser energy, and yet still on his feet. He was talking into his combadge from behind his cover - calling for reinforcements. That, was all Ida managed to see...
...before she vanished from the scene, along with the happenstance ally in their aborted fight.
OOC: Command Center layout: https://johneaves.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/cc-d.jpg?w=1400&h= (Concept Art by John Eaves)