Star Trek: Theurgy

Star Trek: Theurgy | Season 2 => Episode 01: Advent of War => Topic started by: BipSpoon on December 13, 2020, 04:42:43 AM

Title: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BipSpoon on December 13, 2020, 04:42:43 AM

CHAPTER 06 BATTLE LOG: WHOMEVER REMAINS


[ Lieutenant Valyn Amarik | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan
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Valyn was standing at her post on Deck Six. She was standing near a weapons locker which had been sealed shut by an EPS malfunction from some incoming damage during the battle. An enlisted Operations officer was hard at work trying to repair the conduit and restore power to the locking mechanism, allowing it to open. Jolt after jolt rocked ‘The Helmet’ and Valyn braced herself against the bulkhead before she finally crouched down beside the officer, crawling into the tube beside him, her feet sticking out just like his into the corridor. She turned her head, blonde hair hanging over her face as she grit her teeth and stared at him. She spoke English, a thick southern North America accent spilling from Romulan lips. It was probably a strange sight and sound to behold.

“The hell is takin’ so long, Crewman? It’s hard for me to be at ‘battle stations’ when my damn station ain’t workin’ right, and nobody can get access to the damn weapons. Can’t you just override the lock?” She narrowed her eyes and crawled further in, looking at the conduit, “Now I can’t make heads or tails of this, but fix it quick or I’m just gonna blast a hole through the bulkhead. Much appreciated.” She gave the crewman a pat on the back and started to scoot backwards out of the tube, dusting herself off as she inspected her sidearm, then looked at the still sealed locker.

She stood there and tapped her foot for a long moment before the ship gave another good jolt, this one nearly knocking her off her feet, and sending sparks flying from an overhead panel. She heard the crewman shout in pain and then she heard the alert klaxon.

“Intruder Alert.” It repeated several times and she waited for...maybe fifteen seconds before she pushed herself off the bulkhead.

“Oh hell with this.”

“I got-!” She heard from the tube, right as she fired into the bulkhead, searing through machined metal with a well aimed beam. She looked down into the tube and saw the officer holding his head, which was bleeding, “-it.” He finished the sentence and sighed. She reached into the locker and grabbed herself a phaser rifle immediately, as well as a hand phaser for her fellow.

“Take this. Hold out in that tube.” She checked the setting on the hand phaser and gave it to him. “They start coming for you, you don’t fuck around, you shoot ‘em and you move. Don’t let ‘em touch you, they'll break you like a twig.” She gave him a nod and before she could hear a response from him she stood up and checked her own rifle, tossing it on a sling and making sure it was secure to her person. She shut the jeffries tube and started to walk down the hall, rifle raised.

It didn’t take her long before she heard the ever familiar sound of Klingons. “vIH! jiHDaq chol yIchaw'!”

She rolled her neck and took a breath. She was calm. This is where she excelled. It was sort of the ‘doctor's dilemma’ for her. Without sick people, doctors would be out of a job but, didn’t they HOPE to not have sick people? Same situation for her. She was damn good at shooting people but she hoped she didn’t have people to shoot most of the time.

She hugged the wall and moved slowly, feet shoulder-width apart with each step, rifle raised. She was completely focused, and ready to fire or spring into action at a seconds notice. This was where she excelled. Years of experience in the Tal Shiar came to the forefront. As did the Dominion War.



OOC: If you're wanting to blast some Klingons let me know, the more the merrier!
Title: Re: CH06: S [D03 | 1410] Whomever Remains
Post by: Nesota Kynnovan on December 14, 2020, 06:09:49 PM
[Lt. JG Amanda Ashby (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Ashby) | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy[/b]] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nolan
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When Amanda realized that the Theurgy was entering battle, she assumed that her medical education would make her far more useful than she could be as a Counselor. As such, the young Counselor had made her way down to the Main Sickbay on Deck 11 to offer her assistance to Lieutenant Elro Kobol  and subsequently found herself assigned to the Battle Sickbay on Deck 15, where she was to support Lieutenant T’Panu.

At least, that had been the plan. Upon leaving the Main Sickbay Amanda suddenly realized that, in her haste to report to the Chief Medical Officer, she’d left her glasses on her desk. As she rushed to her Counseling Office on Deck 9 to retrieve them, someone on the Bridge initiated the Multi-Vector Assault Mode and the blonde Martian effectively found herself stuck on Vector 01. Being used to serving aboard a Nova-class ship, the entire concept of engaging in active space combat was new to Amanda; let alone witnessing the mind-blowing procedure of Multi-Vector Assault Mode. After recovering from the experience, Amanda consulted the USS Theurgy’s deck layout on her PADD to see what she should do and, with preciously little alternative ideas, she chose to report to the Battle Sickbay on Deck 7 instead.

Until mere minutes ago, Amanda had been rather preoccupied with treating minor injuries alongside Lieutenant Amelya Rez and her staff. It had been relatively quiet up to that point, but that changed when a burned Ensign suddenly made his way through the door with a most distressing report; a plasma conduit had blown out on Deck 6 and, while the plasma flow was successfully diverted and some crewmembers managed to extinguish the resulting plasma fires, it nevertheless resulted in several severely injured casualties. The more lightly injured were already starting to arrive behind the Ensign, with some of them even assisting their more heavily wounded colleagues, but according to the burned Engineer there were still two critically injured casualties left on Deck 6 whom they hadn’t been able to take with them. Given how their workload now suddenly increased and everyone found themselves having to tend to multiple patients, Amanda volunteered to take a medkit and make her way up to the casualties.

And that’s how the blonde Martian now found herself quickly running through Deck 6. Her instructions were simple; she was to stabilize the two crewmembers and make sure that they made their way down to the Battle Sickbay on Deck 7. As she made her way through the corridor, the sharp stench of plasma told her that she was getting close. It made her eyes water and, as she wiped them with the left sleeve of her uniform, Amanda could feel that the fabric was already slick and greasy because of the heavy fumes in the air. Gritting her teeth, the young Counselor nevertheless pushed on, rounding the corner...

...and colliding into the back of a Klingon.

The collision with the man sent Amanda flying backwards and, while the Klingon only staggered forwards, the young Counselor painfully fell down onto her behind. As she looked up to the small group of Klingons, they almost simultaneously cursed in surprise over getting run into from behind and turned around to face their would-be assailant. While Amanda’s previous experiences with the Klingons aboard the IKS Kajunpak’t were less than ideal, there was something about that small group that just terrified her. Maybe it were their drawn disruptor weapons or the fact that the tallest of the group, the Klingon whom Amanda had just collided with, holstered his weapon and unsheathed a most intimidating looking knife, but the Counselor quickly realized that these Klingons weren’t friendly.

It was also at that very moment that Amanda realized that she wasn’t armed, and how completely vulnerable she was. If the mocking laugh of the small group of Klingons was any indication, they also knew that and the young Martian had to fight the urge to completely freeze up right there and then. She succeeded and, while unarmed, Amanda did the only thing she could; she threw her medkit at the tallest Klingon with every bit of strength she could muster. The Klingon saw it coming though and he just mockingly raised his hands to catch the incoming box. In a stroke of the most stupid luck imaginable however, the medkit managed to slip through his outstretched hands and hit him straight on the bridge of his nose. As the Klingon staggered back, muttering something in his native tongue that Amanda could only interpret as utter profanity, the Klingons around him, clearly amused by the absurdity of the situation, began to laugh even harder. At the roaring sound of his voice however, they all simultaneously stopped laughing though and the situation became much less absurd when the tall Klingon threw his knife point-first into the deck right in front of Amanda’s feet.

While the Klingon was already frightening her as it was, the situation became even more horrifying when he said something to the Klingons surrounding him and they all simultaneously began to proceed down the corridor; leaving her alone with the tall Klingon. When the man suddenly began to approach her with the most menacing look on his face, Amanda began to crawl backwards as fast as her arms and legs could carry her before opening her mouth and screaming at the top of her lungs.

”Help! A-anyone?!”

Quote
OOC: I tagged Nolan in this post as well. He was interested in including Lieutenant Amelya Rez into this story, given how the Battle Sickbay is only one deck down!
Title: Re: CH06: S [D03 | 1410] Whomever Remains
Post by: BipSpoon on December 20, 2020, 12:20:51 AM
[ Lieutenant Valyn Amarik | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan
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Valyn moved along the wall, the red lights along the floor and ceiling almost matching her breathing as she moved. Each step was measured, each movement her body made was deliberate and thought out. She heard some distant weapons fire on the deck, and the sound of Klingons and Starfleet officers alike through the sound of the shuddering ship. Sparks were flying, steam and smoke filled sections of the hall as she moved through due to the damaged conduit. Mostly though, the halls were simply dimly lit from the alert status, the red lights breathing along with her.

She had only gone a few meters before she heard the scream for help. Her back straightened out and she went to full attention. Valyn felt a shock delivered to her system that she knew she’d feel given their situation but, she didn’t think she’d feel it as quickly as she did. She gave one quick glance down to the rifle and ran down the hall at top speed. She rounded the corner and looked down the rifle sight to see a very tall Klingon towering over another officer, one who appeared to be crawling back as fast as she possibly could.

Valyn thought quickly. A rifle burst would quickly gather attention, on the other hand this Klingon clearly meant business. His posture, the way he seemed to be leering...it all spoke of a clear and evident threat to another crewmate. So she took the logical action. Valyn sprang forward at top speed, dropping the rifle mid-sprint and drawing the sidearm. By no means was she being quiet, she knew that her approach would grab his attention, which was exactly what she was hoping to achieve. She could hold her own against a Klingon, she wasn’t certain that the officer on the ground could. As she approached the warrior, she flung herself into the air and drew back the pistol like it was a bludgeon. The Klingon turned and as she brought the pistol down to connect with the soft tissue of his face, he let out a very, very angry roar. However, he did stumble.

A stumble was all she needed. She one leg out, into his shin before she flung both legs up into the air, launching herself onto her feet and into a crouch. Her pistol was brought up with her and before the Klingon could react from the kick, she fired five consecutive blasts into his chest. He fell without a word. Valyn let out a few quick pants before she rose to her feet and moved to disarm the Klingon.

“Are you alright?” She offered, at first without even looking to the other officer. She rolled the Klingon over and took a Mek’leth from his back. “Clearly didn’t know what he was doin’.” She hung it around her own hip, tucking it around her waistband and picking up his disruptor before she finally looked to the officer and walked over to her, crouching down beside her. She wasn’t sure how rattled she was but this wasn’t Valyn’s first rodeo.

“What’s your name and rank?” She dipped her head to the right, she looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember if they’d met exactly or not, “I’m Lieutenant Valyn Amarik. Security. He ain’t dead, but he’s gonna wake up with such a bad headache in a few hours, he’s gonna wish he were.” She smirked as she nodded over to the Klingon. “We gotta keep moving. This deck is gonna be crawling with Klingons, and you can bet your ass they heard that. We should try and meet up with the other Security personnel. Were you with anyone? Where the hell’s your sidearm? What are you doing here anyway?” She offered her pistol over to her, hoping that she would take it. Valyn was more than happy to use the rifle and a ‘borrowed’ disruptor pistol until she could get her hands on another Starfleet issued pistol. Valyn clearly had absolutely no discomfort in a battle situation. She was clearly of age to have served in the Dominion War. Beyond that, she had other experience as well. Her ears were on full display for all to see, and she wasn’t hiding that strange earth-accent either. She was quite the strange creature.

After a moment of sitting there, she rose, “Come on. We should get moving unless you have any better ideas.” She offered her hand to the officer and looked back to the unconscious Klingon. She looked down at the Disruptor, verified it was on stun, and shot the Klingon again, just for good measure. “Take his knife, these bastards aren’t afraid to get in close.” She paused though and cleared her throat, “Though I strongly suggest you try and avoid that particular situation if you can. There’ll probably be wounded too, not sure how good you are with that. It ain’t gonna be pretty.” She gave a quick dip of her head to the Medkit that was sitting on the ground, one that had a plain dent on the corner of the case.

Down the hall she heard the commotion, now that she was paying attention.

The audible blasts from energy weapons fire rang down the corridor as did the battle cries of Klingons and the shouts and calls of Starfleet officers. Now that she was listening to it, she heard it all. “Though it’s gonna be a pain in the ass to get anywhere.  Well- lock and load. ” She gave her counterpart one more glance before she looked down the hall, and offered it her full attention instead.

It was all just too damn familiar. Her mind flashed back to corridors that really weren’t all that different to those on the Theurgy, not that many years ago. Though instead of Klingons, she was facing Remans. Clad in black leather, and disruptors just as deadly as those she was facing in that moment. Another class of warriors to be faced down in her own territory. It was a territory that she hardly knew though, and its inhabitants hardly knew her either. That particular battle had ended with the death of countless Starfleet officers. It ended with what was practically the destruction of Starfleet's flagship. It had changed everything. Particularly for her. Would this? She shook her head, focusing the memories into a lesson instead of a distraction. This wasn’t the Enterprise, and they weren’t Remans. This wasn’t the Bassen Rift.

This was different. She’d dealt with Klingons countless times in the Tal Shiar. She’d dealt with Reman Soldiers on a Weapon of Mass destruction only once. She took a breath and narrowed her eyes, drowning out distraction. While she was certain she could move down the hall and quickly end many of the lives in her path, that wasn’t the Starfleet way of doing things. She wasn’t here to kill them, not unless she had no alternative. Again, she checked the stun setting, and lifted the weapon.

Title: Re: CH06: S [D03 | 1410] Whomever Remains
Post by: Nesota Kynnovan on January 07, 2021, 01:35:01 AM
[Lt. JG Amanda Ashby (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Ashby) | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy[/b]] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nolan @Lathaniel
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Everything happened so fast that Amanda barely had time to register what really happened. One moment she was trying to crawl away from the menacing Klingon and whatever fate he had in store for her, and in the brink of an eye her attacker suddenly found himself beset upon by a Starfleet Officer. A Security Officer, at least judging from the colour of her uniform, and one who clearly knew what she was doing at that, given how easily she took down the big bully. As the Klingon slumped to the deck however, Amanda trained her blue eyes upon him; she was unsure whether the Security Officer’s weapon had been set to stun or whether she downright killed the man. Before she could find out however, the Security Officer kneeled down next to her and answered the question for her.

As she turned her attention to the woman, Amanda presented her with a grateful nod while getting back up on her feet. ”I’m Amanda Ashby, Lieutenant Junior Grade.” The relief over getting rescued, which was clearly visible on Amanda’s face, was only further accentuated by her voice while she spoke. ”I’m assigned to the Battle Sickbay on Deck 7, part of Lieutenant Amelya Rez’s medical staff. Thank you for showing up when you did, ma’am.” While she momentarily considered to decline the offer of a phaser and mention that she’d sworn the Hippocratic Oath, Amanda knew that Lieutenant Amarik likely wouldn’t really settle for such an answer and the woman wouldn’t even be wrong either; from what she’d witnessed just moments ago, the Klingon intruders weren’t exactly respecting the status of medical personnel. With that in mind, she accepted the phaser and tightly gripped it in her dominant right hand.

And with that, as if Amanda wasn’t anxious enough about the situation as it was, she had to witness how Lieutenant Amarik suddenly shot the Klingon once more. With his own disruptor, to add insult to injury. ”His knife? No.” While the Lieutenant was obviously far more experienced in combat than she was, leading the young Counselor to conclude that it was not particularly wise to argue with the Security Officer about the brutality of shooting an incapacitated Klingon, the disapproval over such a sadistic act was nonetheless more than present in Amanda’s voice as she spoke up. ”I’m fine with carrying a phaser for self defense, ma’am.” Once again, Hippocratic Oath and all that. Given how Lieutenant Amarik strongly advised against engaging in hand-to-hand combat with a Klingon, Amanda instead kept her reasons to herself and instead agreed with the advise in silence.

”Hold up, I have a job to do here.” As she spoke up, Amanda quickly kneeled down next to the medkit and opened it to check if its contents were still alright. After a quick visual inspection turned out that only the outer case was dented, the blonde Martian hung it over her shoulder like a handbag and stood back up again. ”Do you smell the thick plasma fumes in the air? There has been a plasma fire on this deck, and several injured crewmembers made their way to the Battle Sickbay. I came here because we received a report of two heavily wounded crewmembers, we have to stabilize them and get them down to safety, ma’am.”

Given the commotion she heard coming from down the hall, along with Lieutenant Amarik’s desire to get moving again, Amanda became even more determined to get those injured crewmembers to safety. It showed on her face as well when she turned her attention to the hallway. ”Do you think you can get us there?”
 
Title: Re: CH06: S [D03 | 1410] Whomever Remains
Post by: Lathaniel on January 07, 2021, 03:40:04 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

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This is bullshit! Kino was more than a little disgruntled. She felt as if she was still in dire need for recovery. After not only having lost another limb, but also her reproductive capabilities, she was still struggling with adapting to her new parts – some of which were quite sensitive to say the least. Yet, here she was, rifle at the ready, pistol holstered, about to get into another fight for life and death.
So much for counselling… fuck. She grabbed her rifle tighter, holding onto it as if it were the only thing keeping her alive. And in a way, it was. Ever since learning about Eliska’s fate, Kino had not found back to her old self. She had cried, but not for long, and on her own, in silence. It had not helped. Roughing up the punching bag in the gym had not helped either. Nor have the hours of lying in her bed and staring at photos of her late friend. Lover?

After what happened to her, she was naturally entitled to counseling, but had avoided it, so far. And just as she was about to admit to herself that talking to someone professional might indeed have a positive effect on her mental health and maybe kill the tremor in her left hand - which had pissed her off long enough - she was again called back to duty. When she heard that security was preparing for possible Klingon boarding parties while at the same time questioning Nicander, she understood that her abilities s a security officer were needed and that this outranked her mood swings by far. I hope I still have what it takes, though… 

The Petty Officer was assigned to patrol deck six and together with her team quickly set up a sufficient strategy to keep things closely guarded. Positioning one group of crewmen in auxiliary engineering whilst sending another group to patrol the corridors, ordered to regularly check in with group one, she was confident that no Klingon would be able to slip through unnoticed. She was not sure however if she and her team had a sufficient firepower to withstand a larger boarding party, though. Well let’s hope things never develop far enough to allow for any boarding parties in the first place, damnit! Kino was not all too happy about the whole situation. She felt unfit for combat at this particular moment, but that was not all. She did not desire to fight Klingons in real combat. Training fights with them were great, but the Klingons were their trusted allies. Yes, there were cultural and political differences, but they were good people. She asked herself how things could have gone down the drain so drastically. But the answer did not wait long to present itself, of course. These damn fucking parasites!

When Thea had switched to multivector mode, Kino was absolutely sure that it would not take long for them to see the first Klingons. Maybe she was just being pessimistic, but the story of the USS Theurgy was one to become pessimistic about.
Kino was walking with the three crewmen she had sent out to patrol the corridors, when she heard a loud, somewhat muffled explosion from the direction of engineering. Here we go! She thought, raising her right hand and tapping her combadge. “Group 1, report!” She barked, putting as much authority in her voice as she currently had in her. She knew, if there really were Klingon invaders in engineering, her crewmen needed to be reminded that proper communication is key to winning any battle, even if a group of mean looking warriors was charging them.

“Four Klingons in engineering…there's a plasma leak... need medical…” The message was interrupted by the sound of a disruptor charge hitting something very close to the responder. Going through her options in her head quickly, she decided it was best not to leave the corridors completely unguarded. “Group 2, follow me until we reach engineering. Upon arrival, you’ll guard the corridor. But be prepared to engage inside engineering if ordered. I need you as backup if things fall apart!” Kino told her subordinates firmly, already turning and starting to sprint towards the sound of the explosion. I’m coming, boys!” She voiced in her head. And suddenly, all the weight that was resting on her shoulders up until now was gone. She was in combat mode, ready to fight, ready to bleed, ready to die if needed. Everything else that had been on her mind faded away, for now.

Upon entering the engineering room through the main door, she assessed the situation. Across the room, at the far end, three remaining Klingon warriors were firing from cover towards the main entrance. They were only partially visible from her position, but since four boarders were reported and one was already down, lying close to her team with his bat’leth still held tightly in his glove-covered hands, she was willing to assume that merely three opponents remained. Her team was crouched behind corners and returning fire, trying to get a good aim but failing to do so as it seemed. All combatants appeared to carefully avoid hitting the warp core, which was an incredibly wise idea.

Hoping none of the Klingons had noticed her arrival, she crouched and began circling the horizontal warp core. Her renewed and altered body still felt awkward to her. Her joints and muscles seemed to do the job quite nicely, but it was an altogether different feeling. Her slender image, ducked deep and moving slowly, was hardly visible to the Klingons on the other side of the warp core. But she was certain, one quick, involuntary movement would jeopardize her approach and render her vulnerable when turning the final corner. But if she managed to outflank them, they stood a good chance to solve this intrusion without own losses. Shortly, Kino pondered setting her rifle to “kill”, but discarded this idea immediately. They still were – and she hoped would stay – their allies.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: SummerDawn on January 18, 2021, 01:35:10 AM
[ Deacon (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Deacon) | Random Hallway | Deck 24 | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy ]
[ Xelia/Adisia (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Xelia) | Random Hallway | Deck 24 | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy ]

He'd been stalking his quarry for awhile now, and he'd finally found enough of a pattern to her movements he could find a way to intercept her. The battle would provide great cover for their final confrontation, and Deacon meant to take every advantage of the distraction of the crew. His quarry, an orion woman by the name of Xelia (formerly Adisia), had injured and tried to kidnap his mate, and certain crimes were punishable by death. The Federation would place her in prison or some such, but the penalty for assaulting a black priest's female was death, and he had no desire to let Federation justice deal with her, this was a personal matter.

The past hour he'd been tracing her path, stalking her movements waiting for a time to strike. With the Klingon boarding action, it gave him the perfect opportunity, and he was about to take it. As she turned down a hallway, Deacon moved fast to catch up. She'd stepped into an alcove of sorts that housed a turbolift access and would most likely not be paying attention to what was around her, or at least not as much. They were being boarded so he couldn't assume she wasn't prepared or unarmed. He would have to be swift, and strike quickly.

Xelia meanwhile had noticed the large feline stalking her the past few days, the mate of the Caitian she'd kidnapped back on Aldea. It had been a surprise to discover they were aboard, but she expected the male would want to exact some measure of revenge, there were many who'd placed a bounty on her head, he was no different then the others. As she moved into the alcove, she slipped a blade from a discreet location, poising the blade in her hand. If the male was this stupid, his death was on him.

As Deacon came around the corner, he expected she'd be armed, but had not planned on a discrete stabbing blade. His eye's locked on her for just a second, his dagger ready to strike, when the Orion woman jabbed at him, as if she was trying to punch him. The small blade in her hand he noticed too late, unable to deflect it, the blade plunging into his side just below his rib cage. He grunted in pain, his side screaming in agony, not just of the steel that penetrated his flesh, but a burning sensation that seemed to spread out from the wound.

Xelia had expected his attack, and plunging the blade into his side, laced with the same nano-tech that she'd infected K'Ren with, she grinned viciously at Deacon, pulling the blade free. "You were a fool Deacon, what made you think I would not expect this? I know the K'Zin code, the rules you live by, but you forget that I live every day expecting such attempts on my life." She yanked the blade from his side, the serrations causing even more injury as it pulled free. "Now you will die in agony, the same type of poison I infected your mate with, is coursing through your blood. You will not scream in agony like she did, you will drown in your own body, unable to prevent your own death. And when you are dead, I will come for your mate, take the property I rightfully own. K'Ren will be mine once I step off at Qo'noS, a toy for my clients."

Deacon could feel the pain spreading, a sensation of burning and numbness spreading from the wound. He had no doubt she'd laced the blade with poison, and he would die, Orion poison's were known the galaxy over, many with no antidote, many fast acting and leaving no trace. He growled at the Orion, this woman was reveling in his death, but Deacon was no fool, the K'Zin still had his dagger, and driven by anger, her threat to finish what she'd started, to enslave and defile his mate, he lashed out grabbing Adisia by the throat his claws digging into her flesh. The momentary distraction was enough that Deacon got his chance, burying the small Klingon dagger he carried into her abdomen, twisting the knife, severing vital organs inside her body.

Xelia looked up at the large K'Zin male, fear showing in her eyes for the first time. She felt the blade injure her grievously, she could survive, but only with prompt medical attention. But with this K'Zin males grip on her throat, and the combadge she lacked, her time was running out. Deacon held her by the throat, crushing her windpipe, leaving her unable to speak. Deacon for his part, was smiling at her as he jerked the blade up. "Now we will both die Adisia," he said to her through his growl, "we will both drown in our blood, unable to save ourselves." With a final squeeze, Deacon crushed her windpipe, pulling the bloody dagger free of her abdomen, the Orion's green blood staining the metal. He stepped back, his legs weak, and he crumpled to the ground, the blade leaving his hand as he looked up at her, smiling.

Xelia tried to say something, unable to speak, unable to breathe. She left go of her blade, trying to apply pressure to her abdomen, to staunch the blood flowing from her wound. She was bleeding out, unable to breathe, choking on her own blood. She began to feel dizzy, the world getting foggy as she collapsed on the floor beside Deacon. The K'Zin mustered up enough strength to grasp the dagger he had used, and with one final effort, plunge it into her heart. And with that, he collapsed, gasping for air as the poison slowly drained his body of life.

He did not know if K'Ren could feel him through the link they shared, if she could hear his last words. "I'm sorry mate," he said softly, "I had to protect you, honor demanded it. I hope you forgive me for what I've done. Find a mate to grow old with, to have the cubs you desire." He looked one last time at Xelia, sorry that his last gaze would not be on his mate. The poison was consuming him, his body shutting down from lack of oxygen, his eyes glazing over as he slipped into the afterlife.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BipSpoon on January 18, 2021, 02:05:07 AM
[ Lieutenant Valyn Amarik | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan @Lathaniel et. al.
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The blonde Romulan gave the other woman a nod, “Amanda Ashby.” She repeated back to her comrade, “Pleasure.” Valyn was clearly glad to have cleared the immediate threat, but her focus was hardly entirely on their conversation. She was constantly looking over her shoulder and down the hallway for further attackers. “Deck Seven? Well-” She frowned and tapped the end of her phaser against the deck as she thought, still crouched down. “My guess is our friends here have people swarming every deck they can, particularly where they think any of the vital systems are.” She looked down at the unconscious Klingon at her feet in thought for a moment, trying to think.

She looked his uniform over, trying to find his rank. She eventually did, but just frowned. It was just a Sergeant. Likely a leader of a couple of men but nothing more. Once the phaser had left her hand and entered Amanda’s she gave the woman a quick glance, then looked down to the weapon. “You do know how to use that right?” No matter how comfortable she was, Valyn had to be sure. She pointed to the small display at the top of the phaser, “Don’t turn this up any higher and they’ll just be stunned” Valyn gripped the top of Amanda's hand, with part of the phaser in her grip as well, and gave her a quick, reassuring nod.

The additional shot to the Klingon was met with a quick glance to him as well, and then one to the other officer. Her disapproval of the gesture wasn’t missed. “Unless you want him getting back up and telling all his buddies which way we’re heading, we want to keep him down. He’ll be fine.” If Amanda wouldn’t pick up the Knife, then Valyn would. She took the Klingon blade and shoved it into her boot. Valyn was armed to the teeth and clearly ready to fight her way through the ship.

Valyn waited as Amanda went through the Medkit, and took the time to check her own energy weapons for any damage. Nothing had sustained anything noticeable during the scuffle. Not yet at least. She knew full well it was going to be a hell of a slog as they made their way through the ship, and that was only a quick moment of reprieve. Valyn wrinkled her nose when asked about the smell, “I’ve been trying my best not to. Between that and the Klingons.” Her heightened sense of smell had been assaulted by the offensive odor the moment she’d stepped onto deck six. “Alright well, what’re we waiting for?” She waved forward once again, trying to get them moving. Valyn was certainly being impatient, and unashamedly so.

Valyn checked down the hall again as the sound got louder then looked over to Amanda when asked if they could get down the hall. She lifted her rifle, slapped the side of it as it made a soft hissing sound. “‘Course I can.” She let the rifle drop down into a ready position. The ship rocked as it took another shot from the battle and Valyn let out a breath. It was going to be a long day.

Without pause, Valyn started to move down the hall, weapon raised and finger primed, but not on the trigger. As the woman rounded the first corner, she came upon a long straightaway. Around the bend that followed that straightaway was Auxiliary Engineering, however, the straightaway was teeming with Klingon warriors, two of which were wielding the bilateral war-swords they were so famous for. However, she noted that between them, was a Starfleet officer.

“Oh fuck.” She ran forward, opening fire. Between the Klingon stink and the Plasma stink, she was very much regretting forgetting her numbing agent that morning. In any case, she quickly looked over her shoulder, and fired two bolts at the nearest Bat’leth wielder, both hitting him square in the chest. His friend however, grabbed the Federation officer by the throat and lifted him into the air. The officer fought. Valyn continued to run down the hall before a small group of Klingons further down the hall spotted her, and opened fire, forcing her to take cover behind a bulkhead. “Son of a bitch!” She looked back over her shoulder, trying to ensure that Amanda was safe as well.

The man in the Klingons grasp had shoulder length, black hair, and a slender build. As she approached closer, she noted his rank as well. Lieutenant Commander pips adorned his collar. She didn’t know who he was but he was outnumbered, and not in a good position. Valyn dipped her head out from the bulkhead, trying to take a shot at the Klingon that had him in his grasp, but it was too late. The warrior had lifted the man into the air, and slammed his skull against a bulkhead. There was an evident splatter of crimson against the wall and Valyn ground her teeth, watching the man's body drop to the ground, seeing the evident split in his skull from where she was. As the Klingon lifted his boot over the man, to confirm the kill, Valyn took her chance, and opened fire on him. He took cover, but it gave her enough time to press forward. The group further down the hall was engaged with another group of officers it seemed. Closer to engineering.

Valyn ran toward the Klingon, who had ducked behind one of the hallway arches. “I’m going to need some cover!” She shouted back to Amanda. Valyn had no clue if the other group would start opening fire again, but the big murderous one with the giant sword? He had to go. She stepped over the officers body and delivered a kick to the Klingons jaw. Unlike the other she’d taken down, this one was clearly going to put up more of a fight. The ship rocked again, causing the both of them to shift in their footing before the Klingon reached out to grasp at her. Valyn dodged, but instead took a strike to the side of her face. The strike caused her skin to split at her cheekbone. No doubt it would leave a nasty bruise as well. The brute took a step back and drew a knife, to which Valyn responded in kind. She pulled the Tal Shiar blade from where she kept it at the small of her back and dipped her head to the side. She spoke in Romulan then.

“Ih'veruul kll'inghann!” Her accent even vanished with the words. Once the knife came out her whole body shifted into a stance that was far more predatory and far more dangerous than the one she’d been in before both with the phaser, and when unarmed. Now it was life or death, and she was not afraid of killing the man, though she was going to try and disarm him first. She flipped the knife in her hand and attacked with a series of well timed strikes, one to the shoulder, which was dodged, one that then came down to the throat, which he caught with his free hand, and finally, she dropped the blade entirely, caught it with her free hand before flipping her head up and driving her skull into his nose. She jammed the end of her knife into his wrist and drove a knee into his belly, bringing him straight to the floor. For a split second, she had the instinct tto withdraw the knife and finish him, but she did not. She withdrew the knife, stepped back, drew her phaser rifle, and stunned him, point blank in the belly. He dropped at once, bleeding from the stab wound to his arm.

She wiped his blood off of her knife on the thigh of her uniform before holstering the blade and touching her cheek and looking back to Amanda. She kept her phaser out though and aimed down the hall at the more sizable group. They were going to be more of a ‘group project’. She moved back to the officer that had been slammed against the wall, pressed two fingers against his throat and just shook her head. When she took the combadge off his chest and checked the back of it, she saw the nameplate that marked who he was. “Vael Kaeris.” She muttered and just shook her head. She knew him by name alone, when she’d been reading her reports the prior night. She pocketed the badge and stood back up, then looked to her fellow, “Ready?” she gave a nod down the hall towards the bigger group.

‘One step closer to engineering.’ She thought.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on January 21, 2021, 03:22:07 PM
[ Drauc T'Laus (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Drauc_T%27Laus) | Arboretum Terrace | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Anyone 
[Show/Hide]
With his threadbare robe trailing behind him, Drauc T'Laus stepped out on the walkway of the Arboretum Terrace - scarred hands flexing inside his sleeves. He was drawn to the railing by the noise below, and he peered down at the development from within the shadows of his hood.

The green grass and the trees were a stark contrast to the metal bulkheads surrounding the area, the impression of the outdoors merely preserved by the fact that the arboretum opened up to the terrace upon which Drauc stood, and the fact that above him, yet another deck with a suspended lounge overlooked the foliage of the trees. It wasn't the carefully maintained garden that drew Drauc's dark eyes, however, but the grizzled Klingon with high rank markings that shouted to his companions. It was General Chu'vok, wielding a bat'leth in one hand and a disruptor in the other. He called for two of Martok's loyal companions to follow him, crossing the grass in order to reach the other side. With him... almost hiding in the shadow of the General, was child.

A Klingon child, armed with a dagger and looking quite feral. His words, however, did not match his disposition. "Where is mother?"

Hearing those words from a child usually suggested they were helpless, but this one didn't seem like he was. Drauc sensed it, and laid his scarred hand on the railing of the terrace. A Starfleet officer appeared as well, accompanying General Chu'vok, and Drauc recognised him as Lieutenant Jordan Koilos of the Intelligence Department. He knew because he had been aiding them with his Romulan contacts. Drauc thought the Klingons and the child had the protection they needed, and was about to step away from the terrace and assist somewhere else in repelling the boarders... but that notion evaporated just like Koilos did. Shot by a Klingon disruptor in the back, he vaporised, leaving odds and ends of metal strewn across the trampled grass - cybernetic leftovers of a man otherwise lost.

"Return fire!" shouted General Chu'vok to his two companions, all the while retreating from a larger number of Klingon boarders that hunted them. Drauc, while unarmed, remained by the railing as he turned his eyes towards the pursuers. Soon enough, they appeared from whence the General had come. Six Klingons of House Mo'Kai, screaming and firing into the undergrowth, one blast severing the trunk of a tree.

Decision made, Drauc set off running along the railing, leaped on top of it, and then jumped through the air. He aimed for the gathering of Klingons, and he landed on top of one of them, driving him into the soil. No more had he landed before he spun on his heel, and kicked another Klingon across the neck. With his turn, he seized a disruptor, and started firing between each new strike or kick he dealt unto the boarders.

"Run," he rasped loudly across the arboretum, and General Chu'vok did not have to be told twice, pulling the child with him into the opposite corridor.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BZ on January 23, 2021, 04:07:28 PM
[LCdr Blue Tiran-Ducote | Invaders in Engineering | You Picked the Wrong Deck Mother Fuckers | Girls From Texas Don't Play
@Auctor Lucan




News of the boarders was not a surprise, mid-battle was always crazy and the ship was not completely secure at all times.  Though Blue would have to, at some point, see if she could upgrade the shields against some sort of external transport when they could.  But, that was a project for later although her mind was already rolling with the thoughts of it because that was what Blue's mind did.  It took an idea, made it a theory, and began puzzling it out running with it until it was solved.  She probably wouldn't sleep tonight, fuck, she hadn't slept longer than a half-our stretch since the situation in the lounge.  A huge nasty pit formed in her stomach. 

Not right fucking now.

She pushed the emotions that came with the whole Ducote Situation down back where they had come from.  Something that she was actually pretty gifted at given her past.  She was good at pushing the worst of her emotions down and keeping everyone at bay.  Opening up had likely been a mistake, though if she was honest with herself she would rather have known, loved, and lived beside Ranaan than not.  He had changed her and showed her how to reach out again.  Becacuse of her she was not as bad as she had been before. 

Shaking the thoughts of Ranaan out of her mind she focused on the task at hand.  “Check the engines!” she cried out to make sure that everything was stable and running properly.  They had been under attack for a while and it was only going to get worse with the battle going on. 

“Engines are green.” called out one of the Engineers from the access panel.

“I want fluctuations not fucking colors moron!” she called back.  This was bullshit, she had fucking trained these fuckers better!

“In range.  .031.”

“Thank you for finally fucking answering my fucking question!” she called out as she looked down at her PADD and entered the number comparing it to the last, she as fairly satisfied that the engines were in good shape and handling the battle well.  But, at any time they could go too far one way or the other and they had minutes, sometimes seconds, to get it back in the green.  “If it gets above .086 I need to fucking know asap!”

“Ma'am!”

Blue turned to head to the Main Engineering console, they were smack in the middle of a shift and busy as fuck.  The battle could at any point turn to their engines.  “Song!” she cried out across the deck, to the footfalls of the namesake rushing towards her voice.  The young Asian officer stopped just beside her and waited for her orders.  “Go check the impulse engines, if we have to use them I want to fucking make sure that they're going to fucking work.”

“Yes ma'am.” the CPO said as he trotted off. 

Across the massive deck from where Blue was standing surveying the information that was rocketing across her screen through various inputs the turblolift opened.  No one noticed anything at first, engineering was a hubbub of activity of both engineering and others because of how vital it was to the ship all together.  Someone coming down in the midst o battle was nothing new at all.  The four Klingon stepped out of the lift, there had been just enough room for them all in the lift, a testament to how massive they were in their chests and shoulders.  They were large Klingon even for their race with their barrel chests, disruptors in hand, and the eyes that spoke death.  As one by one they stepped into the Engineering deck proper, their clothing a bit more worn and ragged than those that Blue would have been used to had she been paying attention at the moment. 

It seemed, that no one really noticed them at all, and that was something that pissed off the Klingon in front.  He wanted them to cry, beg, scream, run, fight.  Something, but they were going about their business.  He lacked an eye, the left was covered with thick scar tissue that gnarled his face almost in a spiral pattern towards the eye like a black hole on his dark skinned face.  As his mouth opened slightly, on the right side, in a snarl, the yellowed teeth inside were chipped and broken a testament to the many fights that he had been in during his life.  Shaggy brown hair had fallen haphazardly from the tie in the back of his neck and tendrils of tangles fell about his face giving him and even more unkempt look. 

By comparison the other three Klingon weren't all that striking.  The smallest of the bunch was still larger than the humans on Blue's deck.  He stood to the shoulder of the “Leader”.  But where he lacked in height he made up for in muscle mass.  He wasn't even wearing a shirt, just the sash across his chest glistening with bronze like metal squares denoting something or another.  His massive chest was ripped across and rock hard as well as his muscled which except for the scars from previous battles looked as though they were carved from brown stone.  His eyes, were dark brown, almost black, and had seen the death of many at his hands.  The other two were twins, oddly enough once you took in their visage.  They stood at similar height as the leader but were more kept.  Each one kept their coarse hair in a topknot on top of their heads speared through with some kind of metal spike.  Their eyes were a striking blue in color, odd for a Klingon, and it made them more unsettling.  These Klingon seemed to take pride in their clothing as it was all well kept, and but their blue eyes were hungry. 

“Do whatever is necessary.  Take the deck.” the Leader snarled under his breath. 

The others said nothing and just slipped off onto the deck itself.  The leader saw an  Asian man loping across the deck on his way to somewhere, not paying attention to his surroundings.  The massive Klingon reached out his meaty paw and caught Song, not by the shirt, but by the throat.  Taking in a deep breath of air the Leader let out a massive bellow that was strikingly similar to a lion's roar as he pulled Song to him.  Song's eyes wide with fear as he struggled.  Landing blows on the Klingons arms, face, and legs with his limbs flailing as oxygen was failing to reach his lungs.  The screams across the deck as the situation began to take center stage.  Red alert was already in effect, but now... it was fucking red alert on the deck.

“Albert!  Full alert!” Blue cried out looking at the situation of Song in the hands of a Klingon.  Albert said nothing as he locked down the Engineering deck in a quick movement so that no other Klingon, could hopefully, make their way here.  She didn't need any others, they had to take care of this situation first. 

“You son of a bitch!” cried Billy Bob, rushing across the deck with a wrench in his hand to swing at the back of the Leader's head.  Without any thought to the matter, the Klingon rose his disruptor and shot O'Connel straight in the face, the man fell slack, to the floor, his face and head no longer where it had been.  Screams were louder and more shrill than before as chaos befell the fucking deck now that Billy's blood was pooling underneath his decapitated body. 

Blue stood up and picked up her phaser, she flicked the fucker to the death mode.  She wasn't fucking around she might have used heavy stun if they hadn't just killed one of her own and had another in his grasp. 

“I doubt he is alone!  Albert, deck check!”

Albert's eyes began to swirl a vibrant blue color as he began to check the deck for more unknown life signs.  [Commander, there are four intruders on our deck.] he reported quickly.

“There are more!  Eyes up, phasers out!  WE don't fucking play on this deck!” she cried out.

Suddenly, a body flew through the air, accompanied by a scream as it headed straight for a massive support pillar on the deck.  It moved so fast that Blue could not tell anything else other than it was female.  The crack of the spinal column on the pillar was almost loud as it impacted the metal support strut.  The body fell lifeless to the ground and all Blue could see was the fact that it wore yellow rubber boots.  Blood oozed out of the nose and mouth, she was death, not moving, not making a sound.  Kiki Stevens had been killed. 

The Leader chucked Song down with a grin as the Asian man gasped for air, but he was a fighter through and through and was not about to let the Klingon win.  Blue rose her phaser and aimed for the massive Klingon but before she could do so one of the twins massive meaty paws grabbed her by her hair and hauled her back to him. Blue was not one to go down without a fight.  She stomped on his foot, shoved her elbow into his ribs, and used the top of her head to thrust her skull into his chin.  He cried out and stepped back.  She whirled, leveled her phaser, and shot.  The klingon fell into a heap, as the other twin, somewhere on th3e other side of the deck roared.  He was in the direction Kiki had come from, and Blue felt a little vengeance for her fallen officer.  She had never been a big fan of Kiki Stevens but the girl had always brought light and happiness to the most tough situations.

With his breath caught Song began to go hand to hand with the Klingon leader.  A punch, a kick, and taking blows.  His face was already swelling from the ones that he had taken, the Leader was enjoying playing with the little man but Song was out for blood.  The Leader reached out as Song went in for another blow and grabbed him, this time by the throat.  “What is this....?” he asked in a low voice as he felt something different than the average human body parts.  Clenching his hand, Song cried out in one last gasp as the rebreather was ripped from his throat.  The Asian man fell to the ground, lungs gasping from the hole for air as he fought to fight the death that was pulling at him and the pain that was overwhelming him. 

The shorter Klingon stepped up and lowered his disruptor putting Song out of his misery.  The CPO fell limp.  Blue, having recovered and another officer moved in on the Klingon pair. “You get Shortstack.” she said to the Engineer.  He only nodded, and the pair went in phasers blazing as carefully as possible and shot, Shortstack fell first, knees given out as his body crashed to the floor. Blue was not good at hand to hand so she stayed back, and fired, as best as she could.  However, it wasn't Blue that took the leader out, it was another Engineer.  Small, lithe, andorian snuck up beind him and shot him straight in the back tears streaming down her face as she looked at the carnage of what had been three Engineers on this deck. 

Across the deck, Aksel Isavid had found the second twin thanks to his bellow of pain earlier.  They were fully engaged in hand to hand.  But Aksel was smart, and a Betazoid, he was gifted at a fight and not because of his skill set mentally but because he was good at watching people.  There were always tales and the Klingon did nothing surprising because they were always very prideful and boastful about it.  Leaping lithely over a console he narrowly dodged the fist coming from the Klingon he could feel the air around him move as he jut missed.  Rolling on the deck plating Aksel popped up and shot another stun bolt at the Klingon, hit in the shoulder, but it wasn't enough to stop the man.  The massive man, shook it off and grinned.  “I like when it hurts.  More fun” he said in broken languages that Aksel could only just put together thanks to his UT.

“I can break other things if you want.” he said with witty humor causing the last Twin to chuckle darkly. 

Aksel was not perfect and did make mistakes.  At one point, Aksel was certain that the Klingon was about to punch left, so he dodged right.  It was a fake, a trap, and now Aksel found his face being smashed by the powerful Klingon fist.  Bones crunching that close to your ear was loud, and the pain was enormous.  “Done with kitty and mousy.” said the Twin as he grabbed what was left of Aksel's face and began smashing it into the console that had earlier been used as a barrier.  Again, and again, the stout material cracking and breaking and beginning to leave bits of itself in Aksel's skin.  At first the Lieutenant made grunting sounds and tried to get out of the hold but after the third time his body went limp a little and the fourth it was completely so.  Once the Klingon was sure that Mush Face would breathe no longer he tossed him to the side like a rag doll and let a bellowing scream out, another lion like roar. 

The roar was cut short.  A massive Nacelle  Wrench named Thor settled into his skull.  Blue Tiran might be small but she was mighty especially when her people were dying.  She hadn't gotten there fast enough to save Aksel but she had saved others, who knew how many others.  Breathing heavily, she let the wrench rest on the ground watching as the Klingon fell to the ground with a solid thump. 

“ALBERT!” she screamed out, still breathing heavily.

[Miss Blue.] the owl appeared and landed on the metal pad of her shoulder, metal claws digging into the receptacles built for them. 

“Keep the deck locked.  NO one gets in or out without express permission from the head officer on duty.  I don't care if the fucking captain wants in.  No one transports, no one turbos, no one does anything with my deck unless we say so.”

[Understood.]
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nesota Kynnovan on January 28, 2021, 08:00:46 PM
[Lt. JG Amanda Ashby (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Ashby) | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nolan @Lathaniel
[Show/Hide]

It came as a relief to hear Valyn acknowledge her request to get her to Sickbay. While she’d only just met the woman, Amanda knew her type; the Vulcan was the kind of woman whom she’d seen in the Dominion War, that particular type who seemed to be forged in the toughest fire and flourished in the chaos of battle. Not that Amanda had time to think about it too long though, as the ship suddenly rocked beneath them. When Valyn suddenly started to move down the hall with her weapon raised, Amanda quickly followed with her own phaser in hand.

As she came around the corner, the blonde Lieutenant Junior Grade was presented with a sight that almost made her drop her phaser in shock. Valyn perfectly summarized her thoughts with a curt ”Oh fuck.” but, while the Vulcan woman opened fire and began to ran forward, Amanda kept standing for a moment as if nailed to the deck. It was hard for her to process that Klingons, who were supposed to be their allies, would even actively target the non-combatant Starfleet personnel; to her it was unheard of that the ‘blue uniforms’ were subjected to hostilities. By the time Valyn fired her phaser however, expertly hitting one of the Klingon Bat’leth wielders square in the chest, Amanda also began running towards the scene that was unfolding.

She didn’t get very far though. As another group of Klingons noticed them and opened fire on them, Amanda quickly had to jump for cover behind a bulkhead. From where she was standing she could see how the Klingon had raised the black-haired Starfleet officer into the air and, with her being entirely powerless to do anything about it, suddenly slammed the man’s head into the bulkhead. The only thing she could do as the poor man slumped onto the deck was scream in anger, which she did, and by that time Valyn was on the move once again; doing her thing and firing at the Klingons like something out of an action holo-novel. It wasn’t until the Vulcan woman asked for cover and Amanda raised her own phaser to happily oblige that she noticed how much she was trembling, now not out of fear but out of sheer rage.

What had happened was, at least in Amanda’s opinion, nothing short of a war crime. As she stepped out of cover, the Counselor began to fire her phaser towards the small group of Klingons; driving them into cover. She noticed from her peripheral that Valyn started going to town on the Klingon who had just killed that man, but she absolutely didn’t feel the need to comment about inflicting unnecessary harm. Not now. Instead, she just kept firing at any of the Klingons as they dared to do as much as peek out of cover, all while she slowly closed the distance towards Valyn and her struggle.

Unsurprisingly, the Vulcan woman emerged as the victor. In response, the small group of Klingons started falling back to regroup out of sight. While Amanda actually wanted to comment and voice her disappointment over how the other woman didn’t just kill the brute, she momentarily closed her eyes and took a very deep breath; forcing herself to regain her composure. Even though the Klingon was a brute, it would have been unfair to ask Valyn to carry such a big and unnecessary burden.

As they moved back to the blue uniformed officer, Amanda didn’t need her medical tricorder to see that the man had passed away; even if she wouldn’t have taken Valyn’s check for vital signs for granted, as she would have in any normal situation, it was fairly obvious now that there was no need for a double-check. The sheer amount of trauma that the poor man had been subject to was lethal, and it was probably for the best as well. No one would live through such a thing and come out unscathed at the end...

Amanda watched as Valyn respectfully took the man’s combadge and mentioned his name. Vael Kaeris. While Amanda didn’t knew him, given how she barely knew anyone, she nevertheless felt deeply sorry for him. No one deserved such brutality. When Valyn stood back up again and nodded towards the hallway, in the direction where the group of Klingons had fallen back to, Amanda simply nodded with a strange kind of resolve. ”Yes. Let’s make sure they won’t harm anyone ever again.” As she spoke, her voice matched the angry determination visible on her face.

And with that, the two women continued to carefully make their way down the corridor towards Engineering. If they’d been looking for a big phaser fight however, which Amanda deep down really wasn’t, they ended up disappointed though; the Klingons had fallen back way further than either of them anticipated, and they basically allowed them to walk straight up to Engineering unopposed. The surprise (and relief) was obvious on the young Counselor’s face as she held her pace in front of Engineering and turned her attention to Valyn. ”I don’t know about you, but this is way too easy... I have a bad feeling about this.” Unaware that she was jinxing them both, the Martian watched as Valyn entered Engineering before raising her phaser, taking a deep breath to steel herself once again, and following the woman in.

As Amanda made her way through the main entrance of Vector 01’s Engineering, she momentarily froze in place upon seeing what was happening. The very last thing anyone would expect –or want, for that matter- was a phaser fight near an active warp core, and yet her blue eyes registered a team of Security personnel crouched behind whatever cover they could find while carefully taking occasional shots. It only took one or two seconds at the very most, barely enough time for her to identify the new threat in the form of the three Klingons firing at them from behind cover, before the Martian Counselor realized she was standing completely in the open. Following the unnecessary advice shouted at her from one of the Security officers, she quickly ran towards a console and jumped down behind it; finding relative safety right next to a blonde-haired officer whom, just then, carefully peeked out from cover to fire her phaser at the Klingons.

”Did you call for a medic?” As Amanda spoke up, attempting to make herself heard over the combined sounds of both phaser- and disruptor fire, she could see a trail of blood seeping down the side of the woman’s cheek. In response, the blonde ducked behind cover again and nodded. ”Yeah, I’m Ensign Marija Ferik! We tried to get the casualties to safety, but those two-...” The woman nodded towards the two motionless Starfleet officers laying in cover behind another console. ”...were too heavily wounded to make it to Sickbay on their own. We got jumped by those Klingons before we could exfil them ourselves!” Amanda followed the young Ensign’s nod in the direction of the two injured Starfleet officers and gave her a curt nod in response. She knew that quite some time had passed since the initial call for medical assistance had reached them, and she was getting anxious about the lives of the two officers. ”Can you cover me? I need to get to them right now!” With the hostile Klingons still present in Engineering, the lives of the two officers weren’t the only thing Amanda was anxious about, but she took a deep breath while balling her trembling hands into fists to steel herself.

The answer took a while and Amanda was about to raise her voice once more when, after a stray plasma bolt hit the wall behind them, Marija suddenly spoke up. ”Go!” As the woman spoke, she stood up and fired her phaser several times; along with the concentrated fire of her fellow Security officers, she did quite a decent job at suppressing the Klingons long enough for Amanda to quickly get to her feet and scurry over to the other console. By the time she kneeled down next to the two injured officers, already out of breath due to the anxiety and the thick plasma fumes in the air, the Martian Counselor was genuinely impressed that she didn’t just made it to cover without getting shot at, but that Marija had followed her. ”Just tell me what to do, Doc!”

Turning her attention to the two injured officers, Amanda quickly took her medical tricorder from her belt and started scanning the two Engineers. She could almost feel her heart, which until then felt like it had been beating in her throat, sink back down as her first scan returned a high-pitched tone; the first Engineer already succumbed to his wounds. The second Engineer still lived but, according to her tricorder readings, his vital signs were getting increasingly unstable. For a quick moment Amanda looked up, trying to find Valyn but failing to do so. Instead, she found the blue eyes of Ensign Ferik.

It sufficed.

”That one is dead, there’s nothing I can do for him now! This one needs to get down to Sickbay like yesterday, help me!” Without a hovergurney, there was little else they could do but drag the Engineer away. While Marija shouted for her colleagues to provide covering fire, Amanda quickly positioned herself near the critically injured man’s head; carefully looping her arms around his back while carefully supporting his head with one hand. ”On the count of three we’ll lift him and haul anus to Sickbay!” With Marija taking a hold of the man’s ankles, Amanda quickly counted down before they lifted the man and began to carefully haul him to safety with due haste.

As they left Engineering and returned to the equally chaotic corridor, Amanda looked back one last time in an attempt to see Valyn. While she couldn’t see the Vulcan woman, the Counselor really hoped that she’d be alright.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on January 31, 2021, 04:35:35 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

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Careful now, don’t fuck it up! Kino thought to herself as she slowly approached the corner of the horizontal warp core, which she had been using as cover to sneak behind the three Klingon attackers. Her right leg started to hurt from moving so low, but she managed to ignore the pain. Her team was counting on her. Just a little bit further…

Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly, additional Starfleet personnel joined the scene. Someone entered through the main door and interacted with her team. For a short moment, Kino feared it was more Klingons who might just now start slaughtering her teammates, but when she turned her head into the direction the noise was coming from, she was able to make out a teal collar and blonde hair. Not the typical style choices of Klingon brutes. Kino could only hope that this meant that a medical team has arrived to take care of the two engineers. But her head had to stay in the game, so she turned her head back to face the most imminent threat.

Just inches in front of her, the horizontal warp core ended. She stayed on her left foot while at the same time putting her right knee to the ground, stabilizing her stance. Kino poked her head around the corner, trying not to make any sounds at all, even though the room was filled with several background noises, be it shots fired, screams or commands yelled through the room. But still, better save than sorry.

When her head was far enough around the end of the casing which held the warp core, she could see that all three Klingons were lined up neatly in a straight line from her point of view. Fuck! The curse echoed in her head as she tried to come up with an easy solution. Her Type III PAR was not capable of shooting through three Klingons in stun mode. Even at a higher setting, the first in line would most likely absorb most of the energy, leaving Kino with two angry Klingons turning their fire on her. But was there a better solution than to attack now? Her job here was pretty clear; eliminate the thread for the ship as soon as possible with no own casualties. Taking in account the fact that in the entrance area of engineering were two heavily injured crew members incapable of escaping until those three here were at least distracted, she had no other choice but to attack now and deal with the outcome as best she could.

She raised her Type-III and aimed through the sights, carefully balancing her weight to get a good first shot at the nearest invader. Her right index finger gently pulled the trigger, searching for pressure point that would release the phaser beam and hopefully stun her opponent instantly. But just as she was about to take the shot, she heard the door of the side entrance to her left being forced open. The creaking sound of the sliding door was accompanied by Klingon curses and groans of exertion.

Kino turned, watching in horror as four massive Klingons managed to pull the door open completely, only to raise their disruptors and storm in, ready to fight for glory. Fuck this! Kino knew there was no cover anywhere close to her. She had a long distance to overcome before she could get behind anything that would shield her from a Klingon disruptor rifle. She only saw one option and did not hesitate this time.

”Four intruders from the left. Laying down suppressive fire now!” She shouted with all the determination she could muster, while simultaneously standing up and opening fire on the advancing Klingons. Her first shot was well aimed and struck down the tallest of them. The lean Klingon with a face that seemed to have been burnt badly some years ago and a wild mess of black, curly hair was hit square in the face by her rifle and fell backwards, slowing the approach of another for at least a millisecond.

Kino tried to use the advantage of surprise and kept on firing in the general direction of the three remaining intruders while quickly moving backwards to get to cover. She knew, she was outmanned and outgunned. If her team failed to react accordingly, she might end up dead in a few seconds.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BipSpoon on February 09, 2021, 04:35:52 AM
[ Lieutenant Valyn Amarik | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Lathaniel @Nesota Kynnovan
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Valyn was enraged by the Klingon in that moment. Valyn had seen and, in her time, even committed heinous acts of her own. Starfleet had changed her perception of the world though, and the man that had just been butchered before her eyes was, despite her having never met him, one of hers. A fire was alight behind her eyes and her brow was drawn down in a dangerous glare. Valyn had taken several hard strikes throughout the scuffle, but nothing major. One to the face, and a couple to her torso. She’d be sore come morning but for the time being the adrenaline coursing through her body would dull the pain to nothingness.

The man, feet from her, skull split open and blood spilling onto the ground caught her hazel eyes one more time. He wasn’t old. He was shockingly young, from what she could see. He was absolutely dead, and there wasn’t a chance of revival, she knew. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and just shook her head. It was senseless. In the Tal Shiar she had killed so many people. She had killed innocents, even, under direct orders. She had thrown young men and women out of airlocks because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. This though was just carnage. It reminded her of the war, and it really felt like she was just stepping right back into it. In a sense, she knew that she was, and she knew that when she signed up for the mission with Anderson.

So soon after coming aboard though? No.

She watched Amanda give her a nod and when the woman spoke, “Yes. Let’s make sure they won’t harm anyone ever again.” Valyn fingered a panel on the rifle, and shot the Klingon in the head. The bolt entered the front, and exited the rear, leaving a singed red splatter on the bulkhead. The laboured breathing of the man ceased at once. Any hint or semblance of trying to end the battle on the deck peaceably had left Valyn. These Klingons were here to kill each and every one of them, and probably to do even worse to others if they go their hands on them. She wasn’t going to watch it happen, and she wouldn’t be responsible for one of them waking up and rearming to do damage again once gaining consciousness. 

“He won’t.” Her voice was monotone, and emotionless. She had entered a different state entirely to that of a typical security officer. Now she was a soldier, and an agent. The path to engineering really had been uncomfortably easy though. That much, she agreed on with the counselor. “Tell me about it. I hate when people say that though.” Her nose wrinkled, and she shouldered the rifle, readying herself for a literal shitshow behind the doors of engineering. When the door opened, she smelled it all before she saw it.

She wasn’t disappointed by the shitshow.

When she saw another officer with Amanda, she allowed herself to be separated from the counselor for a moment. There wasn’t enough room behind her cover for three, and even if there was, it was never wise to stack up so many people in one spot. She let her and the other blonde do whatever they needed to do as she popped up from her own cover, behind an engineering control console, and fired a volley of bolts into a group of Klingons. The lot of them all took cover as soon as she popped up however, so none of them struck home. “Motherfuckers.” She growled. The bolts flew over the Klingons and struck a wall, exploding behind them against a conduit however and sending sparks flying. They all went diving for different cover, relatively unharmed.

She watched as her prior companion left with another officer, just out of the corner of her eye and she left out a sigh. She really hoped she wouldn’t find her dead later too, but she knew that the poor man from earlier wouldn’t be the only brutal murder she’d witness that day. She focused her attention on another battle unfolding before her eyes and ran forward to assist, “Hey!” She shouted towards the woman, a trill by the looks of it. She abandoned her cover and started to sprint towards the woman. Through the whole run she started firing, first at the first group she’d fired at, striking two of them and knocking one of the ones she’d struck into the third. That would buy her a moment.

She posted up next to Kino, not even introducing herself before backpedaling right along with her and firing forward at the group of Klingons. She gave one of them a quick glance, the rifle still set to kill. “You don’t happen to have a stun grenade?” She joked momentarily before rapidly firing into the group, hitting one more of them before she turned the weapon onto a support beam overhead of the door itself. "Guess this'll do." She fired a couple of commands into the rifle, setting it a bit higher and pulled the trigger, intending to collapse the beam in front of the door, blocking all access from the path. Short of vaporizing it or having a repair crew remove it, it’d make it hard for the Klingons to get in. They still had another Klingon to take care of though.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nesota Kynnovan on February 15, 2021, 09:17:10 PM
[Lt. JG Amanda Ashby (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Ashby) | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nolan @Lathaniel

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It had actually gotten a little quieter on Deck 6 following their escape from Vector 01 Engineering, and that brief respite allowed Amanda to provide some basic medical care to the critically wounded Engineer. As she scanned the man with her medical tricorder in order to discover just what kind of first aid he’d received prior to her arrival, which was important information which Doctor Rez would need once they got this man to Sickbay, the blonde Counselor discovered traces of ketamine; a heavy painkiller present in standard Starfleet medikits, including the dented one which she was carrying herself. Apparently, before they found themselves suddenly fighting hostile Klingon intruders, the Engineers had come up with the smart idea to provide their colleague with a basic anaesthetic until trained medical assistance would arrive. That kind of quick thinking actually brought a smile to Amanda’s face; in her years as a medical professional, she’d experienced various situations where people quite naturally ended up being too shocked and panicked to act, let alone provide proper first aid like that.

As she quickly entered that information onto a holo-tag, which she then clipped to the Engineer’s uniform so Doctor Rez would easily be able to scan it and obtain the information she needed, Amanda heard a strange scraping sound rapidly approaching her and looked up; half expecting to find half the Klingon Empire barrelling down the corridor towards her. Instead, she saw that Ensign Ferik had appropriated a wall panel and was now dragging it towards them with due haste. ”Get him on here.” Even if it hadn’t been faster and much less damaging to their unconscious patient, the sheer coldness of Marija’s voice made Amanda not overly inclined to argue. Within moments, the two female Starfleet Officers had carefully laid the wounded Engineer onto the wall panel and were carrying it in between them like a makeshift gurney.

Albeit a heavy one.

In the minutes that followed, the experience of the Security Ensign proved invaluable. They had almost made it to the turbolift leading back up to Deck 6, when they were forced to quickly double-back and hide from a group of hostile intruders whom came barging from the turbolift. Amongst that group was a particularly tall Klingon with a crimson streak in her hair and, adding to her already menacing physique, two viciously aggressive targs which were walking directly in front of her. If it hadn’t been for Marija, who had held her pace before rounding the corner leading to the turbolift and then, after the group of Klingons suddenly emerged, quickly used her security codes to back them up –gurney included- into a maintenance room, there was little doubt that they would have ended up being ripped apart by the targs. Amanda, who was jammed between the wall and the gurney while half-crouched on top of a bucket of industrial cleaning fluid, could look through the same crack in the door which Marija was peeking through; she saw how one of the targs suddenly held its pace and turned its ugly snout in their general direction. At that moment the blonde Counselor’s heart caught in her throat and she held her breath but, at the exact same time that Marija slowly started to raise her phaser in order to face the inevitable, the fierce Klingon warrior that was leading the targ simply snapped at the animal before kicking it and forcing it to keep moving on. The animal whimpered and briefly hesitated for just a split second but, clearly as disciplined as anything even remotely Klingon, it chose to disregard them and keep moving.

After several seconds Marija started to lower her phaser again and, taking it as a sign that they were relatively safe once more, Amanda spoke up. ”That was close... where do you think they are going?” As she spoke, the blonde Counselor felt like a ton of weight dropped from her shoulders and the relieved look on her face was only further accentuated by her tone of voice. The blonde Security Officer simply shrugged while she holstered her phaser before grabbing her side of the gurney again. ”Guessing from their haste? I think they are going to join the fight for Engineering,” With those words, Marija’s blue eyes came to look into Amanda’s own blues. ”Which is why we should hurry, so I can get back. If we lose Engineering, we lose the Vector.”

That was something she didn’t had to repeat twice and, with a curt nod, Amanda began to follow Marija towards the turbolift.

Within a minute, the two Starfleet Officers found themselves down on Deck 7. While there were few critical areas on this deck, at least according to Marija’s brief turbolift summary, it did house Doctor Rez’s Battle Sickbay and Amanda worried that, if there was to be fighting on this deck, it would be focused around there. Much to her surprise however, there wasn’t; either the Klingon intruders weren’t as numerous as she’d thought, or they were focusing their strength on more important areas. In fact, they managed to reach a makeshift Security barricade in the corridor just outside Battle Sickbay without encountering any opposition whatsoever. When asked about it by Marija, one of the three Security Officers manning the barricade just shrugged. ”We do encounter the occasional stragglers, but there hasn’t been a dedicated attack on our position yet, ma’am.” As he spoke, his two colleagues quickly opened the barricade and, after Amanda voiced a quick word of thanks, they quickly proceeded past the barricade and into the Battle Sickbay.

As the doors opened in front of them, Amanda spoke up. ”We have a critical injury, make way!”
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on February 17, 2021, 06:17:07 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

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Just as Kino struck home with one of her shots, not stunning but at least slowing one of the Klingons down, she heard a firm voice, followed by rifle shots and approaching footsteps. ”Hey!”
She was trained well enough not to turn and greet the Security Officer rushing to her aid, but kept firing at the entering Klingons, trying to keep them in their place. She was worried about the other boarders, which now had the chance to outflank them. One problem at a time, Kino. She thought to herself, not knowing that Valyn had already taken out two of them, leaving only one enemy on his feet.

"You don't happen to have a stun grenade?" Valyn asked jokingly, but Kino, who could not see her face, was unable to recognize the humoristic nature of the inquiry. ”A stun… no, I…” She started to reply with a puzzled voice, but was interrupted by the Officer’s magnificent improvisation skills. She kept retreating towards the entrance of engineering while watching the beam collapse. ”That should keep them busy, great idea, Sir!” She shouted and swung her head around, looking at the fellow Security Officer briefly. She had seen her around, but has she spoken to her yet? Kino did not know. All she knew was that the Lieutenant was a big help.

Turning her head again in order to assess the location of the remaining Klingons whose path was not obstructed, she noticed that the disruptor fire directed at her security team had stopped. Following her gut feeling, she quickly checked the setting of her rifle and aimed towards the left corner of the auxiliary warp core. And sure enough, just a split second later a Klingon disruptor rifle appeared peaking around the corner, followed by the face of a rather young warrior. As he recognized the Type-III that was pointed directly at him, it was already too late. Kino’s weapon discharged and sent him to the ground immediately.

Looking over her sights, Kino scanned the area and saw the other two invaders lying just a few meters away from the one she just took out. ”Seems like we got ‘em all, Lieutenant. At least for now.” She said with a relieved sigh. She was just about to thank the Officer for her support when she heard the main entrance door slide open, followed by a very loud and roughly yelled ”Qegh!”.

Immediately turning her head towards the voice, Kino discovered two Targs rushing through the entrance, their hooves slightly skidding sideways as they took the corner. One Klingon – probably the one commanding the Targs - pointed in Valyn’s and Kino’s direction while laughing whole-heartedly as his beasts were advancing in full sprint.

Being located rather close to the main entrance after their retreat, the Targs were way too close for Kino to have a lot of options. She raised her rifle, aimed roughly in the animal’s direction and fired in rapid succession, but to no avail. Most shots missed the low profile of the beasts and the two discharges that hit home did not seem to make a huge impression. Before Kino could come up with a plan B, one of the Targs was already too close to get out of the way, even though Kino did try to dodge sideways. A sharp pain rushed through her leg as a tusk was rammed into her right medial fascial muscles, scraping her thigh bone on the way. ”Ungh…fuck!” She groaned as the sheer force of the charging beast swept her off her feet, allowing the animal to drag her along for two meters before it came to a stop and tried to pull its tusk out of the Trill’s leg.

Reacting instinctively, Kino pulled out her sidearm. Quickly she set the phaser rifle to kill before grabbing one of the beast’s horns while at the same time pressing the muzzle of the weapon into its right eye socket. ”Die, Fluffy!” She yelled and pulled the trigger, letting the phaser beam do its job and burn out the Targs little brain with force.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BipSpoon on March 01, 2021, 07:39:36 AM
[ Valyn Amarik | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Lathaniel
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Valyn didn’t look to her side towards the other officer to talk. She kept in formation instead, just as the other officer did. Her training kicked in, this time, it wasn’t her Starfleet training that took over. This was training from years in the Tal Shiar and serving on the battlefield. “Two down, they ain’t gettin’ back up.” She tapped the side of her rifle twice and tipped it to the side, trying to make the red ‘kill setting’ light at the top more visible to her partner's peripheral vision.

“Here’s hoping.” Valyn shot back in response to the complement of her idea. She wasn’t sure how long the collapsed beams would hold the Klingons though. She watched as the door in front of the collapse opened and shut with repeated hisses, detecting the debris in front of the door and trying to come to terms with which state to remain in. “What’s your name?” She shot out, quickly. She was right to the point with it though, and wasn’t exactly lingering on the point to try and get to know the Petty Officer. As the other woman fired on the additional Klingon, Valyn turned her head to look at the downed Klingon, walking over to him and checking that he was indeed down.

She pressed the tip of her boot to the man and flipped him over onto his back. “Nice shot.” She eyeballed the slight scorch mark on the man with a mildly impressed look. Her good spirits were incredibly short lived however, as the moment she seemed ready to move along, she heard the hair-raising growl of a Targ. Her face contorted into a look of blended rage, irritation, and frustration. She picked up her rifle and fired off a few rounds, but the beast was incredibly fast. Her first round overshot the beast due to its speed, instead it seared the deck behind the Targ, leaving a smoking black spot against the deck plating.

The second shot hit the beast but it merely burned off part of the monster's tusk which succeeded in doing nothing but pissing the animal off. “Oh shit.” As the thing got closer and closer, she started to realize just how big the thing was. She pulled out a knife when she realized the futility of trying to handle a rifle in such close range with the monster. It came under her feet and took her right to the ground. The black knife that she had pulled shimmered nicely in the low light that the engine gave off. For the discerning eye it was obviously a Tal Shiar officers knife, at least, to those who knew what such a thing was. Her name and service number were engraved on the hilt. Luckily, she wasn’t dragged, but the beast reared up on its hind legs to try and bury its remaining tusk into her flank.

She rolled to the left, leaving the beast to headbutt the ground instead. As she rolled, she glanced at the Klingon beastmaster, who was standing there watching like it was some sick game. He was next on her list. One thing at a time though. The Targ again came in to charge her, and struck true. It didn’t stick her with a tusk but it didn’t flip and barrel her around for a moment. Amid the roll however, Valyn was able to jam the knife into the beasts hind leg, severing it’s ACL. It let out a shriek and she groaned as itt stopped mid roll. She pushed it off of her, before it had the chance to impale her.

In a swift movement, she withdrew the knife, and began to repeatedly slam it into the beasts neck, spraying arterial blood onto the deck beside her and, even some onto her herself. It was foul. She continued to stab, slice, twist, and thrust until the beast stopped moving. Once it finally did - she withdrew her sidearm and fired a shot into its skull, looking up at the beastmaster. She pushed herself up to her feet (albeit, slowly and with a pained groan), and looking what probably looked like some sort of Romulan boogeyman started to creep towards the man who was shockingly armed with little else than a hand weapon of his own. Still, he was a Klingon warrior, and she had just killed his pets. She verified the setting on the Klingon weapon she had pilfered and fired it directly into his thigh, bringing him straight to the ground. However, her advance continued, bloodied knife in one hand, disruptor in another. Her rifle was still slung across her chest but had evidently taken some bruising from the tumble with the Targ.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: DaValle on March 04, 2021, 01:51:31 PM
[Lt. Kaylon Jeen (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Kaylon_Jeen) | Deck 6 | Engineering | USS Theurgy] @Auctor Lucan
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Ever since the battle has begun Kaylon hadn’t done much more than giving orders. Throwing crewmen at new problems as they popped up and every now and then he also had to deal with some major disturbances himself. He may would like work rather as some kind of low ranked engineer than the supervisor guy he has to be right now, but that was the kind of work an officer had to do if it came down to a battle situation. They didn’t need another engineer who could repair some small malfunctions or other smaller problems right now, what they need was someone who could coordinate all those engineers and send them from one place to another in a matter of seconds. This was his job now and he really hated it. It was actually the only thing he hated about his promotion. He loved to crawl through those tubes and work on the ship’s intern system, but ever since he was promoted to a leading officer position those times were pretty much over. Since then it’s been signing reports, authorizing requests and dealing with his subordinates, well not all the time at least. One can say whatever they want about her, but Blue would at least not get mad at him if he was rather dealing with those fixes himself than signing some stupid formalities.

This battle though was a good example why the most other Officers in Blue’s position emphasized those leading skills more. Not that Kaylon didn’t own those skills, he was just very reluctant as to how often he showed them during his normal shifts. The Trill simply didn’t enjoy the commanding role as much and therefore normally avoided situation in which any other officer would call him as such. He preferred a less professional relationship with the officers he commanded. This may have been the reason he has to act now a little bit out of character for the most of them as the situation required him to be able to lead those crewmen with the kind of iron hand he normally avoided. “You there!” Kaylon yelled at two crewmembers who glanced around the place slightly lost as to where they should go to right now. “Go to tube 36 and reconnect the plasma arrays of the front phasers with their back-up system.” The stood there for some moments before they replied. “Sir, why? Has the sys...”

“Cause I freaking ordered you! Now, MOVE!” He got louder in his voice and the two almost stumbled back as he gave them his last order. Under normal conditions it wouldn’t be his type to yell at others if they just scrutinised his orders, actually he normally encouraged them to do it as he didn’t really liked his officers to stupidly follow orders. Now, though, it wasn’t the right time for them to act like that and Kaylon probably had to talk to them later about something like circumstances and so on… well, at least if a later will exist for him.

Another bunch of orders and some more yelling later he found himself crawling through a long Jefferies Tube back toward a smaller junction room near the engineering. The shield’s frequency was fluctuating again and if it wasn’t fixed asap the Klingons could send some boarding parties on the Theurgy. Kaylon crawled the last parts of the tube down and jumped from the hatch to the ground. Two other crewmembers were working in the room and one of them turned around to greet the Lieutenant. “Stop that and return to your work. We need the shield fluctuations to stop.” Kaylon moved toward the console and begun to tip down some commands. “Alright it seemed like most of the fluctuations are coming from the shields energy connection. Crewman...” Kaylon realized that he hasn’t seen there faces before nor couldn’t anyhow tell who of them is who. “… on my left, you’re going to the lower levels and fix those conduits for the energy transfer. Right, you’ll coordinate him from here. When you’re finish report back to me.” Kaylon stepped away from the console and moved toward the ladder again. Half way through the tube did he heard a lot more of noises than there should have been. He opened the hatch of the Jefferies Tube that lead to a corridor next to engineering and saw how a bunch of Klingons were chasing a group of Starfleet officers through the corridor. Before he could crawl out of the tube to help the others another Klingon took over that part as the huge figure simply tore Kaylon out of his former place and threw him against the wall on the other side of the corridor.

The impact was followed by a loud noise and a sharp pain in Kaylon’s breast. He couldn’t even breath as the Klingon stepped further towards him. The massive warrior said something, but Kaylon couldn’t really hear what it was as his body was floated by two different things. The pain, that tried to reach his brain to tell him that at least half of his ribs were broken, and the adrenaline, which tried to counter the pain and fought to get Kaylon’s body back on his feet. His attacker reached Kaylon before either of those chemical reactions could win the battle they fought in his body. He kneed down in front of Kaylon and placed his hand on the Trill’s throat. He tried to heave him up, but was interrupted by a for him almost insignificant small pain in his thigh. Kaylon could in a last reaction ram the head of the tool he carried around with him in his attacker. While this alone wasn’t more than a small inconvenience for the Klingon, the next phase surly wasn’t. Kaylon turned it on it’s highest level and the head of the tool heated up in a split of a second. The flesh around it was going to smelt under the huge temperature of the tool’s head and Kaylon continued pushing it further down the Klingon’s thigh till it hit a hard object. The bone was the first thing that at least provided some kind of resistance for the heat and temporarily could stop it. The whole scene didn’t took more than few moments and the Klingon didn’t even realize what the Trill in his arm has done as his legs simply broke down under his own weight and even a Klingon warrior couldn’t ignore the pain of his own legs literally breaking into two parts.

He dropped Kaylon, who fell down, still unable to breath as the broken bones in his breast begun to pierce through his organs centimetre by centimetre. Drowning by his own blood, the last thing the Trill saw was how the formerly chased officers pushed back the Klingons. His view went darker with every moment that passed and his body began to cool down, lying on the metallic deck of the corridor.


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Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nesota Kynnovan on March 09, 2021, 03:27:11 AM
[Lt. JG Amanda Ashby (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Ashby) | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nolan @Lathaniel

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Within moments after Amanda had spoken up and called out a critical injury, a Nurse approached them. While the woman was quickly scanning the wounded Engineer whom they had hauled with them on top of that wall panel, the Martian Counselor noticed the blood stains on the other woman’s black uniform; the moist stains were shining in the dim illumination of the Battle Sickbay. In combination with the chaos around them, with people laying on gurneys throughout the room while the overwhelmed Medical Staff attempted to keep up, Amanda knew that the Nurse was performing triage on their critically wounded Engineer at that very moment.

”You administered one dose of ketamine?” As the Nurse spoke up after having scanned the holo-tag with her medical tricorder, Amanda turned her attention to the woman and nodded firmly. She could hear the hesitation in the other woman’s voice as she spoke, and her facial expression clearly betrayed the Nurse’s inner struggle between clearing the Engineer for treatment or not. ”His fellow Engineers gave him a dose of ketamine to keep him comfortable.” A tense moment passed during which Amanda began to bite her lower lip, but she breathed a sigh of relief when the Nurse clipped her medical tricorder back onto her belt and nodded. ”Alright, let’s get him onto something more comfortable than this wall panel and line him up for treatment on an intensive care biobed.”

Following those words, Amanda noticed that Marija had turned around to look at her and she just nodded; silently telling the Security Ensign to put the wall panel onto the floor while the Nurse quickly went to get a gurney. In the brief moments it took the young woman to return to them, the blonde-haired Martian looked around to see if she could find Lieutenant Rez. She found the Assistant Chief Medical Officer hard at work in the Primary Surgical Suite and, as the Nurse returned to them, Amanda realized that her help was more than needed in the Battle Sickbay at the moment. As such, she quickly put down her dented medkit and took charge as she prepared to move the wounded Engineer onto the gurney. ”On three. One, two...” Together with the Nurse, Amanda carefully moved the wounded Starfleet Officer onto the gurney and, as the Nurse began to pull it towards the intensive care biobeds, the blonde-haired Martian turned around to face Ensign Ferik.

Her intention had been to thank the Security Ensign for her invaluable help in getting her back to Deck 7 but, while Amanda was turning around, the door of the Battle Sickbay hissed open. Before the Martian Counselor even managed to put her blue eyes onto the Klingon Warrior as he stepped into the room, Marija had already sprung into action; dropping her phaser rifle and charging the much taller man. It all happened so fast and the distance between the Security Ensign and the Klingon Warrior was so small, that Marija’s shoulder was firmly planted into the man’s stomach before her rifle had even hit the deck. In fact, by the time Amanda completely turned around and processed what had just happened, Marija and the Klingon already disappeared through the door.

As she quickly picked up the phaser rifle, which Marija had most likely dropped because the distance between herself and the Klingon was so short that it would have taken too much time to aim the weapon, Amanda noticed that the blonde-haired Security Officer slammed the Klingon Warrior back-first into the corridor wall on the opposite of the door. On their way there Marija had managed to draw her sidearm because, after she slammed the warrior into the wall, the blonde-haired Ensign used the momentum of the ricochet to nimbly bounce away from the man and hit him with two phaser blasts in quick succession.

It was rather obvious that Amanda wasn’t the only one who was left completely shocked by the rapid and highly unexpected series of events though. While the Klingon Warrior was falling to the deck, Marija had time to aim her phaser once more before someone else fired at disruptor at her. Given how she initially expected Marija to jump back into the Battle Sickbay, Amanda had hesitated to follow her out into the corridor and potentially end up blocking the Ensign’s way. Now the shooting was starting however, the blonde-haired Counselor realized her mistake; instead of holding back and waiting for Marija to come back, she should have rushed out to come to the Ensign’s assistance.

The first shot missed and, while Amanda was now rushing out of the Battle Sickbay to come to Marija’s aid, the blonde-haired Security Officer fired her phaser and hit the Klingon closest to them; a huge log of a Warrior whom came charging at her with a Bat’leth. He went down but, before either Marija or Amanda could aim their weapon at the other Klingon –a female who had her disruptor pistol already trained at the Ensign- fired her weapon.

This time it did hit.

When the disruptor bolt hit Ensign Marija Ferik in the chest, time seemed to slow down to a crawl for a moment. The expression on the young Ensign’s face, which had been surprisingly distant and cold until then, changed into a surprised look; almost as if she couldn’t believe that she’d been hit in the first place, or that being hit didn’t hurt at all given how that blast immediately singed her nerve endings. As the phaser slipped from between the blonde-haired Security Officer’s fingers and she slowly began to reach for her chest, wobbling on her legs as she did so, Amanda could barely hear the scream that escaped her own lips. From the corner of her eye, she could still vaguely see how Marija slumped against the wall of the corridor before sliding down onto the deck, but at that point the Martian’s attention was fully fixated on the female Klingon who, much to Amanda’s utter disbelief and fury, seemed to smile as if the entire situation amused her.

Before the Klingon could switch targets and point her disruptor at her, Amanda had already raised the heavy phaser rifle. While her aim wasn’t perfect, the burst setting of the Type-III Phaser Assault Rifle didn’t require perfect accuracy at such a short distance; the first blast just barely missed the Klingon’s head, but the second blast hit her straight in the right shoulder and the third struck just below the woman’s chest. If the Klingon Warrior even lived long enough to process those last seconds, Amanda noticed she took an exceptionally morbid pleasure in the fact that the woman wouldn’t be laughing anymore as she went down like a sack of potatoes. Just to be very sure that the woman was really dead, the Martian Counselor took a page from Lieutenant Valyn’s book and, after properly aiming this time, fired yet another burst into the Klingon.

After she was sure that the Klingon wouldn’t get back up anymore and that no other Klingons came rushing at her, Amanda dropped the phaser rifle onto the deck and quickly turned to kneel right next to the blonde-haired Security Officer. However, the empty, glazed blue eyes of the young Ensign already told the Martian Lieutenant Junior Grade what her medical tricorder would confirm only seconds later; Ensign Marija Ferik had passed away, having given her life protecting her helpless colleagues in the Battle Sickbay. As Amanda reached out to pick up the woman, not wishing to leave her out in the corridor for Klingons to find, she did notice one thing.

The smile on Marija’s face. At that point Amanda knew that, regardless of what hand life might have dealt Marija Ferik up until that day, the woman embraced those last few moments right before the end with a smile; almost as if she was glad to find a kind of rest which she might not have found in life.

As Amanda walked back into Sickbay, she could hear how someone pressed their combadge and spoke up. ”Security to the Battle Sickbay, we are under attack!” While she could have said that the immediate danger had passed, the Counselor disregarded the man just like she disregarded everything at that moment. It just wasn’t important. Instead, she carried Marija into the now empty Medical Officer Duty Station; gently placing the blonde-haired Security Officer into the seat before pulling the backrest of the chair back as far as it could possibly go. Following that, Amanda took off her uniform jacket and respectfully draped it over Marija’s head and upper torso. Only then, when she allowed Marija to rest in relative solitude in that crowded, chaotic Battle Sickbay, did Amanda allow herself to lean back against the wall of the small office.

It was all her fault.

If she wouldn’t have hesitated at the door, if she would have rushed out right after Marija, the woman wouldn’t have faced those Klingons herself. Maybe she could have shot that female Klingon so that terrible, terrible woman wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to shoot Marija.

At that point, Amanda allowed herself to slowly slide down the wall until her behind hit the deck; burying her face in between her knees before wrapping her arms around her head in an attempt to block out the chaos from the Battle Sickbay. Her own little safety cocoon. And that was when Doctor Amanda Ashby broke, knowing that she was responsible for Marija Ferik’s death.

If only she’d been a little bit faster... if only. 
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on March 10, 2021, 08:43:43 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

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The Targ stopped moving only seconds after his brain was fried by the intense phaser beam, which went straight through his eye. With a grunt of disgust as well as pain, Kino shoved the heavy animal off her leg while at the same time pulling the nasty tusk out of her thigh. The Klingon pet administered quite a substantial amount of tissue damage, but to Kino's relief, the arteries seemed to be intact.

Not forgetting the situation, they were in, the Trill came to her feet with another grunt. She was still holding her sidearm in her hand as she scooped the rifle off the floor and examined it for damage. Good to go! She thought and holstered her pistol again. Of course, she had noticed the Officer's way of handling things on their retreat from the angry intruders. So, with only a tiny bit of reluctance left, she switched her rifle to kill and turned to follow the pointy-eared warrior. Watching the Officer move, bloody knife in her hand and ready to give this beastmaster hell, impressed Kino. She had seen her share of tough women, but this one seemed to really have a fighter's heart.

Trying to catch up to Valyn, Kino noticed that her right leg was not functioning as it should be. She was forced to limp her way towards the door, making it hard to gain momentum. She was still a few meters behind her fellow Security Officer, when another Klingon approached in the doorway, aiming his disruptor roughly into the direction of Valyn. Kino did not hesitate. With a swift motion she raised her phaser rifle, picked up the ugly image of the bearded Klingons face with her sights and pulled the trigger. It was more a reflex than anything else. She had learned to trust her muscle memory and even though this shot might have taken her longer than before her assignment to this ship, she was satisfied with the result. Seeing the tall, barrel shaped Klingon falling to his knees, bearing a neat, round hole in his ridged forehead provided her with a level of happiness that scared her just as much as it managed to calm her down.

Upon lowering the muzzle of her rifle, Kino detected movement from behind the edge of the doorway. What was merely the glimpse of a leg being pulled back gave the advantage of the Klingon, who thought it better to not storm into the room that had just killed two of his comrades, away. "Careful, there's another one. I'll cover you!" She whispered in the direction of Valyn while simultaneously lifting her rifle again and already aiming at the spot where she expected the (hopefully) last Klingon to appear.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BipSpoon on March 17, 2021, 02:21:19 AM
[ Lieutenant Valyn Amarik | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Lathaniel @Nesota Kynnovan et. al.
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Valyn crept towards the beastmaster, all fear and unease that had been held within her had melted away. Now, she was practically fearless. Even as another warrior emerged from the doorway, Valyn pressed forward, one finger running down the length of the well sharpened blade as if she was caressing the cheek of an upset child. She’d lost all sense of softness, if there was any to begin with. She heard from behind her, the telltale switch of a phaser rifle, and though she started to raise the sidearm in her hand to fire upon the spare Klingon, she didn’t need to.

She watched as his body hit the floor, a smoking hole bored straight through his skull. She gave him only a half a second of attention before she moved forward on to the next one. She gave a nod, though didn’t give her eyes to Kino, when she warned her of the second one. That made three total. Valyn in truth, couldn’t care less about the other two. Kino could shoot both of them if she wanted, but Valyn was continuing her death march towards the handler. As she shot closer, she saw that from the wreckage of engineering, the door was slightly raised. Leaving her an interesting opportunity. She gave a quick tilt of her head towards her comrade, motioning her over. There wasn’t exactly time to fill her in on what she was planning to do other than that so she just rolled with it.

She raised the sidearm, and shot right at the bottom of the doorway. Right at the exposed end of a boot she could see. It certainly wouldn’t kill him, but it was going to scare the shit out of him, and that was the point. She wanted to create a vulnerability for Kino if she could. Almost the moment the disruptor cut its telltale red flash across the room, Valyn broke into a sprint. She moved like she was born for it, when in truth it was years of nonstop, painful training. She vaulted a piece of the pylon she’d shot down and made it to the handler in only seconds, using what time she’d bought to her advantage. Not playing any games, she gripped the man by a long, black braid he kept, then launched a fist right into his face.

She wrenched his hair back and with all the strength that her Romulan blood allowed her, and lobbed him back over the pylon. She climbed back towards him. It was evident in her eyes who in that moment she was; rage. Rage burned within her, white hot. Inextinguishable. Without care for anything else. It existed as it's own being within the woman. As he reached for his own knife. She hadn’t bothered to disarm him. No, actually she was hoping for something of a fight, and there was just something about having two savage animals sicked on her that had really sent her over the edge. That combined with the...piles of Starfleet bodies around her, not all of them dead no doubt but….enough of them were. She could tell that much by just a quick glance at some of their injuries.

“Qugh rIntaH, petaQ.” It was spoken in Klingon, which in of itself, was dirty and fractured. Spoken by a women who had clearly no used the language in some time. The point probably came across just fine though. She motioned with her knife to stand up, the blood of beast dripping from the tip. She was allowing him a chance to fight back, as a warrior. It was a greater respect than most other Romulans would have offered him. Whatever Kino was up to, she trusted her to handle it.

The Klingon came at Valyn in a flash, slamming the back of her skull up against a glass panel, leaving blood, stained only by a couple of silvery whisps of Valyn's blonde hair, illuminated by the flickering display. However, she used the momentum he’d created to spin around and push him right back into it, pressing shards of glass into his head. She ran fingers through his long hair again and began to repeatedly bash his head into the console. Only for a moment however, before he’d raised a knee into her gut and sent her stumbling backwards.

Then the call came in. A call which made her heart drop. It snapped her right back to clarity.

“Security to Battle Sickbay, we are under attack!”

It sent ice through her veins and a lightening bolt through her spine that ground her to reality in a second. She saw him raise a fist, aiming it for her head. She bobbed to the side though, allowing his fist to briefly connect with the already ruined control panel, and instead gave him a roundhouse kick to the side of the head. The tall warrior staggered on impact but before she’d come to the ground, he’d grabbed and thrown her aside like she was a child's plaything. She had to hand it to him, he knew how to fight. He’d come over her as the daze struck her and as he loomed over her she could see in his eyes that he was contemplating what to do. Was he to kill her, or was he to make it slow?

Valyn didn’t give him the chance though. She had to get to Sickbay. She brought one foot up and let it connect straight into his groin. She reverted back to her usual earth accent and her face went hard, cold, relentless. “Going down with a blow to the snakes, huh?” As he staggered forward, she leaned up and gripped his tunic, and pulled him right down onto the knife. As he fell, it plunged straight into his heart. He groaned. He spluttered. Just like all men, Klingon or not, they ended the same. Realization that death wasn’t clean and it wasn't filled with glorious applause. It was evident in his eyes. It was bloody, painful, and terrifying. She twisted the knife, staring into his eyes as he collapsed onto her. She could feel and, most unfortunately, smell his breath on her face. When she saw his pupils dilate, and his body weaken, she shoved him off, pulling the Klingons' own sidearm to try and see if there was anyone else.

Had Kino gotten the other one? She certainly hoped she had.

Valyn ripped the knife from his chest with a nasty squelch, and even a crunch as it passed a rib. The blood was wiped away on her pant leg before it was replaced in its holster. There she stood, two Klingon disruptors, one in each hand, ready to go. “We need to get-” She panted, shaking her head and trying to stand taller. Unlike with the Targ, now she was feeling some pain. She pushed right through it though. “We need to get to sickbay. They need backup.”

“You and you.” She pointed to two Security officers.

“Ens-” One of them began to introduce themselves but Valyn waved a hand.

“Don’t give a shit right now Ensign, right now we’re both soldiers, I'll buy you both a drink after and get your names. I need you both to hold this place. Do what it takes. They cannot have this engine room.” She walked towards one of them and gave him a squeeze on the shoulder. She was a hardass but she wasn’t totally heartless. "Do whatever you need to. Don't let them in."

She gave Kino a quick glance to check on her, but after that, started looking over her pilfered weapons.  She then spoke aloud to Kino, motioning over the dead Klingons with a barrel of a disruptor, "Every one of these Klingons would have fucked our engines, killed our crew, or tried to use this ship against us. Stun only goes so far when they're bashing peoples damn heads against walls. They're here to kill us, I'm not living with the fact one of these sons o' bitches gets up from a stun and kills another officer." She wasn't sure if she was justifying that for Kino's sake, the security officers' sakes, or for her own sake. She wasn't Tal Shiar anymore, but she knew the things she'd learned with them would follow her forever, and might have to be used, as they were then. She tapped her combadge.

"Amarik to Battle Sickbay. I'll get there ASAP." Over the COMM she sounded just as tired and winded as before but like a good soldier, like a good agent...she pushed through it and would get the job done. That was in her blood. She tapped her badge again and for only a moment, collected herself. She muttered something, indistinguishable, but clearly not English. Once said, she straightened up, and her jaw hardened.

OOC:
Translation of Klingon: Today you die, petaQ.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on March 23, 2021, 09:36:56 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

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Kino, still aiming through her sights as Valyn fired her low shot towards the doorway, saw the opportunity and took it. With her right leg still not working well, she did her best to scurry to the left, keeping her muzzle pointed towards the door. She knew better than to interfere with the Lieutenant’s determination to take on the handler face to face, but she was not going to allow this other intruder to shoot Valyn in the back.

She chose a steep angle from the doorway, giving her a chance to get the Klingon in her line of sight. Her leg as well as the adrenaline pumping through her system made it harder and harder to hold the rifle steady, but she would not let this minor inconvenience stop her from doing her job. Of course she had noticed the change in Valyn’s way of fighting. The pointy-eared woman seemed to be in some sort of blood-rush. This was a state Kino knew all too well. She also knew that it can lead to disaster quickly, if not due to disadvantages in battle, then usually when the adrenaline was fading and the mind had to come to terms with what happened during the fight. On the other hand, Kino also learned – both by first-hand experience as well as observation – that trying to stop someone who was in “beast mode”, as the boys called it, carried lethal potential.

When Kino entered an area left of the door that allowed her to glance inside the corridor, she crouched and tried to calm her breath. She could not afford to miss this shot. In a situation like this, every shot should hit dead center.
Raising her sights before her eye again, she smiled. There he was this Klingon bastard. Hiding with his back to the corridor wall, probably shitting his panties. Kino had to chuckle at the thought of such a lousy Klingon but picturing him to be fearing for his life made the world look a little bit lighter in this particular instance. Her trigger-finger embraced the cold metal and started to press down on it. Slowly and steadily, keeping her crosshair on the hiding man’s protruding forehead, she searched for the pressure point and found it. She inhaled, stopped her breathing for half a second, exhaled and pulled the trigger.

The orange beam instantly lit up the surrounding walls and consoles as it burned its way through the almost toxic, plasma tainted air. Adding to the chaos already omnipresent in this section of the ship, it hissed aggressively enough to make Kino’s target instinctively turn his head, at least he tried. The phased beam of light impacted on the left side of his head, crushing the bone ridges into his brain shortly before piercing right through it.

Kino slowly let the rest of the air escape her lungs while scanning the corridor before she lowered the rifle. ”Gotcha, you lil’ p…” She stopped uttering the curse words as she heard the distress call coming from sickbay. Her heart stopped a beat and for just a short moment she had to fight with herself. Too much had been going on aboard this ship. But this was not the time to hesitate. She had two options: Break down or fight. And she was not going to let her crewmates down again.

After a thorough scan of the situation, she decided to secure the visible part of the corridor. The hand-to-hand combat between Valyn and the handler was already coming to a close and the remaining security officers would manage on their own. Anticipating the Lieutenant’s decision, she quickly limped towards the door and followed the tactical procedure closely.

When Valyn - after finishing the Klingon with her knife – declared her intent to support sickbay, Kino had already made sure that no more Klingons were approaching. ”Corridor’s clear, Sir!” She reported in a sharp voice. Not taking her eyes away from the path they had to take in a moment, she listened to Valyn’s orders for the remaining personnel and could not help but grin when the Lieutenant started to elaborate on the necessity of deadly force.

Kino was well aware of this, but figured it might not harm to support the officers statement. ”I agree, Sir!” She nodded and moved into the corridor advanced carefully towards the next corner, certain that Valyn was close behind her. The situation called for haste.

After 20 meters she reached the junction. Her rifle raised and ready to pull the trigger and send more deadly beams of light into stubborn Klingon skulls, she turned around the corner and gasped at the sight of a severely injured Trill. The Assistant Chief Engineer, whom Kino did not know personally but had learned that he was one of the few chosen ones, was lying on his back, blood running out of his mouth and nose. ”No… no no, please…” Kino gasped as she instinctively reached for her combadge, activating it without hesitation.

Kino was never even close to being considered as someone who could be joined with a symbiont, but she valued the tradition and saw the parasitic life-forms as part of her species. She knew, every symbiont was a precious and every symbiont in danger had to be saved at all costs. It was this knowledge that forced the decision to act quickly upon her.
”This is Taer, we need an emergency transport for three to battle sickbay on Vector 1. A symbiont is in immediate danger!” She turned to look for the Lieutenant, realizing at that moment, that she had bypassed a superior officer without even thinking about the possible consequences.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Griff on March 23, 2021, 10:30:26 PM
[PO3 Lillee t’Jellaieu (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Lillee_t%27Jellaieu) | Lower Shuttlebay | Deck 21 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

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In the morning leading up to the battle, Lillee had been prepared for hell. She had heard the rumours just like everyone else about the stiff odds they faced, with the Theurgy (as usual) all but alone against a vast enemy force. As powerful as the Theurgy was, they couldn't face off against an entire fleet and hope to win. As they dropped out of quantum slipstream, word spread that indeed, a large enemy armada was waiting for them, and Captain Ives intended to fight. There was a strategy involved, apparently, some way to get Martok to Qo'nos and win.

The "win" part was nice, if a little optimistic.

Resigned to the inevitable, Lillee armed herself accordingly. Along with the usual type-2 phaser, she even secured permission to  go to her quarters and retrieved her honour-blade, sheathed in its scabbard and slung on her back, the strap extending across Lillee's chest. The ornate sword had not tasted blood for many years, hadn't tasted Klingon blood for even longer, but Lillee could feel it in her gut that today would change that. This fight was going to happen, and it was going to be intense. Klingons never liked tidy battles, after all, and even if she would've preferred to be in a shuttle or a Valkyrie, Lillee had every intention of matching their aggression with her ferocity, their crudeness with her skill, their bat'leths with her honour-blade.

For the battle, she was assigned to the secondary shuttlebay, all the way down on Deck 21. Shuttle missions were to be flown but due to the mission to retrieve Martok's grandson, other pilots were ahead of Lillee in the rotation. Nevertheless she was required to standby in the shuttlebay regardless, ready to launch a shuttle within ninety seconds of the order coming through. There, with the other shuttlebay personnel, she was left with little to do but wait. The shooting started, the deck shaking faintly at first as the shields easily absorbed the initial blows, then more violently as the Theurgy was subjected to ever more intense assault.

The first bit of excitement came when a bulkhead collapsed, slamming into a crewman's head and knocking him to the ground, the wounded man being carted off to sickbay. Trapped in the shuttlebay with no way to know what was happening outside the ship, Lillee and the others were left to wait. The shuttles were all secured, no work to be done, no other immediate damage nearby that needed tending to. The damage control parties, all experienced, had it under control. The ship shuddered again and again as weapons fire fell upon the ship, Lillee holding on grimly to the nacelle of a type-9 shuttle atop an elevator throughout it all.

They had no way of knowing what was happening outside. Were they winning? Were they losing? Were they even still fighting Klingons? It was a familiar feeling for lower decks personnel but not for Lillee, who profoundly missed the sophisticated sensors in the Valkyries, or even the more primitive sensors in the shuttles. Sure, it was far more dangerous out there, but at least she would know what was going on!

Amidst the groaning of the ship's spaceframe and the dull noise of impacts on the shields reverberated through the hull, Lillee almost didn't hear the faint whistling behind her. Almost. She spun to see a giant Klingon warrior materialising out of red sparks behind her, and reacting instinctively, Lillee's hand dived for her phaser, only just snapping it up in time to fire before the Klingon could level his own disruptor. The Klingon's last expression was one of surprise before he fell to the deck, eyes wide, a great hole burned into his torso by the phaser's deadly energy.

More weapons fire filled the shuttlebay, and Lillee looked around to see a half dozen Klingons scattered around the large room, disruptors and phasers firing madly, bodies dropping to the deck in the opening exchange. With that, the lower shuttlebay erupted into chaos, full of shouts of alarm and screams of pain amidst the ear-splitting screeches of phaser and disruptor fire. Her heart hammering in terror, Lillee crouched behind the shuttle nacelle and fired as fast as she could, the red phaser fire killing two Klingons, forcing yet more into cover, giving the other shuttlebay personnel time to find cover too. Still shooting, Lillee smacked her combadge.

"Intruders in the lower shuttlebay, we need security in the lower shuttlebay immediately," Lillee said as calmly as she could, breathless as she fired again and again, hitting nothing but forcing the remaining Klingon boarders to hunker down. They weren't idle, though. Two of them returned fire at Lillee, their emerald fire peppering the shuttle hull. Lillee held on for dear life as the ship shuddered again, this time more violently than ever, and after it passed, she peeked over the nacelle to see the two Klingons rushing headlong at her, still firing their weapons at the shuttle, smoke rising from the impacts.

Before Lillee could fire back, she felt the elevator that the shuttle was parked on suddenly start lowering itself. Too occupied to wonder why, Lillee aimed her phaser squarely at one of the onrushing Klingons, vaporising the woman's head in dramatic fashion. The other Klingon got around the nacelle to aim his disruptor squarely at Lillee and she reacted instinctively, batting the weapon away. At the same moment they each grabbed for each other's weapons, wrestling for control, trying to bring their own weapon to bear and struggling to keep the other's away, the elevator descending with the shuttle all the while.

Lillee grimaced, the Klingon roaring with effort and spattering her with spittle as they wrestled, matched in strength, each unable to gain an advantage. Finally, desperate, Lillee dropped down to a crouch, let go of the Klingon's gun hand and slammed her fist hard into the man's crotch. Her hand ached at the impact on his codpiece but armoured or not, the hit hurt, and the Klingon groaned at the discomfort. Taking advantage, Lillee slammed punches into the Klingon's face, her fist rearing back and slamming into him again and again, the Klingon's nose breaking dramatically, red blood spurting out of his nostrils, but he kept his iron grip on her phaser.

He screamed in fury, trying to aim his bulky disruptor down at the infuriating Romulan, but with her free hand Lillee finally got an opening, gripping his hand and twisting violently against the joint, forcing the disruptor out of his hands as the Klingon fell to his knees.

He wasn't out of it, though. Abandoning Lillee's phaser, the Klingon wrapped his arms around Lillee's slender body, got to his feet, lifted her up high and slammed her down hard on the deck, stunning her, the phaser rolling out of her numb hand. Diving atop her, the Klingon pulled out a knife with a rapid movement and stabbed the knife down, Lillee only slapping her hands around the Klingon's thick armoured wrist, the blade mere millimetres from her heart. They struggled again, Lillee groaning as she tried to keep the blade from plunging into her chest, the Klingon crying out in exertion, her scabbard digging painfully into her back where she lay upon it.

"You fight well, Romulan," the Klingon got out through gritted teeth, his eyes wide, "but today is a good day to die!"

Lillee winced, tears streaming down her cheeks as the knife cut into her uniform, slicing in jagged movements through the fabric as they wrestled and even penetrating to leave shallow cuts in her skin, yet Lillee just about kept the blade in check. "Not...to you!" Lillee cried out, and with the last of her strength, she forced the weapon upward, the metal scraping on the deck beside her head. Crying out with wild fury, Lillee grasped either side of the Klingon's head and slammed her forehead into his nose, drawing a pained groan, red blood splattering her. Taking advantage as he reeled, Lillee grabbed madly for the Klingon's belt, found something small and circular, then slipped out frantically from under him, rushing to her feet. She looked at what she had found: a grenade, small but still surely  lethal.

Lillee, panting, her uniform shredded, watched the Klingon grab his disruptor off the deck. Without pause, Lillee turned and sprinted for the door, feeling searing disruptor fire around her missing her by seeming centimeters, and she dived through the large double doors out into the corridor. Scrambling to the side of the door, Lillee looked back into the bay, but the Klingon was running right at her, running more slowly and cautiously. Desperate and terrified beyond measure, Lillee twisted the arming circle of the grenade, ripped off the button cover, slapped the trigger button and set it down on the deck, running frantically down the corridor.

She had only just made it round the bend when the deck shook, a powerful roar and a wave of heat slamming into Lillee's back. She fell but immediately scrambled to her feet, looking back. Curiosity defied common sense and she edged around the corner to see what she had left behind.

The Klingon was dead. Very, very dead. His head was distinguishable near the corridor bend, separated from the rest of his body, which was scattered gruesomely around the blast area. The shuttlebay door was mangled, a fire burning, although the Theurgy's automated systems immediately got to work containing it. Nevertheless, it  was clear that for the time being, nobody would be accessing the lower shuttlebay from that door.

Hyperventilating, Lillee bent over and put her hands on her knees, her face flushed green and sweaty, her long blonde hair a mess. She could scarcely believe what had just happened, couldn't even begin to process it. Her uniform had shredded by the Klingon's blade, and with a grimace, Lillee took the combadge off before simply tossing the jacket and undershirt aside, reduced to a grey tank top. Even that was damaged, a large rip visible at her stomach, green blood dripping from it. Lillee assessed her situatiion, focusing on her pilot training, allowing her mind to calm, her heartbeat to slow, repeating the same old mantras under her breath.

The cut in her belly was shallow, miraculously so, although it was long. It could keep for now. Lillee tore off the dangling ripped fabric of her tank top, exposing her stomach and the jagged cut in it, then took a deep breath. She had to get back to the shuttlebay, either to rejoin the fight or be ready to fly a shuttle if the call was given, but that meant going up a deck, the door she'd just used now a fiery wreck. She needed to get to a turbolift.

The honour-blade was Lillee's only weapon now. She drew the sword, holding it in one hand as she cautiously made her way through the corridor towards the nearest turbolift.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on April 01, 2021, 02:12:04 AM
[ Drauc T'Laus (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Drauc_T%27Laus) | Corridors | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Griff 
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After dealing with the Klingons in the Arboretum, Drauc T'Laus had been tracking the progress of General Chu'vok and the child in his protection - M'Ven. He'd yet to catch up to them, however, being waylaid by other boarders getting in his way, and he'd eventually lost track of them, but he suspected they couldn't have gone far. Eventually, he'd asked Thea, whom got him back on track once more.

He first followed them two decks up, and then learned that, apparently, they had headed down to Deck 21 again, so Drauc had followed the same path. The sliding doors of the turbolift parted before his eyes, and when seeing the glinting steel of a bared blade, he raised the Klingon disruptor he'd claimed for himself in the Arboretum - eyes along the sights of it and glaring through the tresses of his burgundy hair. The one carrying the blade was no Klingon however. Far from it...

"t'Jellaieu," he rasped, and his threadbare robe swayed around his legs as he stepped out to her - his limp more pronounced due to the fighting. He spoke in Rihannsu, disruptor pointing towards the deckhead since she was no threat to him - scarred hands aching around the handle. "<Are you hurt?>"

He remembered then, the day the Savi and the Asurians boarded the Theurgy in the Azure Nebula, and how they had fought alongside each other then in the Spearhead Lounge - or what had been left of it at the time given that it had been breached by that saucer. That time, it had been him who'd ended up hurt and needing medical care, but judging from the keenness of t'Jellaieu's mind, it certainly seemed like she was far from helpless.

As she spoke in answer, Drauc's eyes wandered down to her exposed abdomen, and while he couldn't exactly feel anything himself at the sight, the adrenaline in his veins and the predominant aggression of the Klingon minds had saturated his own. Base and primal instincts permeated and tainted his halcyon disposition, yet he quelled the urges rising in answer, the situation hardly one in which lust had any relevance or application.

"<Have you seen General Chu'vok? He is protecting a Klingon child who's lost his mother. I do not know her fate, yet rumours have it the child is important.>"

Unless t'Jellaieu had more pressing duties, he'd suggest they worked together to ensure the survival of the child and the General both.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Griff on April 01, 2021, 05:37:52 PM
[PO3 Lillee t’Jellaieu (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Lillee_t%27Jellaieu) | Corridors | Deck 21 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

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Lillee had been nearly at the turbolift, the shallow yet long cut to her stomach burning uncomfortably, when she had heard the doors open. She had brought her blade up to guard, swearing under her breath and hoping fervently that the person to come out of the turbolift would be wearing a Starfleet uniform.

He wasn't, and Lillee tensed as she saw the disruptor snap up to aim at her, but she relaxed as she saw who it was. Drauc. Surely one of the most mysterious and enigmatic men she had ever met, one of the most intriguing, and as Lillee remembered well, one of the most lethal. He was also an ally, if not quite a friend, and she lowered her honour-blade as he lowered his disruptor.

"I have not seen Chu'vok," Lillee answered, saying the name with habitual distaste, then sighed. "M'Ven. After everything I went through to save that boy's life, he is danger now? Again?" She glanced behind her, thinking. The ship shuddered around them, and Lillee grimaced, remembering that sensation well: the Theurgy had separated into three parts, the beginning of Multi-Vector Assault Mode. The situation would have to be grim if Commander Stark was using such a tactic. It multiplied the Theurgy's already enormous firepower, but it also left each individual vector more vulnerable than the combined whole.

"There is fighting in the shuttlebay, but this is more important," Lillee said reluctantly to Drauc. "I have only my blade, so you should take the lead. We must find the child." With that, she followed Drauc. "Chu'vok and the boy know me, so let me lead if we meet them. In battle, they may see a strange rihannsu and shoot before thinking. They are Klingons, after all."



rihannsu: male Romulan
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on April 07, 2021, 02:37:05 PM
Drauc T'Laus (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Drauc_T%27Laus) | Corridors | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Griff 
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With t'Jellaieu agreeing to try and protect the child, whom she seemed more than familiar with, Drauc inclined his head in accord and set the pace down the corridor - his disruptor lowered in his scarred two-hand grip.

"Thea, where is General Chu'vok and M'Ven now?" he rasped, now having a name for the young Klingon.

[General Chu'vok and M'Ven, son of Drex, is approaching Level 1 of my Middle Cargo Bay.] Thea's voice over the intercom was distorted from damages, a hit likely to have come close to a critical component of the internal communication systems. At least she could be heard on their current Vector. Drauc checked each intersection they passed, eyes along the sights of the disruptor, and it didn't take long before a Klingon appeared in one of them. Frowning, Drauc's eyes fell on the emblem on his armour, and he raised his weapon to the deckhead - seeing how he was one of Martok's two hundred companions. If Drauc had acquired a phaser instead, he'd be able to just stun the warrior and move on, but now, he had to rely on his evident company with t'Jellaieu deterring the Klingon's blood-lust. He had no desire to disintegrate an ally.

"Who goes there?" roared the Klingon, and only then did Drauc realise that t'Jellaieu's commissioning wouldn't be so evident given her relative state of undress.

"We belong to this ship," he rasped in hope it would be enough, moving on down the corridor but raising his voice for the Klingon to still hear him, "General Chu'Vok is protecting a child, and we seek to aid him. Will you fight at our side?"

The Klingon emerged from the intersection after Drauc and Lillee had moved past it, and Drauc did not have to glance over his shoulder to see if the Klingon would follow or attack them. He could feel the warrior's mind as it weighed the options, and thankfully enough, his blunt thoughts led him to believe them, so he followed in their wake with his bat'leth bared. "Lead the way."

Soon enough, they reached the cargo bay, but with no one in the corridor, Drauc led the way inside. As the sliding doors parted, they walked right into a battlefield, in which General Chu'vok and M'Ven were entrenched behind some crates, and four Klingons were slowly disintegrating their cover from afar - one of the enemy Klingons being armed with a disruptor.

Drauc didn't even hesitate, firing against that Klingon's head, and then charging right at them - meaning to throw them into disarray and weakening their position. He had little doubt either or both of his companions would join him.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Griff on April 11, 2021, 04:04:13 AM
[PO3 Lillee t’Jellaieu (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Lillee_t%27Jellaieu) | Corridors | Deck 21 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

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Lillee was tense, following Drauc silently and trusting the dangerous man's lead. They had fought together once before, although the encounter had been brief and intense, and so Lillee knew just how lethal he could be. Blade or not, Lillee suspected that Drauc could kill her with his bare hands in seconds if he so chose, and such a skill was both reassuring and frightening at the same time. Thus she followed close, not saying a word to the Klingon straggler and pointedly staying behind him, at the rear of the trio. She had no intention of turning her back to a unknown Klingon during a battle.

They reached the cargo bay, and Lillee had only a moment to take it in: the four Klingons, only one armed with a disruptor but all still carrying their bat'leths and d'k'tahgs, clearly only seconds away from killing Chu'vok and the boy, M'Ven. Chancellor Martok's grandson. Drauc charged madly, followed immediately by their own Klingon, and with no choice, Lillee ran full tilt at the enemy, honour-blade held down and low, screaming a mad battlecry. She was half expecting to get shot on the way and was surprised to find herself arrive in one piece, immediately slashing her honour-blade down on one foe with exceptional speed. The burly Klingon dodged, the blade scraping harmlessly off his armour, and before Lillee could attack again, he drew his bat'leth with lightning reflexes.

Lillee stepped back with her blade at guard, eyeing the Klingon warily, judging how he held his bat'leth. The man was no fool, but a serious adept at the blade, eyeing her cautiously just as she watched him, assessing the other. Lillee saw Drauc engaged in combat with two Klingons at once, having somehow disarmed the one with the disruptor, while two more Klingons, Martok's companion and one of the boarders, were locked in a brutal and bloody brawl. Still Lillee and her opponent remained unengaged, wary of their foe, blades at the ready even amidst the fighting elsewhere.

Lillee spotted Chu'vok standing up and she barked "Hold, General! Protect the boy!" Her Klingon foe took advantage of her distraction to launch a rapid series of attacks, the bat'leth moving smoothly and powerfully, forcing Lillee back. The blades sang against each other, the honour-blade deflecting the bat'leth again and again, Lillee steadily giving ground, completely focused on her own sword. Elements curse him, the Klingon was good, too good, fast and strong, his bladework so smooth that Lillee had no time to breathe under his continuous assault. Her injured stomach burned as she twisted, ducked and braced, but still Lillee held on, her own blocks and deflections becoming increasingly desperate as she edged closer and closer to a line of crates.

She was getting pinned but was helpless to react, grimacing as the Klingon managed to lock their blades and nimbly kick Lillee in the stomach, then slammed an armoured fist into her jaw. Lillee was sent reeling back, and by sheer blind instinct, managed to catch the Klingon's follow-on killing stroke to her neck. Fighting too fast to think, spurred on in furious terror at how close she was to death, Lillee shoulder-barged the Klingon hard, pushing him back, and then she launched her own series of assaults, the honour-blade raining down blows on the bat'leth. She penetrated the Klingon's defence with a slash to his hip, a stab to the shoulder, a mighty slam to his jaw with the flat side of her blade, only just unable to turn the edge in time. This time it was only the Klingon's own formidable skill that was keeping him in the fight.

Lillee felt the second Klingon more than she heard him, even as focused as she was. Without conscious thought she spun around, the honour-blade slashing high and neatly decapitating her would-be killer who had charged her from behind, his blood splattering over Lillee's face and body. It was utterly disgusting and vile, but the primal thrill was enough for Lillee to resume her merciless assault on the other Klingon, driven on by an orgy of rage and desperation. Finally she managed to catch her opponent's hand, slicing off several fingers that were holding the bat'leth, drawing a pained cry from the Klingon. Not hesitating for a moment, Lillee took advantage of his distraction to stab him directly in the heart, then for good measure, decapitated him too with a powerful sweep of the honour-blade, the head sent flying.

Her work done, Lillee stood there panting, her eyes crazed, her sword dripping crimson, both green and red blood on her body. Lillee only then took in the silence around her, stunned in the aftermath of what had just happened. The cut on her stomach had widened and was bleeding more and more while a nasty bruise was developing on her jaw, but she was certainly better off than her enemies.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BipSpoon on April 13, 2021, 11:56:08 PM
[ Lieutenant Valyn Amarik | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan @Lathaniel @Nolan
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Once Valyn had finished off the handler entirely, she shifted her attention to Kino again, watching as she fell right into the procedure for moving out. “Good.” She picked up her weapons, making sure they were all secured, then checked the rifle one more time. “Good.” She slapped the side of the weapon and it let out a low hiss. Valyn cleared the issue and started moving into the corridor. She was close behind Kino, using her rifle to clear and survey each sector that the other office wasn’t already keeping a close watch on.

“Dammit.” Valyn sighed as she looked at the man, who was very likely dead, given all the blood. Valyn moved forward to inspect him closer. She didn’t know anything about the man. To her, it was just another loss they’d have to endure. It was horrible, but a horrible truth was still a truth. Seeing one’s own kind dead was never easy. She didn’t understand the full truth of it until she spoke into the comm.

A Symbiote.

She understood, then. All that history, all the knowledge, and besides that, a life that could be saved, even if it was a slug in a belly. It was still a sentient life. Something she’d come to value far more than she’d used to. Valyn caught the look and just gave her a nod, “S’allright.” She crouched down to check for a pulse, but felt nothing. “I’d have ordered the same thing, if I knew that he was joined.” Now she did though. “Let’s move. Sickbay is going to be a clusterfuck, no doubt.” She readied her rifle and tossed her head to the side, displacing a few strands of hair in the process but she didn’t bother fixing them. She was a mess as it was, her hair didn’t matter.

“Energize.” She ordered. There wasn’t hesitation in her voice, but there was something else. There was just a hint of apprehension. She wasn’t sure what awaited them at Sickbay, but it can’t have been good.

At once she felt the familiar feeling of the transporter take hold of her, a familiar rush of cold going down her spine before she opened her eyes again, and reappeared in what was evidently the jaws of hell. “Down!” She shouted at Kino as she materialized. At once she sought out cover and fired a volley of six bolts into a doorway. She hadn’t aimed at anyone in particular but she was trying to get herself some cover. Disruptor bolts rang over her head as she moved and one exploded against a bulkhead next to her, sending sparks flying. She felt the small markings of heat against her cheek but kept moving.

As she fired, she charged forward and shoulder checked a heavy instrument tray, ducking down behind it before sending one well placed shot into the chest of a Klingon. It seared a smoking hole straight through his breastplate and he fell, limp. With their arrival, several of the Klingons began to back up.

“We need a Doc!” She shouted through continuous fire. She sure as hell couldn’t help with a Symbiote transfer but she could shoot and provide some security. A disruptor bolt flew straight past her head and she collapsed to the ground, breath ragged as she processed the near miss. It had come within an inch of ending her. It wasn’t the first time, but that didn’t matter. “Son of a-“  she took a deep breath and reached for the Klingon disruptor or that she’d looted. “Clear!” She shouted, peeking one eyeball out as she looked towards a grouping of bunched up Klingons in a doorway. In the doorway that led into the corridor, specifically. She tapped a button on the disruptor and immediately felt it getting hotter and hotter. She lobbed it over the instrument tray and heard it clatter against the hard, metal ground. She heard the Klingons shouting. They weren’t stupid, they knew exactly what she had done. She wasn’t throwing them a perfectly good weapon to be a good sport, and it wasn’t glowing red hot by the time it hit the ground as a sign from Kahless. Within seconds, the metal began to expand, until…

BANG.

The sound of the overloaded weapon tearing through metal and circuitry ripped through the sickbay as Valyn popped up and again opened fire on the small grouping. Most of them had been downed already. She didn’t check if they were dead or not, but she saw enough blood and smelled enough burning flesh that she knew that they’d be down long enough for it to not matter. She stood and when she finally got a clear look, she saw Amanda, and another officer, dead. Dead, and draped in her own uniform. “Dammit.” The explosion hadn’t been large enough to cause a hull breach, not even close. Still though, it was etched into her bones that explosions and Starships didn’t mix. She ran forward, seizing the opportunity to seal the door. The door was stuck open so she pulled open a control panel and began to manually pump the mechanism to shut it, assuming that someone, anyone would cover her should she require it.

There was so much death.

Valyn knew the look. The look and the body language that Amanda had plastered over her. She’d seen it countless times before. “Lieutenant Ashby, we need you!” She looked over her shoulder towards where she assumed Kino was, giving a quick look around for any further assailants. She didn’t know if there was anyone around qualified to help, or if they’d have to use the EMH. Or, if an EMH was still functioning. She rose to her feet, stepping away from the door, and kept her rifle at the ready.

She pointed at the door. "Cover that. Anyone not friendly tries to come in. Shoot them." She grabbed an officer by the shoulder and placed him in a position to cover. "You got me?" She rose a brow and gave him a nod.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on April 19, 2021, 07:22:41 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

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Kino clung to the fallen crewmate with both arms. The smell of blood and smoke filled her nostrils as she was getting ready to act quickly upon arrival in sickbay. She was relieved about Valyn’s approval of her emergency transport request and agreed with the hardened fighter that sickbay was not going to be some sort of utopian rainbow land. It was all too obvious that this invasion must have spread throughout various parts of the ship, confirmed by numerous reports that have reached the back of her mind via comm over the past minutes. Once the transport was done, she would have to assess the situation and get this Symbiote to safety.

She tensed as she felt the tingling sensation in her stomach, which always befell her when she was torn apart and memorized in the computer banks only to be puzzled together on the point of arrival. She never really liked this mode of transport as it was, but not knowing what was going on at the other end? That was a special variant of discomfort. With her precious cargo and limited time, she prepared for the worst.

“Down!” She heard Valyn shout once the mist before their sight cleared and the rough, distorted image of a sickbay in disarray was starting to form. She immediately let herself fall onto Jeen’s body, covering his torso with hers while simultaneously driving her forearms under his shoulders, linking them with his armpits. When Valyn took her first shots from her hastily sought cover, Kino was already dragging the dead Trill behind a biobed. On all fours, her rifle on her back and the man under her, she was straining hard to get him somewhere save. Once he was secure, she would join the Lieutenant at once.

Sparks rained down on her, searing her neck as she made it to relative safety. In the chaos surrounding her, she had no chance but to focus on one issue at a time. Now that the Symbiote was in the right place, this place had to be secured. Huffing wildly, she let go of her fellow Trill, slung her rifle off her back and into her hands while slowly poking her head around the bed. The situation was dire indeed, but Valyn – who Kino was starting to admire – was handling the Klingons quite well. She had just taken down another one of those traitors and then thrown a disruptor… ”Fuck…” Kino muttered and ducked back down behind the bed just before the explosion rocked the room and sent shrapnel flying into all directions.

Something clicked in Kino’s head. She did not notice it right away. Not before getting back up, posing the front end of the rifle on the bed for steady aim and looking down the sights. But then she realized it. Her hand was shaking, so much that aiming was more than simply a bit harder. It was almost impossible to see clearly through the constantly moving ocular. Oh come on, not now! She scolded herself, but to no avail. She kept her rifle up, directed towards the doorway Valyn was closing manually, but she was lucky that there were no more Klingons attempting to enter. Flashes of other explosions started to work their way into the conscious parts of her brain. One that killed her former instructor during a defensive skirmish in the Dominion War, another one which happened on the same planet but a year later, taking yet another life of a friend. And the once just above Fighter Assault Bay, which tore her leg of, fried her pubic mound along with her ovaries and left her a mental mess.

Kino snapped out of it, forcing the images of long-gone events out of her mind by biting on her lip and thereby casting herself back into the here and now. Tasting blood in her mouth she realized that her hand was less shaky, and she finally started to look around, seeing that the door was almost completely shut by now.

”Anyone here who knows how to save a Symbiote? Please, we’re running out of time!” She shouted through the room with determination and volume. They had not made it this far only to waste too much time and yet another valuable life in this goddamn war!
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nolan on April 21, 2021, 11:12:09 AM
[ Lieutenant Amelya Rez | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan  @Lathaniel @BipSpoon


Swamped would be considered an understatement of how overflowing the patient count was in the battle sickbay. There were critically injured everywhere and the less critical patients had been moved out of the way to ensure those that needed the urgent care could receive it. Those who were too far gone however awaited a faith of maximum painkillers to soothe their suffering and lighten the path to the afterlife. If there was any afterlife for that matter.

With the red alert lights still flashing, Amelya tried to keep her head in the game as she was called over by more than one nurse at the same time. A clone would've been handy at this point, she thought to herself. She moved over to a Andorrian officer that had a severed limb, stabilizing the bleeding and checking for any further injuries, she administered him some painkillers before the arrival of more injured crewmembers drew her attention.

It wasn't only the fact that they brought in more injured, more over, it was the presence of loud, shooting, murderous Klingons that made the doctor freeze in her wake. As by a miracle though, security officers arrived on scene, who knows where they came from or how they knew to converge on this very place in this very moment. Regardless, it wasn't the kind of rescue or salvation that Rez had hoped for. All she could do was watch how a new firefight began in the place that was deemed to be a safe harbor for injured. She could only witness how one of the weapons overloaded and send a minor shockwave through the sickbay. The smell of burnt flesh and a flurry of new sprays of blood coated the walls.

The air was knocked out of her lungs for a moment, yet Rez quickly got back on her feet while witnessing the onslaught. Crew members she had treated and stabilized were now laying dead, fresh marks on their bodies from the back and forth shooting, the dimlit, lifeless eyes just staring up at the ceiling or looking right at her. It boiled anger and frustration inside the doctor and she had to regulate her breathing while her knuckled turned white against her tricorder. Her white coat smeared in various fluids, non of which were here, hopefully.

Before Amelya could raise her voice to scold at the present security officers, her attention got called over once again by a new face. An urgent cry that seeped into the very bones of her body.

"Anyone here who knows how to save a Symbiote? Please, we're running out of time!"

The eyes of the Trill doctor shifted to where the sound emanated from and when she saw the lifeless body of the fellow Trill, she sighed and rushed over to the crewman that was Taer "Fill me in on the details. Where, when and how did this Trill come to an end?" her eyes moving up to Kino to look into her eyes "In order to save the symbiote, I will need a host. Are you joined crewman?"
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on April 22, 2021, 12:21:52 PM
Drauc T'Laus (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Drauc_T%27Laus) | Corridors | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Griff 
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Neither Lillee nor Drauc gave the Mo'Kai Klingons any time before they closed the distance and attacked. Drauc had - mid-sprint - already raised his own disruptor and targeted the head of the Klingon that were firing against Chu'vok and M'Ven, managing to sear off a handful of  thick hair and scorching the cranial ridges of the shooter. If the Klingon hadn't been moving in reaction to their arrival, Drauc would have killed him with that a single shot. As it were, the Klingon screamed in pain, before Drauc was right upon him - reaching the group of Klingons alongside Lillee and their Klingon companion.

Drauc's threadbare robe whirled as he kicked the Klingon's disruptor wide to the side, anticipating the attempt to fire back from close range. The Klingon thus unbalanced, Drauc used the opening to deal an overhand strike with the handle of his disruptor against that smouldering head of hair - driving the warrior to his knees. He would have finished the Klingon off with a shot to the neck, but a second Klingon intervened - the slice of his bat'leth coming in from behind.

Squaring his shoulders with his turn, he grabbed the muzzle of his disruptor, and with the weapon making a metal curve in his scarred hands, he caught the Klingon's attack with it. The disruptor frizzled and bent from the impact, and Drauc's boots slid back an inch across the deck plates, but the attack was stalled, and he could reclaim the initiative. He did so by driving his elbow across the Klingon's face, followed with a straight kick into his midriff - driving the air out of his three lungs. With the Klingon stumbling backwards from the force, Drauc returned his attention to the first Klingon, who was struggling to regain his footing - disruptor still in hand and the muzzle rising. Drauc threw his broken weapon straight into the Klingon's face - making the seared head whip back from the impact.

Meanwhile, Lillee's and Drauc's Klingon companion did not fare too well, dying at the hands of the fourth Mo'Kai warrior, yet the triumph was short-lasted, since as soon as he tried to attack Lillee, she decapitated him with her honour blade. In the battlefield, there was no time for thought or consideration - instincts alone having Drauc move to kill the remaining Klingons. Afterwards, he might comment on her skills, but there were still enemies to slay.

Remembering sickbay from the day before, with the image of Jovela's face in the Morgue, it momentarily had Drauc forget himself in the fight. Both the Klingons he fought were about to attack him again, and yet he remained where he stood, with his eyes lowered. Jovela had died in the Spearhead Lounge, at the hands of a coward. An infiltrator aligned with House Mo'Kai, and with her bloodied and twisted face in mind, Drauc bared his teeth. While he had difficulty forming emotions of his own, there was plenty of rage around him to fill that damaged void. He raised his gaze, and his glare pierced the tresses before his eyes.

Flames had begun to dance in the injured Klingon's hair, but they were snuffed out by the strike Drauc dealt to his head - scarred knuckles cracking the cheekbone. A sound hit Drauc's ears, and as he curled his fingers around the scorched scalp of his foe, and twisted the head, he realised it was his own howl of hatred and loss.

The second Klingon was coming for him again, but Drauc picked up the dead one's disruptor - yanking it from lifeless fingers. Before the swing of the bat'leth reached him, he had his aim set, tears in his eyes, and the bolt he fired removed the Klingon's shoulder - making the weapon flail without force behind it. The second discharge removed a thigh, making the Klingon writhe in pain on the deck, and as if picking the limbs of an insect, Drauc's fifth shot eventually removed the head.

He shared the silence of the aftermath with Lillee, who also stood victorious - bleeding but still alive. His own knuckles bled as well, the inside of his hands aching from the disruptor that had been damaged in his grip. The pain was nothing, however, compared to the rage he'd mirrored from those around him to help him feel his own. He was still bereft of grief, however - unable to even begin mourning her.

That was when the intercom in the cargo bay chirped.

[Bridge to General Chu'vok, this is Lieutenant Commander Cross. Commander Stark is presently in talks with Houses S'Kopa, Tovoj and Woldan in the hopes of bringing them to Martok's side, but the Houses are not convinced of the authenticity of our report that Drex sired a child with Jo'reh of House Torg before his death. Perhaps hearing confirmation from you would be enough to convince them.]

General Chu'vok had been looking and Lillee and Drauc, but gave his answer. He stepped towards the control panel upon which Cross' face appeared. "This is Chu'vok, I'll speak with them."

[Go ahead, General, you're patched through.]

"Open your eyes, Klingons!" he bellowed to the screen, and stepped aside so that he might point at the child behind him. "What do you see? There stands the future, the heir of House Martok, M'Ven, son of Drex! You need no bio readings to see his grandfather in his face. His strength in his stare! I ask, what more do you need, warriors of the Empire? Unite, against the usurper that threaten the cohesion of our defences, all in deluded belief that the Chancellor would betray you."

Meanwhile, Drauc sensed rather than saw Lillee, and turned his head in her direction. "How fare you?" he rasped, the ire abating. "The sickbay of this Vector isn't far."
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Juzzie on April 24, 2021, 03:45:44 PM
[Lt. Rhys Williams| Junior officer's quarters | Deck 13/Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] attn: Anyone who wants to interact with him.

Rhys had already been tense and highly strung, and now that the call for battle stations had come he was practically vibrating with nervous energy. He had been relieved of duty, which had already created a tension in him that was threatening to boil over. He had spent days and days trapped with nothing to do but stomach-churning relaxation. He had reorganised his quarters obsessively and cleaned things till surfaces were almost paper thin. There was a limited amount a counsellor could do under these circumstances. In previous situations he had made his way to the medical bay to provide any assistance. Even just carrying stuff.

Fighting was never his strong suit, though he wasn’t a horrible shot with a phaser, trying to get one at this point would be difficult. Rhys prevaricated for a few minutes stomping up and down the main room of his quarters. The ship shook as it was clearly hit and hit hard. Rhys almost lost his footing catching himself on a table. There was no way he could just stay here and do nothing.

Not dressed in his uniform but a loose t-shirt and some tight trousers. He let out a groan of frustration and affixed his combadge to the front of his shirt. Stepping out in the corridor he made his way to the nearest turbolift. As he neared it a site of carnage was revealed in front of his eyes. Some poor technicians had clearly been killed by an exploding conduit. There wasn’t much of the poor man’s pink skin left, most had been horrifically burned off. Rhys crouched by his side and pressed his fingers to the man’s neck. There was nothing. Rhys pulled his hand away sharply feeling a little squeamish now he knew he was touching a dead body. Then he saw it, under some of the wreckage was the handle of a phaser.

At this point Rhys didn’t care if he was meant to have on or not. If they were fighting Klingons, he would probably need it. Rhys retrieved it, amazingly it still seemed to be functioning, and with that he stepped into the turbolift and headed to deck 6.

[Lt. Rhys Williams| Deck 06 |Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

He emerged a short while later, ahead of him he saw moving ahead into the sickbay in two gold suited members of the crew holding someone injured and heading into sickbay.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Griff on April 24, 2021, 06:57:38 PM
[PO3 Lillee t’Jellaieu (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Lillee_t%27Jellaieu) | Corridors | Deck 21 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

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Lillee ignored Drauc at first, his words taking a few moments to penetrate her addled brain, and she glanced at him, eyes wide. Lillee took a deep breath, trying to slow her racing heart. She was used to flying in a cockpit or at the helm, not in person with her sword, where the impacts were visceral, the aches in her body were urgent, the copper taste of blood was undeniable. Lillee shuddered as she tried to reclaim her pilot's equilibrium.

"I am functional," she said, then winced as the act of speaking caused her jaw to explode in agony. Klingons hit hard. "I...ow...I will stay until a security team comes to protect the boy." As Chu'vok did his thing, she looked over herself, marveling at how she hadn't been more seriously hurt. She gingerly touched the cut in her stomach, inhaling sharply as it burned, green blond still trailing down her stomach. Lillee tried not to look at the bodies. It wasn't the first time her blade had tasted Klingon blood, but she hadn't much enjoyed it the first time, either.

She looked at Drauc more closely, seeing how he too struggled in the aftermath of what had happened amidst the grisly scene around them. Three bodies missing heads, blood all over the deck, pooling. It was a horrible sight, and Lillee's stomach threatened to rebel. She was only saved when a four-person security team rushed into the cargo bay, rifles at the ready, all looking rather ragged themselves after some hard fighting against the boarders.

"We are secure," Lillee told them succinctly to minimise the pain from her jaw, waving vaguely at Chu'vok and the boy. One of the security officers seemed just as nauseous as she was, but also just as determined to retain his dignity as he and another officer went to Chu'vok, the other two keeping watch in the hallway.

"All the boarding parties are beaming back, it looks like the fighting is done," the officer (who was holding his stomach contents inside quite well) said to everyone. "General, we're here to escort you both to a safe location. Please come with us, sir."

"Good," Lillee said, taking a breath. She glanced back at Chu'vok, realising that his communication was likely a contributing factor, and raised her blade in a grateful salute, bowing her head briefly. She was too tired to care that she was saluting a Klingon, and really, Lillee's old hatreds and prejudices were fading. Only two weeks past, after all, she had explored passion with a Klingon in a thoroughly memorable encounter, a sure sign that she had changed from her days in the Empire, and indeed her days before the Theurgy.

Lillee took a step towards the cargo bay door, then paused, glancing at Drauc. He appeared uninjured, at least seriously so, but she could see the strain in how he held himself. She extended her hand towards him, her eyes warm. "Come with me."
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nesota Kynnovan on May 02, 2021, 07:04:33 PM
[Lt. JG Amanda Ashby (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Ashby) | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nolan @Lathaniel

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The sound of a loud bang abruptly ended Amanda’s state of melancholy and threw her back into the chaotic reality of the moment. Or rather, it was the force of the explosion which did that as it shattered the window of the Medical Officer Duty Station and showered both herself and the lifeless body of Ensign Marija Ferik with broken safety glass. In a reflex, which wasn’t all that hard since she was already sitting on the deck with her head rested against her knees, Amanda dropped onto her left side and wrapped her arms around her head to protect it.

That was when she heard someone shouting her name over the ringing sound in her ears. Still reeling from the mental shock of everything combined, Amanda looked up in the direction of the voice. It took her a moment to fully realize that it was Lieutenant Valyn Amarik who was calling her name but, before she could even find the energy to get back up to her feet, the blonde-haired Counselor could hear a much more desperate voice shouting over the chaos in the Battle Sickbay; something about saving a symbiont. At that point, without Amanda even consciously realizing it, years of training and medical experience took over and almost instantly prioritized that call. As she turned her head to look in the direction of that voice however, the Martian noticed that she wasn’t the only one who had done so as Doctor Amelya Rez was already rushing over to assist as well.

It took Amanda a couple of seconds to fully comprehend what was happening. There were so many things going on all at once that it was difficult for her reeling mind to properly process it but, when she turned her attention back to Lieutenant Amarik, Amanda allowed her brain to fill in the blanks of whatever she might have missed and grit her teeth as she quickly rose to her feet. By that time the Lieutenant had already grabbed a different officer by the shoulder and apparently put him into a position to assist but regardless, Amanda half-stumbled her way over towards Valyn and looked at her with blood-shot and undoubtedly wildly confused eyes. ”Yes... yes?”
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on May 03, 2021, 02:06:16 PM
[ Drauc T'Laus (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Drauc_T%27Laus) | Corridors | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Griff 
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In his present state, in the wake of the fighting, Drauc stood there in the aftermath of the battlefield feeling lost - bereft of meaning and mind devoid of passion. Having exerted himself emotionally, in thanks to present prevalent hate and anger amongst the combatants, he was left with just the memory of grief. Benumbed towards the loss of Jovela once more.

So when Lillee spoke to him, compelling his attention, he raised his dark eyes towards her, and saw the warmth she emanated towards him. It was the same kind of warmth he saw in her face that Jovela had held towards him, the Head Nurse remaining ever grateful for his involvement in her life. Her warmth and gratitude made him feel purpose beyond the battlefield. In fact, it made him fight on to begin with, because he had been shown what taking responsibility for others was a good thing, even at the cost of his own commission and standing in the world.

So, he set himself in motion, glancing towards the Security personnel - whom he'd once shared duties with in a previous life - and followed Lillee into the corridor. Since the fighting was over, he had simply dropped his disruptor on the torso of a Klingon, and he flexed his scarred hands while he walked next to her - the aches and pains of the brief battle keenly felt now that the adrenaline thinned in his veins. Lillee wanted his company, and he would not deprive her of it, even though he did not quite understand why she felt compelled to be with him.

"<You are deserving of your blade, t'Jellaieu,>" he rasped in Romulan, for he had noticed her proficiency with it. "<You are an impressive woman and warrior. I am grateful that you are no longer a part of the Star Navy, for then we might have found ourselves on opposite sides of the battlefield in the times to come.>"

He spoke, of course, of the Praetor declaring war on the Federation. It wasn't exactly that he considered himself part of the Federation either, but he had ended up on the ship that he believed would take him to the final battlefield, against that of the Infested. The representatives of the dark chaos he'd felt at Starbase 84.

"<Are we heading to this Vector's Battle Sickbay, or do you prefer to treat yourself with a dermal regenerator?>" he asked next, for in all likelihood, the auxiliary medbay would be overrun with other injured, and there were only so many biobeds available.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BipSpoon on May 12, 2021, 03:37:10 AM
[ Lieutenant Valyn Amarik | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan @Lathaniel
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Valyn had fallen right back into her training, as if she’d never fallen out of her old role as a soldier, or an agent. It was all so deeply etched into her mind that truly, it didn’t take much for her to fall back on it, it was instinctual. Despite her skill at taking down her enemy, that was no longer her sole purpose. Starfleet had shifted her perspective. The instant the door was sealed and covered with an officer, she turned her attention to the others in the room. She first fell to an officer who was on the ground, likely having taken cover from the blast or having been knocked over by it itself. She crouched down to check him over, but he was fine, and made sure to make it clear that he was, and instead just gripped her by the arm for a hand to his feet.

Hearing Kino however, her attention shifted and she let the medical staff get to work, staying out of their way. She kept on alert though, keeping a hand on her phaser pistol, and her focus intermittently moving from the Symbiote situation, to the status of the Sickbay as a whole.

Hazel hues found the familiar blonde lieutenant, stumbling towards her, and they narrowed, concern evident on her face. “Lieutenant, stand tall.” Valyn had seen it before. Not in those like her. She’d seen it in others though. Many others. “You ain’t no good if you can’t keep your head screwed on right. If you can’t keep your head on right you are gonna get yourself shot, one of your crewmates shot, or hurt one of your crewmates trying to provide medical care and you make a hell of a critical mistake. Stand tall. Remember your training. You don’t get to fall apart until afterwards, I’ll help you put yourself back together after if need be but you need to hold it together.” She reached forward to put a hand on her shoulder, “Come with me. Only if you can hold it together, otherwise, go sit down until they can check you out.” She was stern, but her voice wasn’t cruel. There was still a Symbiote that needed saving, that took urgency.

She looked to the dead Trill first, jaw tightening as she got a good look at him for the first time. That same rage that had been building all day, boiled just a little further and she turned away, looking over to Kino, trying to study her for a moment. She didn’t say anything, but she tried to gather what information she could from the woman's look. Urgency. Desperation, almost? Valyn pursed her lips and turned as another Trill joined them. It was another that she didn’t know, but this one didn’t wear the security uniform that her and Kino wore.

“Vector One Engineering.” That was really about all she knew. She looked at Kino, unsure if she had managed to gather much else but she said nothing else, herself. This was between the Trill, and she was here to help if need be and elsewise, make sure no more Klingons broke through the sealed doors. Valyn stepped away from the small gathering, giving the Trill and the medical officers room to work, she stayed close though. Then she heard a bang on the door. Without hesitation, she moved away from the others, and posted up next to the security officer, phaser aimed directly at the door.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on May 17, 2021, 05:18:50 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

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Kino was still in cover, her arms around the dead body of her fellow Trill, trying instinctively to protect the symbiote from any more danger. The voice of Dr. Rez answering her call for help served not only to bring back some hope into the darkness of her thoughts, but also sent shivers down her spine. Are you joined, crewman? Rez’ words echoed in her mind. Joined? I was never even considered to be a potential candidate!

She lifted her head, looking up at the elegant figure in front of her. Slowly, as if in trance, she began shaking her head. ”N…no… no Doctor, I’m not joined. I… She began explaining before interrupting herself as she realized that the rescue of this symbiote was possibly a matter of seconds. And even though she never thought much about the possibility of being a host, she knew that she was very likely the only person in the room who could serve as such.

She felt Valyn’s eyes on her and turned her head. The Security Officer had helped her and a lot of other crewmen by standing her ground. If there ever was an Officer Kino would grant the title of warrior, Valyn was the one. For the blink of an eye she looked down at the dead body below herself, than back up. She knew what she had to do.

With a painful groan she rose to her feet, trying hard to ignore the holes in her leg and the ringing in her ears. She straightened her back and nodded with determination in her dissimilar eyes. ”I’m not joined, Doc. If there is no better candidate in range, I volunteer!” And she meant it. Yes, it was a bold move. And yes, she had no time to think it through. But for once she had the chance to save a life instead of taking one. Kino was not going to let this symbiote die.

”What do I have to do?”
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Ellen Fitz on May 20, 2021, 04:49:35 PM
[ Lieutenant Enyd Madsen | Deck 10 | Observation Lounge | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]

It had been eight hours since she'd met with Rutherford, or very nearly so. Enyd stood alone in the observation lounge, arms crossed, a pensive frown creasing her brow. There was still so much to learn. So much to adjust to. But, just as she'd predicted to Captain Ives, there was no time for a smooth transition, no time for relaxation. She would have to roll like a duck in water and just keep swimming.

Enyd tightened her hands, making half-moons in her fisted palms. She stood still, expression loose as if in a trance. A half-drunk cup of tea sat cold on a nearby table, accompanied by an untouched piece of peach cobbler. Her eyes were not taking in the scene outside the viewing window but were instead reviewing reports in her mind, her ears full of pertinent conversations with members of the diplomatic corps. There could be nothing left to chance. Enyd felt as if the countdown clock had started long before she'd arrived and was only ticking faster the closer they got to Qo'nos. What would be different when all this was done? How were their actions going to affect the Klingon Empire, and with that, the Federation?

Recognizing that she'd reviewed the collected data in her head long enough, and now was the time to apply it, Enyd turned and picked up the remains of her tea time. It was a ritual she'd started again after news of her grandmother's passing reached her on Starbase 133. The woman had been an absolute fanatic about taking tea and a proper tea at that. Had she seen Enyd's attempt at tea time here, she would've flicked the tips of Enyd's ever-so-slightly pointed ears and clicked her tongue against her teeth just as she did whenever at her wits end with something Enyd had said or done. For her grandmother, tea was a meditative time for socialization, be it with oneself or others, and not something to be trifled with through limpid frivolity. Traveling so far from home, Enyd had felt the need to bring a piece of home back into her routine.

Her lips turned upward in a sardonic smile as she moved back to the replicator, and where she could dispatch the remains. Home. Just what was that anyway? For four years, she'd considered Cardassia Prime her home and had been ready to settle there permanently. Now, though there remained people there whom she'd once called friends and very nearly in-laws, Enyd had no intention of ever returning. If Starfleet requested she return, Enyd would politely decline. And decline again. And again. Until they either threw her in a brig, discharged her, or gave up. Vulcan had been her home for a total of four years as well, though nonconsecutive. Yet, that had never quite felt like home. Before that, she'd only ever known Earth. Aside from earlier memories of home when her parents were alive, and later memories when it was just Enyd and her grandmother on the farm, Enyd no longer felt the migratory pull to return as she once had.

Enyd stilled as she drew up to the replicator. Her grandmother had always bragged about the "premonition" gene that ran in their family; Enyd had never bought into the notion. But if pressed, Enyd wouldn't be able to articular what she felt milliseconds before an overhead alarm sounded, a call was made for battle stations, and all hell broke loose in quick succession. The countdown clock ticked faster in her head, and this time she felt as if it was ticking down to her time of death.

Tossing the porcelain cup and saucer, not caring if it made it to the correct area or not, Enyd turned towards the door. From somewhere deeper within the ship, there was a rumble. An explosion? Even without years under her belt on a starship, she knew that was a serious problem. Just as she was about to press the button to leave the observation lounge, she heard sharp cries out in the corridor, the burning sound of disruptor fire, and then a telling silence.

Withdrawing her hand, Enyd darted back around the corner. Quickly, she realized there was no cover. She also didn't know who had boarded. Though, considering the situation, she deducted most likely, it was a rival faction of Klingons as that would fit their modus operandi. Her eyes fell on her discarded fork and, after snatching it up, along with the empty cup, she took two rapid steps and leapt over the back of one of the lounge couches, landing on its cushions with a soft thud. She curled into as small a ball as possible, letting the curved back of the couch serve as cover. If someone checked the room and didn't venture in further, they wouldn't see her.

Enyd had no intention of remaining here. Theurgy had only been her posting for hours, but for the unforeseen future, it was to be her home. Enyd did not like uninvited guests. Especially not at tea time. But she also no fool. Enyd knew bold moves typically rewarded those who took them. If they were built like a Klingon. She took calming breaths, understanding that the only way to remain alive was to calculate, initiate, adapt, and respond. Her quarters were down the corridor and across the way. If she could get there, she could retrieve her phaser and the tik'leth. She had no grandiose illusions that she'd mastered the tik'leth enough against Pa'Qis that she'd survive against a Klingon warrior in true battle. Ranged fighting would give her a greater survival chance.

A few jarring moments passed, but no one entered the lounge, leading Enyd to the conclusion that this boarding party was more interested in a quick overrun, killing any seen while taking out essential systems. They would take the time to search and destroy later if necessary. Enyd took a few more calming breaths before quietly slipping off the couch and moving to press her body against the wall. Studying the fork and cup in her hands, Enyd shrugged. Anything was better than nothing. She made quick work of tucking the fork into her bun while switching the cup to her non-dominant hand. Moving into a crouch, Enyd reached up and pressed the button.

At first glance, the only thing in the corridor, almost at the lounge's doorstep, was a body. A dead crewmember, judging by the sizeable maroon pool on the carpet haloing out and still growing. Enyd glanced both ways before creeping out into the corridor, keeping her body low to the ground. If the crewmember was miraculously alive, they would live longer if Enyd could secure their position or get help. If Enyd remained and tried to play hero, they would both die. Enyd averted her eyes from the woman's blood pool and instead began her slow but steady crouched gait toward her quarters.

Enyd knew it would be foolish to count her lucky stars so soon and couldn't help but feel a ripple of icy disappointment when as the corridor curved and she shifted towards the middle of it just long enough to see around the corner, she spied a pair of heavily armored and armed Klingons. She'd taken the time to study Martok's people from the time she'd boarded Theurgy and in the time since meeting Rutherford. While she hadn't met them all, Enyd knew for certain these two were not allied with Martok. Biting back a curse, Enyd moved against the wall and took another calming breath.

The Klingons were directly in her path to her quarters. There was no way in any planet's hell she could take on two Klingons, even if she'd had the tik'leth. Enyd looked back down the corridor in the direction she'd come. She still wasn't completely familiar with the ship's layout and had no PADD on her to quickly consult. If she survived this, Enyd had every intention of improving her self-defense skills and memorizing every Jeffries tube and random broom closet the Theurgy had if a situation like this ever happened again. Feeling exposed and vulnerable was scratching at the layers of control she'd built after The Forge, and she did NOT like that one bit. That's all she needed: to come onboard her first starship posting and immediately stick her foot in her mouth with the captain yet miraculously be placed as an assistant chief diplomat, but then facedown some Klingons and crack from the resurgence of memories she thought she'd come to terms with.

To hell with that.

Enyd had no intention of being a victim of her self-pity again. She'd hated herself in those first days after Cardassia, and she had no desire of ever becoming that person again. Gripping the cup's handle tighter, Enyd shook her head. She hadn't fried her eyeballs in the dastardly desert of Vulcan for nothing. From around the corner, Enyd heard the Klingons speaking then, and she quit the pre-death pep talk to listen more carefully. A voice sounded as if it was growing more distant rather than closer, a small blessing there, and when Enyd dared to peer around the corner again, she smiled. There was now one Klingon, seemingly waiting for his companion to return, his back to Enyd.

But then Enyd tensed, hearing other Klingon voices rapidly approaching from near the observation lounge. The clock had reached zero, and it was time to move. Relying on her naturally more quiet movements, Enyd stalked around the corner. She increased her pace but kept close to the ground. He heard the voices of his comrades coming up behind just as she came close. And that was just the opening Enyd needed.

As he turned, Enyd stood and threw the cup as hard as she could at his eyes. The Klingon reared back; the cup bouncing off the bridge of his nose, his arms raising in defense at the sudden attack. Using his surprise to her advantage, Enyd pulled out the fork, jarring her hair loose. Dodging askew as he finally realized just what was attacking him, Enyd stabbed at a gap in the Klingon's armor at his armpit. It didn't penetrate, but it was enough to annoy. Enyd ducked down further when the Klingon let go of his gun with one hand to apprehend her. She continued her twisting, shifting momentum, pivoting around the Klingon. It was an almost dance-like move as she fluidly moved from a crouch to her knees, now behind the Klingon. With another quick jab, in and out, she caught him behind the knee. Yelling out curses in his native language, the Klingon moved around to grab at her again. But Enyd rolled between his splayed legs and stabbed the fork with all her strength into the Klingon's rear.

The cup was just out of reach to her left, but Enyd lost her advantage in the milliseconds it took to note its location. Suddenly hands seized her by the shoulders, and she was lifted. The Klingon looked murderous. And she would, too, if someone had stabbed her with a fork. It was then that the other Klingons finally emerged from around the corner. Her captor barked out a few spittle-laced phrases to his companions in answer to their shouted question. The corridor was filled with Klingon laughter then, and Enyd momentarily relaxed. A Klingon didn't kill you if they were laughing. Maybe. Hopefully. A few more barked phrases erupted from her captor's throat, and a growling reply came from one of the others facing him. Her captor smiled. The laughter stopped. Enyd's anxiety ramped up again.

"You die now, human." The Klingon's accent made it difficult, but not impossible, to understand his words when he switched to Federation standard. Well, at least he'd been polite enough to speak her own language before killing her.

The Klingon turned, and then Enyd was suddenly drifting, falling, weightless, as if in the vacuum of space. The bloody Klingon had thrown her down the corridor as if she were a bloody baseball. However, what the Klingon didn't realize, but Enyd's reflexes well remembered, were the youthful years spent in gymnastics training and the years since in dance. Given her size, Enyd had always been a top or a tumbler and was well acquainted with the micro-adjustments necessary to reposition or regain control of an unexpected fall. Enyd did just that now, and instead of slamming against the corridor floor in a moaning mass of human flesh, she tucked, rolled, then used the momentum to stand.

Enyd didn't bother turning around to gloat. Breaking into a run as she heard the yells behind her, Enyd hurried down the corridor's remaining distance to her quarters. She keyed in her code and darted inside just as the first Klingons drew close enough to aim their disruptors and fire. She'd always been a bit of an organizing fanatic. Even before the events on Cardassia. But after the hellish time of grief immediately after Javec's death, her OCD tendencies towards her living space had only intensified. They would prove life-saving this day.

Enyd knew immediately where her phaser was, and before the Klingons could pursue her into her room, she had it in her hand. The first Klingon got a shot to the face, but since it was at its lowest setting, it did little more than cause him to stumble back into the corridor and slump to the ground dazed. The second Klingon got a shot to the shoulder, the momentum of his run not allowing him to stop before shifting into her line of sight. Enyd was hunkered down around the dividing wall out of direct view of the door by the time the third, her original captor, reached her quarters.

He and his companions immediately made a few potshots in her direction. As silly a thought as it was while in the potential grips of death, Enyd was thankful she hadn't brought much by way of decorative items or else they'd be completely destroyed. Enyd returned fired blindly around the corner, pulling her hand back quickly before they began another volley. There was no way she was going to get out of this alive. For them, it was like a turkey shoot, and she was the turkey.

But then the firing stopped. Enyd listened as the Klingons argued amongst themselves. When she glanced around the corner, she made eye contact with her former captor. He still looked murderous and sent an angry roar in her direction. But then there was nothing more. He dematerialized as a transport beam enveloped him and his companions.

Enyd blinked. On a heavy sigh, she turned and fell the remaining way to the floor, her head falling against the dividing wall. Holding up her hands, she saw the tremor before she felt it, and soon her whole body was wracked with similar tremors. It was as if someone had abruptly adjusted the ship's temperature control, and she was now on Andoria in the middle of a storm. If anyone was making any announcements on the overhead or directly to her combadge, Enyd couldn't hear it. Her ears were ringing, and her head felt heavy. A long black tunnel appeared before her eyes, and an instinct to lean forward and clutch her knees overcame her.

Gone was the cavalier bravado that had carried her from the observation lounge to her quarters. What was left was a woman on the verge of cracking. Images of her dead crewmember were replaced with visions of Javec, and her hands felt warm and slick with his blood. Enyd didn't realize she'd stopped breathing until a desperate burning sensation in her chest had her sucking in air so quickly she coughed. By some twisted miracle, her tear ducts remained dry.

 Enyd might have survived, but it seemed not without a price paid in her sense of control.
__

*OOC: As a side note, I was listening to William Shatner's "Major Tom" on repeat while writing
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nesota Kynnovan on May 22, 2021, 01:46:38 AM
[Lt. JG Amanda Ashby (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Ashby) | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nolan @Lathaniel
[Show/Hide]

To some people, people much like Lieutenant Valyn Amarik, violence was a form of art in which they excelled. As Amanda listened to the Romulan Security Officer however, she began to feel just how incredibly tired she really was; in all honesty the Martian Psychiatrist was done with the fighting and the violence, with all the needless bloodshed, and she was especially fed up with being so scared. Contrary to the Lieutenant who was now putting a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to convince her to hold herself together, Amanda just wasn’t a trained Security Officer. She was a Doctor, someone who had sworn the Hippocratic Oath, and the knowledge that her lack of combat experience directly caused the death of Marija Ferik was weighing heavily enough on her conscience as it was. The only thing she wanted right now was for everything to go back to normal or, if that would be too unrealistic, to be able to go back to her quiet corner in the Medical Officer Duty Station. To hear that Lieutenant Amarik was trying to convince her to pick up a weapon and jump back into the fray once more, to join a form of art which she genuinely detested, actually began to upset the blonde-haired Martian.

At the same time she didn’t had the energy to tell Lieutenant Amarik to do this without her though and, as her remarkably empty blue eyes stared into Valyn’s hazel ones, Amanda slowly pulled her phaser from its holster before nodding meekly. ”I’m ready.”
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nolan on June 05, 2021, 12:55:06 PM
[ Lieutenant Amelya Rez | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan  @Lathaniel @BipSpoon

The Trill that was holding the deceased crewmember spoke up and looked up at Rez. She was unjoined which would make things easier to save the symbiote. 'Easier' in a way. Medically, the procedure would be best handled by Rez, a joined Trill by only a few weeks. The whole ritual behind it would have to wait. It probably would be against the code most used on Trill, a set of rules that had been picked out by the Trill leadership. Yet they weren't here, Amelya didn't feel anything for them. She looked at Kino and smiled faintly.

"You are brave to volunteer for a joining. As a medical officer and as a joined Trill though, I must warn you of the ramifications it will bring. Both to your near and distant future, but most importantly to yourself as well." she informed the security officer "Things will be... Different. Surreal at times. Whilst we do not have the time for the right rituals now, we will be going through them once we're out of this storm. Understood?"

The latter was not a request but more of an order. While Amelya did not care for the judgement or consequences other Trill might bring to them, she wanted to make a joining that somewhat abided by Trill customs. She knelt down and looked at the deceased, checking if the symbiote was still viable for a transfer. Which in this case, it was, if only barely. Whilst Kino stood up, Rez noticed the injuries to herself and she looked up "You need medical attention yourself." she stated calmly, purging the horrors of what had happened before to the back of her mind and focusing back on the task at hand.

"Get on one of the biobeds. We'll move you over to one of the surgical suites. The nurses will prepare you for sedation and strip you down. I'll extract the symbiote first and I'll join you after to perform the most sacred of things for our people." she said to Kino, nodding to a nearby biobed while she treated the deceased engineer with the final respects he deserved.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on June 10, 2021, 07:04:30 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

[Show/Hide]

Kino listened closely to the Doctor while at the same time trying to stay alert enough to be prepared for the worst. This ship was still under siege. And of course Kino was well aware of the implications for her life. She has witnessed a few Trill before and after their joining and was quite impressed about the impact a symbiote can have on a Trill's personality. But she was ready. Maybe even more than just ready, maybe this was exactly what she needed.

"I know, Doc. But I am ready. And I will follow your lead." A quick glance down her own, hurting and partially artificial body followed before she adressed the Medical Officer again. "Are my synthetic parts a problem, Doc?" By then, Kino was already moving towards the biobed, as ordered. Dragging her damaged leg slightly, she looked around and shook her head over the mayhem caused by the Klingon intruders. And while she was a fighter and very much understood the concept of war, she was unable to comprehend the motivation behind all this.

Her body ached when she lifted her bottom on the bed and pulled her legs up. Laying back slowly, she realized how vulnerable she would be for the next hours. Sedated aboard a ship that was under attack and being boarded. Could it get any worse? With a painful groan she turned her head and tried to make out Lieutenant Amarik. When her eyes found her she put on a cheeky smirk.

"Lieutenant, try not to get killed, please." She uttered and winked at her.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nolan on June 14, 2021, 08:36:11 AM
[ Lieutenant Amelya Rez | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan  @Lathaniel  @BipSpoon

Chaos was very much still ensuing in the medical wing and Amelya's eyes looked up from Kino to assess the situation they were in. She had followed the stumbling frame of an woman she didn't quite recognize off the bat. A counselor that took the orders from one of valiant security officers that was taking the initiative to defend the med bay. Kino's question brought Rez's attention back on her.

The synthetic parts would undoubtedly complicate the procedure, yet Amelya shook her head and assured the fellow Trill "It'll be more work, but it should work. If not, at least we'd have given the symbiote every chance it had to survive." she answered her. Amelya wasn't a big fan of surgery mid ship combat, the ship to ship damage a treacherous variable to keep into account when performing surgery. She rounded up a few nurses to prep the surgical suite and let Kino say her final words before she moved the biobed towards the suite.

"You focus on staying with us too petty officer. You took quite a beating yourself. You'll need your energy for the transfer." she smiled down to the female Trill. Amelya's hair had been messed up a bit, with a bit of blood smears over her features and on her uniform. She look back over her shoulder and called out to the defenders "Try to give me as much time as you can. Thank you for defending us." her eyes moved away from them, seeing the injured others, those who hadn't survived the initial assault. It even went that far that some crewmembers had just been eviscerated by the brutal Klingon assault. It wouldn't exactly haunt the experienced doctor, though it pained her to know that these people were killed. This close to being helped before the barbaric assault.

Looking back at her patient, Rez smiled faintly and started to make decent progress towards the surgical suite as a nurse had placed Kaylon's body on another biobed and followed in suite.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Cheshirewild on June 19, 2021, 02:35:20 AM
[ Lieutenant Junior Grade Rem Kile | Secondary Computer Core Level 1 | Deck 06 | “The Sword” Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn:

Rem Kile crouched at the corner of the T-junction leading to the secondary computer core, his pulse phaser rifle raised and ready to fire. He had not expected to be in this situation four days ago but here he was, and he intended to do his duty, to keep Theurgy and her crew alive. Five more security personnel crouched in the corridor, knelt at either corner of the T-section, a prime choke point from which to defend against Klingon boarding parties.

Seventeen hours had passed since the Betazoid intel officer beamed aboard from IKS Kajunpak’t to greet his new captain. Seventeen hours ago the Klingons were his ally. They still were but like anything Klingon, things were complicated.

Chancellor Martok’s warriors bolstered their numbers, prepared to engage in close-quarters combat while their Starfleet cohorts provided fire support. The complication: other Klingons opposed to Martok’s rule stood to beam aboard at any time. Rem expected them to come ready to inflict maximum damage, maximum carnage. Their mission, to keep Theurgy from reaching their homeworld, Qo’noS at any cost. Rem steadied his footing as Vector 02, called “The Sword” rocked violently against a barrage of hostile weapons fire. The Betazoid heard an electrical hum followed immediately by a sizzling sound as 50cm of ablative armor boiled away. Internal lighting flickered, indicating a momentary lapse in power, which in turn left a momentary gap in the ship’s defensive shields.

[Intruder alert, deck six, section–!] the voice over the comm crackled as explosions rocked the deck in the distance. Phaser fire screamed incessantly as the team defending Engineering repelled hostile boarding parties.

[This is Engineer–!] Rem’s combadge chirped to life with a piercing screech of feedback as the sound of disruptor fire carried to the Betazoid’s ears as well as the comm channel. He gritted his teeth as he listened to the panicky male voice shout over the din.

[We need imm– backup! They’re– cut– us– pieces down here! Repeat–!] He did not repeat.

“Hold your positions,” Rem waved his team back when they climbed to their feet to help.

“If we lose engineering, it won’t matter what happens to the computer core–sir!” A young crewman hissed in helpless frustration.

Rem did not have to respond but doing so kept his subordinate occupied and in place. “The most likely scenario for intruders is to catch anyone rushing to defend engineering in a crossfire while a secondary team closes on the computer core. Ridge?”

The human OPS specialist shook his head. “They’re using proximity jammers, sir. I can’t read anything with internal sensors or my tricorder. Attempting to compensate.”

“We must advance and draw their fire away from Engineering!” one of Martok’s Klingons gripped his weapon impatiently. “Cover us!”

“Wait!” Rem hissed after them but the Klingons vanished around the corner, on the hunt for glory. A short time later the distinctive hiss of disruptor discharge drowned out the howls of the enraged and the dying. The air grew thick with acrid smoke and the sickeningly sweet smell of charred flesh, causing Rem’s eyes to water. He considered reaching out with his telepathic senses for a moment but decided quickly against it.

Too much pain, too much fear, too much chaos, he gritted his teeth and thought about the attackers. I know you’re coming but from where? He peeked around the corner and caught movement from out of the corner of one eye. One of his subordinates had crept forward to look in the other direction. He sought to be helpful but only succeeded in exposing himself to danger. Rem yanked the crewman back in time to see an intruder take aim.

“Sir, I’m getting something on the motion sensor–” Ridge looked up in time to see a pistol barrel leveled at him. His skull above his mandible vaporized in a brilliant green glow. The strike cauterized most of his exposed blood vessels save for the carotid artery, which burst with the force of a geyser, spraying the ceiling with blood before his corpse toppled over in a twitching heap.

The scene erupted instantly into chaos with shrieking weapons fire, a vomiting junior officer, shouts of determination, and Klingon curses. Rem heard a telltale clatter of metal against the bulkhead, looked back, and shouted, “Grenade!”

Those able sprang through the door into the computer core. Rem, along with others defending the corners launched into the corridor just as the grenade detonated. Fire engulfed everything for a terrifying instant. Rem blinked to his senses to find he lay on his back. His vision drew into focus in time to reveal a grinning Klingon looming overhead, batlh’etlh sword reared back for the killing blow.

The Betazoid acted without thinking. He swept up with his rifle in one hand, butted the emitter crystal against his opponent’s belly, and pulled the trigger. Academy instructors warned against using the heavy stun setting at point-blank range. They never said anything about skin contact. The energy discharge left a six-centimeter hole in the Mo’kai’s armor. The subsequent flash charbroiled his groin, his bladder, and his lower intestines but he did not have time to notice. The burst slammed him into the ceiling with enough force to snap his neck. Simultaneously, the rifle recoil struck a glancing blow against Rem’s ribcage and threatened to wrench his shoulder out of its socket. The Betazoid felt something crack inside. He gritted in pain, but he could not indulge in a moment to check his injury. Other intruders pushed into the junction spoiling for blood and revenge.

The dead Mo’kai warrior fell on top of Rem, incidentally providing cover against an incoming flurry of disruptor bolts. Once again Rem yanked his phaser rifle up and fired. His aim might never have won a trophy but at this range, it sufficed. The Betazoid pulled the trigger until he saw no one standing. All fell silent save for the blaring of the red alert klaxon and reports from distant weapons fire.

“Get up,” Rem spat at himself past trembling lips. “Get up, get up, now!

He scrambled back into the T-section as more Mo’kai surged into the passage. He rolled away with disruptor bolts scorching the deck at his back. Rem scrambled into the small office, locked the door, and to make sure it stayed shut, he slagged the manual override.

“Computer–Thea–raise the security force field on this door.” He received a warning chirp indicating a comm failure. He rapped his badge directly. “Computer, raise a security force field at the entrance to the secondary computer core, Deck Six.” He bit his lip as he received another warning chirp.

“Damn jamming field.” He looked over the office used for direct access to the core and considered his options.

The office consisted of a long, narrow walkway leading directly to a set of three workstations that accessed the computer core. A space to the right led approximately four meters to a curved convex bulkhead about ten meters across. A door set in the center of the curve entered the Deck Six stack of computer storage and processing.

Between the curved wall of the computer core and the hallway stood four columns, rectangular in shape, with dark glassine partitions between them. The columns housed security checkpoint sensors while the partitions contained the equipment necessary to drop forcefields. This was the final line of defense in the event unauthorized personnel sought access to the brains of the ship. Rem took note of defensive choke points as he approached the workstations.

“Sorry, Thea,” he shot out the workstation panels, filling the air with smoke and sparks. He turned to the two surviving members of his team, a young human male and a Benzite female. They appeared calm but gripped their rifles tightly.

“There is no security force field. The Klingons will cut through that door shortly. We have to hold this position. Klein,” he directed the human. “Take the lift in the core to Deck Nine. Once you’re outside of jamming range, update them about our situation. Bring help, we can’t let them take the core!”

“Yes, sir!” Klein vanished into the core while Rem faced the final crewman. “Detos, take position inside the core. I want you to shoot any Klingons who come through that door. Don’t hesitate even if they use living shields or take hostages.”

“Sir?” The blue-skinned alien breathed mist in shock.

“Crewman,” Rem gave her a look of grim purpose. “If the Klingons reach the core, they will destroy it. That will cripple the ship and allow a hostile power to seize control of the Klingon Empire. After that, if we survive, there will likely be war between the Empire and the Federation. Do you want to live in that world, crewman?”

“No, sir,” She hissed mist from her rebreather past clenched teeth. “I’ll do my best, sir.”

“I know you will, so take position.” He patted her on the shoulder as she departed as already, the Klingons were cutting through the outer door.

The Betazoid clenched his rifle at the enormity of the challenge facing him. Rem entered the central core and studied his environment. The inner core was a stacked cylinder four decks tall with walls of storage and processing banks. He saw a two-meter shaft in the center of the deck that plunged a full three decks before hitting bottom. A thin metal guardrail offered protection against falling in while a lift to the left of the entrance looked like it might fit four humans if they stood shoulder-to-shoulder. A two-meter walkway surrounded the central shaft, enabling access to the maintenance panels of the various computer stacks. Detos lay on her belly opposite from the entrance, her phaser rifle trained on the door. The guardrail offered no cover and there was nothing in the core to hide behind.

They didn’t build these things with firefights in mind. Rem sighed in resignation.

He panned his gaze across the luminous data stacks that encompassed the totality of Federation knowledge. They glowed in beautiful washes of blue light, pulsing with the demand for knowledge, eager to share. Rem took it in and it struck him how much like a living thing this wonder of technology was. Thea’s heart thrummed with strength and boundless compassion but the very light of her soul robbed her defenders of any shadows from which to protect her. That thought led him to brace suddenly.

“Detos, I recall that you work in OPS.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Can you bypass the jamming field from here and get a message out to the rest of the ship?”

She brightened, “I’ve never done it manually but it’s possible. I’d just need to–”

He cut her off with a wave. “Do it, and while you’re at it, see what you can do about dousing all of the lights in this section of the ship.”

“Sir–?” She saw his look and coughed, “yes, sir.”

“Work quickly, they’re almost through!”

______________________________________


A short while later, the outer door to the core exploded inward with devastating force. Disruptor bolts pierced the smoke immediately after, scarring the far wall of the office.

An imposing figure mantled in leather, armed and armored for war pushed inside with his pistol drawn. A mane of tightly beaded braids clacked about his shoulders. His dark, weathered face hinted at casual cruelty as he searched the vicinity for resistance. Satisfied for the moment, Skrel, son of Tavrad of House Mo’kai gestured to his warriors to enter, “place the second spatial charge directly inside the core. Let us see how well this Federation tug flies without a computer!”

“The core is beyond that door, joHwI’,” A warrior pointed.

“Where are the miserable toppa’pu’ defending this place!” Skrell demanded and the scanner officer shook his head.

“Their countermeasures are good. I’m not getting anything. Wait, something on the motion scanner–there!” He spun about and pointed in time for Rem to down him with a phaser bolt. The Klingon's scanning device clattered under the desk with another warrior scrambling to retrieve it. Skrel and two warriors rushed through the partitions to get a clear shot at Rem and triggered force fields, trapping them.

One down, four occupied, Rem counted as the remaining Klingons opened fire on his position. He ducked behind a partition and gritted his teeth as the lights were still on. “Detos!”

The ship lurched violently and without warning against pounding weapons fire, disrupting power and throwing everyone off their feet. They fell against the long bulkhead leading to the workstations with Rem now within line of sight of his opponents. “Shit!”

Gravity surged unexpectedly and Rem suddenly felt twice his weight. Klingons taking aim at him with their pistols shot the deck with muttered curses of surprise. Gravity failed completely after that but only for a second. Rem used that second to spring from his position back behind the safety of the partitions. He rolled into a crouch as the lighting blinked once, twice, and finally failed altogether, plunging their surroundings into pitch darkness.

Good girl, Detos!

Elsaria was a rogue planet devoid of a star. The only light natives knew came from molten lava at the bottom of planetary rifts. Though biologically Betazoid, Rem grew up on Elsaria from the time he was a year old. Darkness was his natural state and he put it to use against his opponents. He avoided blind shots fired by the Klingons and began picking them off with ease.

“<SCANNER! GET A FIX ON THAT DAMN FLEETER!!!>” Skrel howled in frustration. He did not know that the scanner lay in a corner under the body of an unconscious subordinate.

The battle ended in short order with only one intruder remaining, Skrel. Rem leveled his rifle to fire when lights snapped back on. Back in the core, Detos muttered a misty curse and jumped to the exposed panel where she had shorted them out earlier. “No, no, no!”

“<There you are, little glob fly!>” Skrel slapped the rifle from Rem’s hands, then bull-rushed the Betzoid back through the door into the central core. Detos sprang for her rifle only to watch in helpless horror as both men tipped over the guardrail and fell down the shaft.

“NO!” She lept to the guardrail and peered down, expecting the worst. She spied the Betazoid clinging to the stack two decks down. His foe lay broken and unmoving at the bottom. Reinforcements ascending on the lift stopped to help the Betazoid.

The battle in space continued to rage. In the meantime, Rem sat in one of the chairs at the workstation while a medic held a small, blinking tool pinched between her fingers. She waved the tool over Rem’s ribs as he offered a report to the officer in charge of the defense. After that crewmen, Detos and Klein stepped up with smiles of relief.

“You gave us quite a scare back there, sir. How did you do hang on to the wall like that?” Klein asked.

Rem lowered his arm and tested the pain in his rib, taking a moment to think about an answer. “I’m from Elsaria, climbing is natural for us. I’m good as long as there is something to hold.”

“I guess they don’t do much spelunking on Qo’noS.” Klein enjoyed a smile of cold satisfaction as he remembered the intruder that had fallen.

“I’m surprised he didn’t get back up.” Detos shuddered. “Klingons are resilient.”

“It’s enough that he survived.” Rem thanked the medic before turning back. “You both did well.”

“Until someone in OPS decided to turn the lights back on.” Detos huffed a misty breath in exasperation.

“It all worked out and now we have to get back to our positions.” The Klingons won’t give up and neither can we.”

“Sorry, but you’re going to sickbay.” The medic interrupted, giving Rem a stern look. “I patched that broken rib but it’s only temporary. You need better attention from a doctor.”

“But–”

“No, ‘buts’, Lieutenant.” the medic pointed. “Sickbay, now.”

The Betazoid climbed to his feet with a grumble of protest when Klein spoke up. “Sir, you shouldn’t go alone. There are still boarding parties on the loose.”

Rem’s lips drew to a thin line but the officer in charge overruled him before he uttered a word. “This point is secure. You two see the lieutenant to sickbay and double-time it back.”

“Yes, sir!” Detos and Klein fell in beside Rem.

“Once more into the breach, it seems.” The Benzite huffed with jaunty enthusiasm.

“So it seems,” Rem turned his gaze ahead, wondering what surprises the future might spring next.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on June 29, 2021, 04:38:35 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon @Nesota Kynnovan @Nolan

[Show/Hide]

Resting her head on the bed, Kino tried hard to relax. With the adrenaline fading and her mind coming to a rest, she started to really feel waves of pain riding through her nervous system. As her gaze followed the appealing physique of her doctor, she could not help but wonder what the future had in store for her. Thing have changed so rapidly ever since she joined Starfleet. Every step she took, every experience she made, every enemy killed and friend lost have brought her to exactly this moment in her life. She suddenly realized that what was about to happen would be the most dramatic change in her life so far. Considering her history, that was a rather overwhelming epiphany.

I can do this! I have to and want to do this! She thought to herself, effectively calming down the chaos in her mind. This was no time to let fear reign one's decisions. And despite the fact that she knew that this was the right thing to do, she was also unable to come up with any sort of positive outcome of the path she was following before she saw Kaylon Jeen in this corridor. This path was paved with self-hatred, despair and an utter sensation of meaninglessness. No, this was a new chance, a new chance for her and a chance for Jeen to survive this horrible nightmare in which the Theurgy apparently was the protagonist. 

She was ready. Slowly closing her eyes she started to smile. An honest smile for once. The first in a very long time.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: BipSpoon on July 19, 2021, 09:43:23 AM
[ Lieutenant Valyn Amarik | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nolan @Nesota Kynnovan @Lathaniel
[Show/Hide]
Valyn stood nearly as still as a statue, only her head and upper body rotating every so often to do a quick sweep of the room. She held her body as tall as she could, and she clearly had the mind that she was the most experienced security officer in the room. As such, she pointed at an empty biobed and tapped another officer on the shoulder, “Cover behind that, cover your 11 O’clock to 5 O’clock.” She said nothing else as the officer gave her a nod and took position. Her eyes shifted from the security officer back over to the dispirited appearing counselor. “No you ain’t.”

She gave Amanda a once-over and sighed, “Keep it on you, maybe help with the wounded. Be ready to use it though.” She didn’t need someone on the front line of their defenses in her condition. Valyn had never been there, that had been beaten and manipulated out of her from a young age. She’d seen it plenty though. Even Romulan soldiers were susceptible to the shock of a battle.

She kept one ear as tuned in on the events of the symbiote procedure as she could, but the noise of the rest of the sickbay didn’t let her hear too terribly much. “I’ve faced worse than some Klingons.” She shot back at Kino, “Worry about yourself, I’ve got you covered.” She fired the wink back and turned her gaze back to the door, right as a blade of some sort slashed through the metal, and with it, the throaty call of a Klingon chant became audible. Seconds later, the blade was withdrawn and again plunged into the metal. She checked the side of her rifle and buried the stock in her shoulder, bracing herself to open fire.

She nodded, but didn’t look at the Doctor when she spoke. More time would be great, but Valyn wasn’t sure how much she could buy in their current state. “I’ll do my best. Try to be quick...quick but still…” She stopped talking and as an arm came through one of the metal cuts in the door, she shot it, the Klingon on the other side letting out a roar of agony. “Bet it does hurt…” She muttered under her breath, the doors slowly starting to wrench open. “Here they come, do not let them take this sickbay!” She shouted at the other security officers, sending several warning shots through one of the splits in the door.
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Nesota Kynnovan on September 04, 2021, 02:51:12 AM
[Lieutenant JG Amanda Ashby | Deck 06 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @BipSpoon @Nolan @Lathaniel

Amanda wasn’t entirely sure if she was happy to hear that Lieutenant Amarik decided that she wasn’t ready for more action or if she was a little disappointed because she had to leave Security to fend for themselves. Deep down inside she knew that the Romulan Security Officer was very experienced though, experienced enough to notice when someone was more of a liability than actual help, and if the blonde-haired Psychiatrist had to be completely honest she wasn’t too sad about being told to hold down the fort; now the adrenalin, which had been keeping her going since that first encounter with that Klingon back in the hallway, was starting to wear off Amanda was beginning to feel the exhaustion.

Putting her phaser back in her holster again, Amanda nodded in reply. ”Understood ma’am.” As she spoke, Amanda's voice betrayed her adrenalin withdrawal and only further accentuated the meek look in her blue eyes. With that, the Martian Lieutenant Junior Grade slowly turned around and began to make her way back to the Medical Officer Duty Station where she’d left the lifeless body of Ensign Marija Ferik. Just slumping down near the chair and sleeping for hours and hours on end was definitely starting to sound intriguing, especially in the knowledge that Lieutenant Valyn Amarik was leading their defense. Over the past hour, which actually felt like days had passed, she had come to know Valyn as the kind of person who could get people through the worst situations the Galaxy could possibly throw at them; the kind of natural leader who could weather any storm.

In the doorway of the Medical Officer Duty Station Amanda turned around once more, listening how Valyn was rallying the other officers in their defense. Klingons were about to assault the Sickbay again but, as she leaned back against the wall and slowly slid down on her behind while listening to the phaser fire, Amanda closed her eyes and put her trust in the Romulan Security Officer. Valyn would definitely get them through everything the Klingons could possibly throw at them and, just for the sake of at least attempting to be of any help, Amanda knew she would be the last line of defense. All she needed was just five minutes of peace and quiet to regain her composure…
Title: Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Post by: Lathaniel on September 23, 2021, 12:11:29 PM
[PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 07 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BipSpoon  @Nesota Kynnovan  @Nolan  @Auctor Lucan

[Show/Hide]

With the invasion still in progress and Battle Sickbay merely protected by a handful of crew members, Kino slowly slid away into unconsciousness. Her head getting heavier and heavier until she was completely gone. Thoughts that crossed her mind, unfocused, unsorted but kind. Pictures of Bremmer, of her family and friends, of dear comrades from the Dominion War. Feeling save despite the dangers all around her, knowing the Lieutenants had her back, her mind was starting to fade away.

Despite her decreasing consciousness, Kino faintly noticed voices in the distance. Voices which shouted something. Danger? Kino forced herself to come back, at least for a little while. She could still hear the rumbling and hissing of a ship in battle, but the voices - clearer now - proclaimed something different.

batlh Heghpu'DI' mIghwI'! tam!

Did she translate that correctly? She knew only little Klingon, but she was almost certain. But before she could think any further about what she had heard, another voice was audible.

"They're leaving! The Klingons are beaming off board..."

A soft, almost angelic smile crossed Kino's lips. The constant bombardement under which the Vector had suffered throughout the battle had stopped. Once again, they made it. Hoping that the same was true for the other Vectors, Kino relaxed and finally fell into a deep unconsciousness.

FIN


OOC: I hope this FIN suits all contributors. It was fun writing this and my sincerest thanks to everyone who made Kino's transplantation possible.

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