Star Trek: Theurgy

Star Trek: Theurgy | Season 2 => Episode 01: Advent of War => Topic started by: Auctor Lucan on August 20, 2020, 04:03:36 PM

Title: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on August 20, 2020, 04:03:36 PM

CHAPTER 04: HORNS OF A DILEMMA


STARDATE: 57651.94
APRIL 17, 2381
1245 HRS.

(https://uss-theurgy.com/w/images/c/cb/Eru-Breen.png)
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Mission Log, stardate 57651.93. Current situation.... we're docked on the Erudite along with the Lone Wolves...

I am not sure how I should log this, but... ten minutes ago, I was able to raise the Theurgy via the Erudite's comms technology. Now, it falls upon me to inform the away team what happened last night. So many dead, and clearly a targeted sabotage not just towards Martok's campaign, but a directed effort to stop the Theurgy from aiding the High Chancellor. I... can't imagine how Commander Tiran must be feeling now, having the responsibility of the Theurgy's slipstream drive and the fate of her husband on her mind.

To make matters even worse, I don't just have to tell this small crew whom were lost, but urgency forces us to look ahead, for we stand at the horns of a dilemma that I am not sure how we can resolve. In the end, I can see no other recourse than being in two places at once, but who shall stay here behind old enemy lines... and who goes into Federation space?


- Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Dewitt, USS Allegiant NX-80978

[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Dewitt) | Airlock | USS Allegiant ]
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Once more, Dewitt summoned all of the crew - including the four Lone Wolves - to the aft airlock of the Allegiant, and this time, she was there ahead of time and waited for all to assemble. She supposed she might radiate something of what she'd tell them all, the look on her face portending dire words from the Theurgy, and the dim light of the Aerodrome outside the airlock seemed ironically fitting. Once they were all gathered, she took a deep breath, standing there with her hands folded behind her back.

"Roughly fifteen hours ago, someone on the Theurgy detonated a bomb in the Spearhead Lounge. Security has yet to make any arrest, the bomber still at large, and sickbay couldn't save all of those caught in the blast," she said, chin raised as she delivered what she'd been informed, and she didn't mollycoddle them with the news, since they were Starfleet officers, and there was no time to wrap her words in silk. Already, however, the previous silence was broken by some in the present crew. She continued, however, since she wasn't finished... and she couldn't afford to pause and dwell on the names she carried in her memory.

"Among the casualties were Petty Officer Dyan Cardamone, whom aided in making sure the Theurgy can stay in communication with us here, something that was essential for this mission. Besides her, several Lone Wolves were seated at a table not far from the epicentre, their deaths reportedly being instantaneous. I believe their callsigns were Meerkat, and Dragon. Their RIOs were at the table as well."

"What?" came the outburst from Lieutenant Rawley, standing in the back with her flight jacket on. The shaved woman's eyes were wide, and she looked towards the other three fighter pilots. She looked like she was about to tear down the bulkheads, and her cry came out through her teeth. "Fuck!"

"Lieutenants Annika Van den Berg and Izar Bila were also lost, along with Ensign Dumral, both whom served aboard this ship during brief stints in the Azure Nebula. Izar might make a recovery, his life hanging on by a thread in a stasis chamber, but the hopes are slim. The same goes for operations officer Nator 159 and Ensign Seren. His superior officer, Counselor Ejek, died from her injuries, however, along with our Head Nurse in sickbay, Lieutenant Jovela."

There was a subtle motion from the side of the airlock, and when Dewitt glanced that way, she could see Deputy zh'Wann's mien contorted in what seemed like seething anger - jaws locked and her white brows lowered over her glare. She had slightly better news for Lieutenant Vanya, however, so she looked in the Romulan android's direction. "Commander Vivian Martin, while still alive and in stasis, was also one of the afflicted in the detonation. Yet it would seem..."

She had to take a breath, and yet she remained stoic as she listed off the names. "It would seem that the real target was our Executive Officer, Ranaan Ducote, along with our Chief of Security, Kai Akoni. They were seated together with a Lieutenant Khorin Douglas, and he was informing our First Officer about Gorka, son of Margon. Martok's rival in the contest for the Chancellery of the Klingon Empire. I have been informed that Lieutenant Douglas and Gorka are related. The small blessing is that all three at that table are in stasis... but I do not know what their chances are."

"Hardtop as well?" came from Rawley, and at this point, she screamed outright in rage and looked like she wanted to force the Savi to jump back to the Theurgy immediately. zh'Wann's concern seemed to deepen along with the frown she wore, the protection of the Thea's crew likely underscoring her initial reaction. At least the Master-at-Arms was still alive and able to lead the investigation, Dewitt supposed, after Akoni was gone.

Jennifer let them all digest what she had told them, and patiently, she gave them the time they needed, before she had to move on to something that was directly urgent for their own assignment.

"Furthermore, while we managed to deduce when the Breen Council will convene tomorrow, and have a lead on how the Infested will drag the Breen into all of this," she said quietly, before raising her green eyes to the gathered officers, "there is a second thalaron bomb set to detonate tonight. Not here... but on Andoria. It's likely the same kind as the one in Paris."

She let that linger for a moment before she continued. "That means, of course, that the Erudite might be able to get there in time, but according to Intel from Director Anderson, he has only limited resources within range, and should he show his hand - in how he gleaned the information - he would not just compromise himself, but the operatives he has on the planet. Those very operatives will instantly become targets by the Infested, and should they be deployed nonetheless, and fail to find and defuse the bomb without support from official channels, then the capital of Andoria will become just like Paris."

A rough day ahead, becoming worse on the morrow.

"The Voice has informed me that the Erudite can leave for Andoria in seven hours, but it can't return here in time for tomorrow. So, to me, the question is quite simple." She looked between the present faces, the word free. "Who stays... and who goes?"


OOC: Instead of a Story Development Poll being posted at this point, I am leaving it to you all to advocate solutions In-Character in this thread. Should more than one viable solution come forth in this thread, then we will post a poll that settles the matter. :) Indeed, this thread is the starter for Chapter 04, and @BZ , @uytrereee , @Number6 , @DaValle , @RyeTanker & @Stegro88 , you all have 7 days to post in reply to this starter to kick the discussion off, the deadline set at the 27th of August. :)

Supplemental threads on the Allegiant/Erudite set before this scene above belong to Chapter 03, with the title convention CH03: S [D01|YYYY] Insert Title. No Supplemental threads may be started set after this scene just yet. This, until after the 28th of August, when we know who stays and who goes! Oh, I have also updated the Advent of War Calendar (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Advent_of_War_Calendar), which shows when the Breen will convene in the Hall of Heroes. All they know about the bomb on Andoria is that it is set to detonate somewhere that evening of Day 02, in the heart of the capital.

The names of the Allegiant away team can be seen below, but more names will be added/changed when writers volunteer their characters.

CO: Captain Jennifer Dewitt
CONN: Ensign Jaya Thornee
Operations: Ens. Klara Halliwell (NPC, due KIA)
Tactical: Lt. T'Less
Science: Lt. Vanya
Comms/Advisor: Lt. Zaryn Arn (NPC, due KIA)
Engineers: Lieutenant Frank Arnold, CPO Eun Sae Ji, PO2 Taa'gur Kolla
Medical: Doctor George Hernandez (NPC) & Lt. JG XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Combat Medic)
Security: Deputy ThanIda zh'Wann, PO3 Lorad & Sogh (Lt.) Valkra

Fighter Escort 01: Lt. JG Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley
Fighter Escort 02: Ens. Isel Nix (NPC)
Fighter Escort 03: Lt. JG Donna "Chance" Petterson
Fighter Escort 04: Ens. Nathaniel Isley (NPC)

I am open to start other threads for the rest of the Allegiant crew, and if you have ideas for scenes that might involve a lot of characters, PM me. :) Next, Quantum Frontier will be updated, in hopes that a couple of stragglers manages to post there before then. Stay tuned!
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Number6 on August 20, 2020, 10:46:20 PM
[[Lt. Vanya | Airlock | USS Allegiant ]
Vanya’s heart fell she learned about the problems.  She watched as those around her gave into despair and anger at the news of what had happened  And yet, one thought went through her mind. 

Not Nat, Not Nat, Not Nat,

Fear fell into her heart as Dewitt looked at Vanya.  The news hit her like a brick.  Vivian had only been reasonable with Vanya, on reflection  The Cayuga had gone from being a possible bogey, to having the crew thrust upon them.  All of the new crew were a potential threat, but a Romulan android raised even more questions.  While they kept their personal relationship, Vanya and only ever found Vivian to be fair. 

The hits kept on coming as Dewitt rattled off the further casualties.  There was a small flicker of joy as Nat wasn’t on the list.  But now wasn’t the time for relief  Now was the time to get the job done.  Finally Dewitt finished speaking.  She put thoughts of Nat, of Viviian and the rest to one side  She wanted to deal with those thoughts, but the time and place would be back on Theurgy  Now there were lives to save. 

Something came over Vanya, something that hadn’t happened since her training back on Romulus.  A resolute determination.  Now it was game time. 

Already the beginings of a plan were forming. “We need a way to expose the bombs to  independent sensors.” She said aloud. “Expose the threat before its too late” 

“I don’t know.”[/green] She said, answering the unasked question  “Civilian authorities, universities, civil engineering, weather control, anyone who is likely to have access to a planetary detection grid that can raise the alarm before the bomb goes off  A careful bit of sabotage to the bomb so that the faintest trace of Thaleron is detected, independent grid is pointed towards the bomb and the threat is neutralised because of an accident as far as anyone knows."      
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on August 22, 2020, 11:39:27 PM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | Deck 1 | Airlock | USS Allegiant] @Auctor Lucan @BZ , @uytrereee , @Number6 , @RyeTanker , @Stegro88
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The Devore knew the situation the Lt. Commander was in way too good and he would definitely not want to change with her now. It has been one of the toughest task for him to find suitable words when he was in an equal situation and if he would be honest there wasn’t anything he could have said that would mitigate the pain of his soldiers during war. There was no cause that was worth seeing your friends die. They may said so, but no expression they used really stopped the pain. So now he saw all those things again, Officers who tried to hide their true emotions about it, others who couldn’t hide it and those that were just shell-shocked by the news. Taa’gur couldn’t and wouldn’t blame any of those reactions even though he showed none of them. He wasn’t shocked by the assault, just maybe surprised, he wasn’t enraged by the deaths of his comrades, at all he didn’t really know them, and though he showed none he didn’t actually hide his emotions.

What came now was the way more important part in his opinion than the bombing that already happened. A second bomb on Andoria. An interesting target at least, as he couldn’t quite tell why the infested would stage another bomb on Andoria. This would gave the Federation no obvious deficit in the war and it would probably bind the Andorians closer to the rest of the Federation than they already were. There’s nothing easier for war propaganda than a ruthless enemy that wouldn’t even be merciful towards civilians, but maybe that was actually what the Parasites wanted in the end. Maybe they just wanted to transform the Federation into an extremely militaristic government and wars tend to help in such efforts. At least that was what he could tell from his very own people, but they never had some giant worms in their arses so it was maybe a completely different intention behind the parasites actions.

Back to their current situation, one of the other Officers offered an Idea how to detect the bombs and Taa’gur actually liked the way the Officer thought. Using some easy accessible civilian systems, like the local weather sensors and try to detect the Thalaron particles was a very useful idea, but would be useless. If the Petty Officer wasn’t wrong then there would be no Thalaron particles around the, not yet charged, bomb since those particles were one of the side effects of a Thalaron detonation and also what made them so devastating. Then the Officer suggested to sabotage the bomb and the Petty Officer couldn't believe his ears.

“With all due respect, I would strictly advice you against any kind of sabotage of the bombs. I can maybe disarm any Starfleet torpedo in five minutes, but an unknown Thalaron bomb is a different level. Even if I would have some weeks to study the bomb, I could still have missed something or the builders of it would be able to hide crucial mechanics from scanners... And to remind everyone here why a wrong sabotage of a Thalaron bomb would be devastating, the radiation range is unlimited. A wrong sabotage could instead of disabling the bomb result into wiping out the entire planet.” The Devore made a brief break before he continued with his proposal. This was not the time for useless emotions. They needed a good idea and a working plan to deal with this situation. Taa'gur turned in the direction of the Lt. Commander and gave her his best idea he had and even the best idea he had was nothing more than a long shot. “Ma’am, there might be a way to deal with the Breen. It’s not why we are here but it might suit us better than the alternatives. If we’re not able to disarm the ‘Federation’ bomb inside the Breen Hall of Heroes, we may should send a not good enough hidden message to a currently unused spacestation of the Federation. We just need to mention the bomb and the place and that we, as the Startfleet, have deployed it there. Their Intelligence would probably intercept the message and, since they are hopefully not aware of the status of the Theurgy and Allegiant, they’ll probably start to search the Hall of Heroes and find the bomb before anyone dies.”
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on August 24, 2020, 08:33:50 PM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Deck 1 | Airlock | USS Allegiant] @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @BZ @DaValle @Number6 @uytrereee

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And the day started so well. Should have known it wouldn't last. Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell mentally grimaced as the news rolled in.  Anyone who could have read her thoughts would have been astounded at what appeared to be a very blasé response to the death and destruction that just been visited on what was now considered home.  If those people looked deeper they also would have been astounded at the strength of will it took just to keep the grief and pain at a manageable level.  In fact as the situation update had been occurring, it felt like a she'd been first punched in the belly and then a steadily growing lump of lead had been growing in her throat was trying to drop into the pit of her stomach.  Lt. Zark was intensely conflicted about what to do next.  The death and damage was apalling and all her instincts screamed to either return to the ship and assist in catching the bomber, heading back to Andoria to assist in searching heinous Thaloron device, and continuing the mission.

The internal tug of war continued until Lt. Vanya began speaking which mercifully gave her something else to think about.  Crossing her arms under her breasts and tilting her head and antennae to face the Android then the Devorian, she began analyzing the plan from a security perspective. I have to agree that sabotaging a complex WMD doesn't sound like a good idea. Uh Oh, I don't like message idea very much either. Nasty as this situation is, good thing we're in a skull session to sort this out.  A small grin creased Lt. Zark's face at this last thought.

"I agree with the PO that we shouldn't attempt to sabotage the device, however Lt. Vanya does have a vector in delivering a more circumspect way of letting the local authorities know there is a threat in their midst."  Lt. Zark took a moment to use couple of fingers to rub an eyebrow while she metaphorically chewed on the problem with her mouth as well before resuming. "First, I don't have the engineering background for something like this, but are there any unique elements that a Thaloron generator must have in order to function that can be screened out in a scan from the rest of the building?  Second, should it come to covertly enlisting the aid of the Breen, how about encoding an anonymous message through the civilian com net and directing it towards the local law enforcement channels?  We wouldn't need to use video, just a text based message with sufficient amount of details to make the message and threat credible?  This way we can hopefully keep Starfleet and the Federation's finger prints off the source of information.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: uytrereee on August 27, 2020, 05:39:42 AM
[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | It's never a good surprise these days ] @Auctor Lucan @BZ @Number6 @DaValle @RyeTanker 
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Frank had come when called, he had a feeling that it wasn't good news. Generally you didn't interrupt duty shifts and down time, to gather the entire crew, to give good news. It was usually either a death on board, asking for volunteers for a suicide mission, or a declaration of war. Even at the outset of the Dominion War, he didn't remember being called together, and at the end, he remembered it just as an announcement over the shipwide comm. The party afterward, he didn't remember much of that.

He wandered in closer to last than first, he'd come from the Warp Core Room, and he resented the gathering. He'd had a nice evening with Jaya, he'd had a decent night's sleep, he'd gotten up and went to work. It was a perfect day, until now. And whatever suspicions he'd had upon coming to the gathering, the look upon Jennifer's face didn't say it was a good thing. Maybe on some of the other crew it might have been lost, not him, he'd been on the receiving end of enough of Jenny's Scowls to know a bad omen when he saw one.

It was for these reasons, he simply filed into the group, only offering a solemn nod to Jennifer, not that he expected her to really see it, or to reciprocate, but line officers didn't let other line officers stand alone.

The news was bad, and it didn't get better as she went on. A lot of the names Frank didn't know, but he knew the first officer, and it hit close to home. 'Blue'. That's all he could think at that moment. Just last night he'd been discussing her cute and close relationship with her husband. He murmured under his breath, "Poor Blue" not very loud at all, and more for himself than anyone else. His first thoughts were with his own people, with his closest peers, as was selfish.

It wasn't until Jennifer moved onto the problem at hand, that the gravity of the losses started to settle into his mind. They'd lost a lot of good officers, really fucking important officers, some of whom had family aboard, and all of whom were their brothers and sisters in Starfleet. But more than that, they'd lost time, they were losing time now as they spoke. It was going to be them, they were going to have to do both things. He offered lowly once again, "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea." Those were the things they were between. Deep Blue....poor Blue. It weighed on his mind, and try as he might it was hard to shake at this very moment. They had so few friends, the Theurgy was it...and the Theurgy was wounded. His worst instincts wanted to run back to the Theurgy, but only experience made him stay quiet, and understand he had to stay put.

He listened to the other officers start to give their input on solutions, and each tailored their response to their own expertise. T'Kolla spoke like a weapons expert, Vanya spoke of sensors, and naturally Frank thought about materials. He was a metallurgist first, before anything.

He waited for a moment, and then when there was a natural pause, he raised his voice and offered, "We might not be able to detect the thalaron radiation outright, but there aren't that many materials that can shield thalaron radiation. I'm not a reactor expert, but I know shielding's always been a problem for thalaron radiation. It doesn't obey a traditional inverse square law, which means it basically keeps its potency over expansion, so it shoots through regular materials like artillery through ass-wipe. Since the Breen aren't actively desiccating, and aren't aware of the bomb's presence, and we can't find the damn thing, it stands to reason the bomb is sufficiently shielded."

He gave a slow shrug, "Neutronium plating, some osmium or duritanium based alloys might do it..." He started counting on his fingers clearly thinking as he spoke, "Maybe tetraburnium, terminium, I think that those five pretty much sum it up." He gave a nod, "If we could scan for those in concentrated amounts, much higher than natural formations or regular construction, that might give us a shot at finding what we want to find. It's another tool in our box anyway." He shrugged when he was done, figuring that there weren't many bad ideas at this point. He only forwarded, "Put me where you need me Commander."
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on August 28, 2020, 04:10:45 PM
[ Lieutenant T’Less, Lt. JG Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson & PO3 Lorad | Airlock | Deck 01 | USS Allegiant ]
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None of them were strangers to the notifications of casualties suffered to their companions. They had all lost people close to them and knew that they would again. And they were all resigned to that simple fact; that what they were doing was exceedingly dangerous and that the price for their success would be measured in the blood spilled and lives lost of themselves and those around them. And that toll grew higher with each engagement. But a bomb on their own ship, none of them had thought that that would be the cause of some of their loss.

They said nothing, listening intently to what Commander Dewitt was saying to her gathered crew. Others reacted in surprise, shock or outright disbelief that something like that could occur. Someone even asked how Thea could have let it happen. The three of them understood a simple fact though; it didn’t matter how it had happened. It had, and now they had to deal with it and prevent it happening again. But that was for those on the Theurgy, not those on the Allegiant. They had a different role to play as Commander Dewitt continued her briefing, revealing the threat of a second thalaron bomb on Andoria. And they all had a similar thought train that followed that revelation.

“A founding member of the Federation. Another display of violence without doing any real military damage. The Federation would be well placed to retaliate; and the Andorians would demand it,” the Vulcan noted.

“These aren’t first strike weapons for those that want to win a war. These attacks are meant to start a war that will only grow from the ongoing fighting. And if this one doesn’t succeed, where do they strike next? Vulcan? Betazed? Risa?” the Human asked herself.

“Two missions. Both important. But which to choose? What resources do we have to conduct both operations?” the Reman considered as others began to speak their minds. Each of them had thoughts and opinions on the matter but not all of them were whole plans; rather, pieces of them. And as the voices died down after the engineer suggested an alternative search parameter, each of the three, Vulcan, Terran and Reman, began to speak, almost as one voice.

“Ideally, we would deal with the Thalaron bomb without any authorities becoming aware of it,” T’Less said neutrally, knowing that if Vulcan were threatened, her voice would be markedly different in tone. “Even the knowledge and presence of a weapon would be just as damning as an actual strike. The Andorians would consider themselves attacked all the same and call for retaliation against the Romulans for what they, and many others, would perceive as acts of war.”

“After the attack on Paris, thalaron would have been bumped to the top of every scanning system in the Federation. It would be difficult to plant a bomb at a target and leave it to detonate later. Security checks and scans for anything unusual would probably find it before it could, which as the Lieutenant as pointed out, serves the same purpose to the Infested,” Donna continued evenly. “A better idea would be to hold it close by at a safe location. Somewhere that is protected from security scans but close enough to allow a quick deployment and detonation in case of discovery. A cloaked ship perhaps, in orbit of Andoria.”

“This how Reman’s do it,” Lorad said, agreeing with the Terran pilot. “We wait, undiscovered in orbit of target until order given. Then we transport bomb and wait short time. Very effective against Romulans,” Lorad pointed out, revealing a favoured tactic of the Reman underground. 

“Reman cloaks allow you that freedom of operation,” T’Less concluded. “But unless the Romulans have acquired one somehow, they’d have to use their own, less effective, systems. And that is a risk if they were discovered.”

“Not really,” Donna countered. “A Romulan warship is discovered deep in Federation space with a thalaron weapon aboard. The threat is the same and the Infested could pin it on us and our apparent affiliation with them as to how they got so deep into Federation space. Two birds with one stone. It’s what I’d do.”

“Same problem with Breen,” Lorad added succinctly in his distinctively deep voice. “If they discover bomb, then war is possible. We must find both without revealing them.”

“I will stay with the Allegiant. It is my place,” T’Less said, knowing it was the best place for her.

“I could go to Andoria,” Donna continued. “I can try and make contact with the Admiral’s operatives and see what information they have for us.”

“I stay,” Lorad declared, his tone resolute. “Not look good find Reman on Andoria. I better here,” he explained before looking at the female Andorian that had led him the day before. “You go though. Home knowledge is asset. Not waste.”
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: BZ on September 01, 2020, 03:31:21 AM
[Ens. Jaya Thorne | Horrendous News | Worst Yet | What Has Become of the Universe | Volunteers Needed]
@Auctor Lucan @uytrereee




It was time again, for another rendition of How Bored Can You Be!?  It was the thrilling game show where a hot red headed woman stood at the front of a ton of educated Starfleet officers and began to drone on about unimportant matters that seemed super important to her but to the gross ship over all weren't all that big.  Jaya was torn between pretending to snore loudly while leaning against the officer nearest her, only if they were the kind that would boost her in that way, or doing something else.  Like maybe making little noises with her hands or something.  Something like that, but before she could decide on what she wanted to do the boom hammer came down and smashed all the good will out of the room.

The Spearhead lounge had exploded. 

Any playfulness left Jaya's mischevious face and the seriousness took over was that of a cold-killer.  She had no idea who was to blame and she had no idea who was going to pay but she was going to make sure that someone did and they probably had a whole ship of people to answer to.  You didn't attack the Theurgy and get away with it, you didn't get to walk away as you took away the people that mattered to others.  Jaya had no real close bonds that had passed on the ship or been attacked but that didn't matter.

Theurgy was family.

That wasn't all though, she could tell from Jen's face that there was more unsettling news to come and true to Jen fashion it came moments later despite the cries of outrage, fear, and sadness from the various crew around.  She swallowed heavily as she admitted that the infested were going to do whatever they could to infect the Breen, but even more so there was determined to be another bomb on Andora which meant that things were going to get thinner.  Someone was going to have to go there and someone was going to have to find the bomb and do the best they could there to save the planet, the people, and everything else. 

Jaya cursed, not quietly either.

Several people began to speak up as Jen finished asking for assistance and laying all the information on the table.  Jaya brushed a hand through her hangs for a moment tucking them behind her ear, the classic pony tail was tightened as she tugged on the sides to put the band a little closer to her scalp.  One man said that he thought they could do a poorly coded message that the Breen might could intercept and think that they had won over the Federation by finding the bomb before it could detonate. 

“That's not a bad idea.” said Jaya, though she was only a pilot.  “But wouldn't that still make possible retaliation a thing?”

Another officer thought the same things that she did and spoke them as well, but with an answer too.  Stating that if they could do it through police channels and without the need to put the Federations' name on the bomb it would be easier and the Breen could hunt down who ever had placed the bomb later, though she wished them luck on any of that.

“I will go where the Allegiant goes.” she stated to Jaya, there was no way anyone else was flying her baby, but more so than that, she wanted to be sure that where ever the Allegiant did go they had a pilot worth her spit that could get them in and out of hell.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on September 03, 2020, 06:34:48 PM
[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Dewitt) | Airlock | USS Allegiant ]
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As she listened to them all speaking, Jennifer began to pace the mouth of the airlock, crossing her arms underneath her breasts as she did so. While she had already given the deployment to Andoria some thought, the away team as a whole brought up many things she had yet to consider in terms of how they might deal with the threat. Their words also had her reevaluate the basic line-up she had in mind, realising that she had overlooked some of the many qualities they held individually.

It stood to reason that if the Breen even learned about any bomb, they might react in any which manner - clearly an 'unknown' they couldn't afford. It might have been less so with Andoria, but with all due respect towards the two present ones, their people could be easy to agitate, clearly worsening the situation when dealing with the threat of the Infested Praetor. Any hope to stop the war might be lost, if support towards peaceful solutions dwindled. There was a chance in both regards, however, to stop the awareness of the bombs from spreading locally. The question was obvious, however, and she spoke it out loud in the end, acknowledging Jaya Thorne with a nod.

"How long dare we keep quiet, in the hope that we can deal with this on our own?" she asked quietly. "By the minute, we gamble with time that both the Breen and the people of Andor could use to evacuate their people. If we fail, we might as well be complicit in the outcome as far as I am concerned. So, I need not emphasise how we must succeed, and that at some point... we might have to abort the mission and raise our voice."

She let that sink in, the hum of the Erudite filling the silence.

"Lieutenant Arnold," she said next, turning her green eyes to the man with the greying beard, their past not a factor in her decision. "You will be Chief of Mission here aboard the Erudite, which will head to Andoria, and Doctor Hernandez will be with you as well. Lone Wolves, you are staying aboard this Savi dreadnought as well, ready to be deployed as needed, but since you lack proper cloaks, you shouldn't go out there needlessly. In fact, Junior Lieutenant Petterson, you will be part of the away-team that may have to go down to Andor."

Shifting her eyes to Ida, Dewitt continued to deal up the assignments. "Lieutenant Zh'Wann, you will be Deputy Chief of Mission here on the Erudite, and should there be need for it, you will bring Lieutenant Vanya, Sogh Valkra and Petterson with you when dealing with the thalaron bomb. Frank, I am sure you see where my thoughts are at."

She'd turned back to Arnold, and nodded towards the thing sitting on the deck outside. "If zh'Wann and her away-team goes down there, you will have to control the Tovarek-drone for planet-side transporter deployment of her team. The Savi will not go out of their way to help us, so I hope you can set up a control console here in the Aerodrome, but it's worth asking the Voice nonetheless. This is their fight too. Hell, if our Reman here is correct, it might be the team will have to be deployed unto a Romulan ship in orbit."

Dewitt then turned to the others, those she hadn't mentioned. "The rest of you remain on the Allegiant, and we launch before the Erudite leaves. Chief Petty Officer Ji, you will stand in as Chief Engineer, and Zark, you can take over the medical bay. Lieutenant Arn, as an experienced field operative, you will be leading my away-team here in Breen space. You will be Deputy Chief of Mission here as well, should I be incapacitated. You will bring Zark, Lorad and Kolla with you before the Breen Council convenes." She turned her eyes to the Devore in their midst and a small smile touched her mouth. "Petty Officer, you said you will have no problem defusing a Federation bomb, correct? Well, our best guess is that the bomb we're dealing with here is of Starfleet design, so I will leave it to you to handle that, should it come to it."

Jennifer paused, but there ought to be no questions, so she continued after a moment. "Lieutenant Arnold, have your away team get their things off the Allegiant. I hope the Savi don't take issue with you all making camp on the deck outside. In fact, they might even have an empty lab you can use." She took a deep breath, foregoing with the momentary humour, for the hours ahead were naught to make light of. "Good luck, and if you don't get any leads on the bomb in good time... make sure Andor is evacuated. That's an order. Dimissed."


SEVEN HOURS LATER | DAY 02, 2000 HRS.


Stepping out of her ready room, her thoughts on the personal conversations she'd had with the crew - about the losses on the Theurgy and the splitting up of officers - Jennifer assumed her seat on the bridge.

"Thorne, take us out," she said quietly, and folded one leg over the other. With her on the bridge - besides her friend from the Black Opal - were T'Less, Halliwell and Arn. "Engage cloak, and set a course towards Breen. After you put us in orbit, I will take the first watch here on the bridge. I want you all to sleep well, for the Council meeting begins early on the morrow, and we have until then to continue our scans, and form plan for infiltrating the Federation Embassy - should it come to that."

Outside the viewscreen, Jennifer saw how the insides of the Aerodrome moved once the Allegiant elevated from the deck. She looked at Arnold's and zh'Wann's away team, standing out there with the rest of them, and while she doubted they could see her, she raised a hand in acknowledgement and good bye where she sat. The four Valkyries and the Tovarek drone fell out of sight as well, and before long, they were moving towards the bay doors.

"Incoming hail, Captain. It's the Voice," said Halliwell.

"On screen."

[Dewitt,] said the rebel Savi leader, his black eyes staring at her, [Captain Ives has given us insight that may win an upcoming battle in the Flotilla, but the Erudite is too far away from it. So, while we will not be able to remain in contact with your vessel, we will return in twenty-six hours. This, even if the Code states we must avoid contact with the Aspect-Makers.]

"I'll hold you to that, Echtand qi Versant," she said with a lopsided smile,  "Please protect my people, and if your Code permits it, help them."

[The Code clearly states we must not...] the alien began to say with a deep frown.

"I know, it's your own kind of Prime Directive, we get it. Thank you, in any case, for the assistance you can give us," she said and stifled a sigh. She hoped she didn't sound too sarcastic. The Savi were their means to return to the Theurgy, after all.

[May forethought guide your mind,] said Echtand and inclined his head without further comment. Then, the feed was cut.

Where have I heard this 'Aspect-Maker' term before? she wondered, unsure what it implied. Outside the viewscreen, the Erudite could no longer be seen, cloaked as it were. Their sensors didn't even pick up on the moment the Savi dreadnought made its quantum slipstream entry, heading deep into Federation space.

"Let's hope Arnold and the rest aren't caught being somehow affiliated with that thalaron bomb, detonated or not, because the Infested will just have it that we were directly involved." Jennifer's brow was creased in concern as they made their way towards Breen. "I mean, it seems to be their standard modus operandi when it comes to us from the Theurgy, doesn't it?"


OOC: Here here! Next, a starter for Chapter 05 and the Andoria mission will be made, but in wait for that, @BZ , @uytrereee , @Number6 , @DaValle , @RyeTanker & @Stegro88 , you all have 7 days to post in reply here, the deadline set at the 10th of September. :)

Supplemental threads on the Allegiant/Erudite set before this scene above belong to Chapter 03 or 04, depending on which time you pick, with the title convention CH0X: S [D0Y|ZZZZ] Insert Title. If set before 1245 on Day 02, it belongs to Chapter 03. As for Chapter 04, supplemental threads may be started set a) during the 7 hours I spanned in this post for both the away teams, b) during the night leading up to the Breen Council meeting for those on the Allegiant.

The names of the split-up away teams can be seen below:

BREEN | ALLEGIANT CREW
- Chief of Mission (COM): Captain Jennifer Dewitt @Auctor Lucan
- CONN: Ensign Jaya Thorne @BZ
- Redshirt Operations: Ens. Klara Halliwell (NPC, due KIA)
- Tactical: Lt. T'Less @Stegro88
- Engineering: CPO Eun Sae Ji @BZ

BREEN | AWAY TEAM
- Redshirt Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM): Lt. Zaryn Arn (NPC, due KIA) @Auctor Lucan
- Medical Officer: Lt. JG XamotZark zh’Ptrell @RyeTanker
- Bomb Expert: PO2 Taa'gur Kolla @DaValle
- Gunnery Officer: PO3 Lorad @Stegro88

ANDORIA | ERUDITE AERODROME
- Chief of Mission (COM) & Drone Control: Lt. Frank Arnold @uytrereee
- Medical Officer: Doctor George Hernandez (NPC)
- Fighter Escort 01: Lt. JG Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley @Auctor Lucan
- Fighter Escort 02: Ens. Isel Nix (NPC)
- Fighter Escort 03: Ens. Nathaniel Isley (NPC)

ANDORIA | AWAY TEAM (VIA TOVAREK DRONE BUFFER AND TRANSPORTER)
- Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM): Lt. ThanIda zh'Wann @Auctor Lucan
- Science Officer: Lt. Vanya @Number6
- Intelligence Operative: Lt. JG Donna "Chance" Petterson @Stegro88
- Redshirt Gunnery Officer: Sogh (Lt.) Valkra (NPC, due KIA)

I am open to start other threads! If you have ideas for scenes that might involve a lot of the characters above, PM me. :) Chapter 05 coming up, and I'll move the hands of time forward to the Breen Council meeting in 7 days. Stay tuned!

Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Number6 on September 03, 2020, 10:19:35 PM
[ Lt. Vanya | Airlock | USS Allegiant ] As the plan of action presented itself, Vanya felt a mixture of relief and trepidation  Relief, because she was finally doing something.  Trepidation, because she was worried about the dangers ahead. 

Vanya  was going back to Andoria, if needed.  It was an odd thing, the android mused to return to Federation space.    As an android starting to rebel against the society in which she lived, the Federation seemed like a paradise, somewhere she could be free.    She had returned to the Federation and felt a sense of liberation, even though she had faced prejudice for her Romulan and Artificial nature.  Now, a return to one of the founder worlds represented a trip into enemy territory.  Had things changed?  Or had they returned to normal.  It was an interesting concept.
 
As reflective as Vanya was, she could only imagine how strange it was for zh'Wann.  She didn’t know the Andorian personally, particularly her history.  Even if she wasn’t a native Andorian, the world was the home of her people  She wondered how Nat was feeling about Earth, but quickly put the thoughts to one side    Now wasn’t the time to think about Nat. 

Lt. Arnold had come up with some interesting ways minerals to scan for.  She wondered if it was worth trying to hack into planetary communications to pick up signs of unusual activities.  She began to consider the possibilities  The trip on the Erudite was going to be interesting.

“Can the Erudite sensors pick up all of these materials that Lieutenant Arnold mentioned?” Vanya asked 
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on September 08, 2020, 04:55:36 PM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Deck 1 | Airlock | USS Allegiant] @Auctor Lucan @Number6 @Stegro88  @uytrereee @BZ

As Cdr. Hewitt put out her plan of action, Lt. Zark unconsciously began grinning and hugged herself a little tighter.  War with the Romulans was bad enough, but now splitting up the team to avoid war with the Breen were becoming much thinner than she liked.  The minor fact that she was now medical officer on the Breen side of this adventure wasn't calculated to make her feel any better since it had now cut the medical margin of safety by more than 50% Thinking about it, it was trending toward 100% since any sort of away mission to Breen needed people and as an exosuit combat trained medic, her services would be very useful on the planet again looking for the bomb. 

Tapping her fingers on an arm, Lt. Zark looked at ceiling while thinking of anything to add to their current predicament, but nothing came to mind and that was in itself somewhat frustrating.  I wonder how Saucer is doing. I hope he didn't get caught in the explosion.  I hope they're giving him water and food too.  He should be making friends soon, the little rascal.  With nothing else to think about, stray thoughts had the habit of ambushing her at the oddest times.  Maybe it was a coping mechanism as her smile and facial features turned almost serene at the thoughts of her cat prowling the ship and avoiding getting caught under foot of the various crew members on Theurgy.

Lt. Vanya's question pulled her from her reverie's.  It was definitley a good question and she wasn't sure what the capabilities of the Savi Dreadnought were for focusing for that level of precision.  Starfleet vessels normally were capable of making that sort of scan assuming there was nothing interfering heavily, but that needed a noticeable amount of power, possibly enough to cause their detection by Breen system security.

Another stray thought caused her logic train to temporarily come to a halt as Lt. Zark stopped tapping on her arm.  She had never before considered thanking serendipity before, but this might be a good case.  While on planet, she had conducted a short range full spectrum scan.  The scientific aspects any scan should have been built into any Starfleet system since part of the organization's mandate was one of scientific exploration.  A possible solution began forming in her head...

Dropping her arms and turning to the Lt.Vanya and Arnold, Lt.Zark began gently gesturing with her arms. Lt. Vanya.  Lt.Arnold. I conducted a full spectrum scan when we were on the the planet, so my exosuit has details of the building composition of Breen structures in it's memory.  Could we use that to refine and filter out the common material elements and power frequenceis in Breen buildings and look for anything unusual, even shielded areas of the Hall of Heroes and the Federation embassy?  Lt. Zark paused for a second as she rubbed the tip of her nose before continuing. We could also modify the tricorders on the exosuits to filter out the common elements and pick up the specific elements in a the bomb?
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: BZ on September 10, 2020, 04:11:10 AM
[Ens Jaya Thorne | Too Early to Worry | Andor is a Cold Bastard | Come Back Safe Everybody | We've Lost Too Many]
@Auctor Lucan




Jaya was still fairly pissed off about the whole explosion on the Theurgy part.  She didn't know anyone that had lost their lives but Theurgy was more than a ship, they were a family and once you were part of that family had had thousands of officers ready to fuck your face over and cremate your body while dancing in the dust of your ashes.  That was the kind of power that the Theurgy had over the people that it chose, and it wasn't just the fact that they were moving forward together against a greater evil it was that they were just all united, smart, people that had a common goal and a common place to live. 

When Jen turned and called out Arnold's name, Jaya's vibrant eyes scanned the crowd until she found his larger form and he stood there being told that he would be fronting the operation to head out to Andor.  Her eyes widened. 

Guess that makes sense, though I figured Jen would be itchin' in her britches to get a piece of a bomb threat.

Jaya and Arnold had a bit of fun together eating and having a bit of a meal and a get to know you session that was totally platonic but it was the kind of thing that could possibly go somewhere if they wanted it to.  Jaya wasn't sure, Arnold wasn't hard to read, he was pretty up front about what he thought about her but the man was obviously a massive flirt so Jaya hadn't sussed out if he was just flirting because that was what he did or if he actually was pursuing her. So that was something that she was going to have to figure out before she put too much time and effort into the whole situation.

Jaya headed across the deck as Jen finished giving out her orders, and she made her way to Arnold.  She looked up at him, and gave him a witty grin.  “Well here's your chance Joachim, you better soak up all the Jaya time you can before it slips through your fingers.” she said with a non-chalant grin on her face though she was truly worried about how he was going to do on the ride to Andora.  Not even the fact that he was new to command and all of that kind of thing, no she fully believed in his abilities but that he was going to be on his own all across space and she wouldn't be there.

Not that they were anything to be worried about.  They were too new.  Too .. anything really.





[CPO Eun Sae Ji | Well This is a Surprise | If Only Liam Could See Me Now | A New Role | Outside the Norm]





Ji stood with the rest of the crew.  The news had rocked her, and though she was quiet where she stood, the short asian woman mostly hidden by the larger officers around her, she had been scared.  Liam and Luca were both on that ship and she feared that the bomb might have been targeting Luca, but it might have accidentally gotten Liam.  She had no idea where he was, or what he was doing, all she knew was that he wasn't really talking to her right now and it was hard.  But, she deserved it, she knew it, and she was going to have to get over it and just wait to figure out what they were going to do.  He seemed open to continuing as though nothing had happened, but that didn't seem right either and she found herself uninterested in doing that.  She wasn't even sure what she wanted out of life at this moment.  She was so tired, so emotionally and physically tired.  She had something good and went and fucked it up.

Maybe it was an issue with her. 

She was zoned out thinking about all sorts of things, but mostly grateful that neither of them had been hurt from the bomb that when she heard her name her head shot up in surprise.  She was told that Arnold was heading off to Andora, which would leave her as the Chief Engineer.  Ji didn't think that her eyes could get any wider if she pried them open with her fingers.

Me? Chief?

She wasn't unused to being a Chief or being called one, she had just never run an actual engineering deck.  But, she knew how to keep people on their shit and how to keep them doing their jobs, and she knew how to maintain and run a deck she just wasn't so sure she was the right one if shit hit the fan.  But then, she knew a lot about power and propulsion she wasn't the chief of that without having some serious knowledge when it came to such things so who knew she could be good at it. 

At the end of the speech, Ji didn't know much of what to say so she thought about heading out to find a private spot somewhere where she could pen a couple logs to Liam and Luca just in case of the worst.





==SEVEN HOURS LATER==

[Ens Jaya Thorne | Staying Behind | Return Safe | Enough Losses]





Jaya was sitting comfortably in her seat seven hours later.  She had spent quite a bit of those hours with Arnold since they might as well.  Carpe diem or .. something.  She couldn't quite remember but the sentiment was still there.  Still, she had to enjoy the life that she could live, especially when you worked for a ship like the Theurgy it was worthwhile to make sure that you did whatever you could.  She could hear the door behind her swish open and hear the familiar boot steps of the woman that Thorne knew so very well.  Sitting there watching the thrusters and engines all warmed up and ready for a little hand job.  So when Jen sat down in her seat and assumed the Captain position telling Thorne to take them out, she was ready.

“Aye Mon Capitan.” she said with a very fake french accent

She engaged the antigrav boosters underneath the large ship so that they were off the deck plating and hovering above it for a long moment.  She retracted the gear that had held them upwards and allowed it to slide back into the ship.  The metallic thunk of the gear finding it's home in the hull before she began to navigate the ship out towards the open bay doors.  There was a force field that was holding the atmosphere in the aerodome but they would be able to slide right through it and beyond.

Unlike Jen, Jaya was not able to look down around at the people here and there watching the Allegiant head out of the Aerodome.  They approached the force field and it shimmered as they slid through it and out into open space.  As soon as they were clear of the ship, she engaged the cloak as she was asked to and slid them over towards the planet so that they could enter an orbit to keep watch on the planet while they had a chance.  Jaya was nervous, about the Erudite, about Breen, about all of it but she wouldn't show it.  If she got nervous and Jen could see it, then the young Captain would know that it was a bad situation.  No, Jaya needed to remain cool and confident like she normally did so that this was just normal operations. 

“We are in orbit, time to kick up your heals, take in an on board snack, watch the onboard movie, and enjoy the scenery as you'll notice we have a fantastic view of a planet colder than  witches tit.  However, I'm often curious why a witch's tit is so cold?  I mean.. don't they wear clothes?  Can't someone just rub on it?  I mean that'll sort into a whole slew of new problems but a cold tit is not one of them.”

Jaya in normal form; it was a treat.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on September 10, 2020, 05:11:48 AM
[ Lieutenant T’Less, Lt. JG Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson & PO3 Lorad | Airlock | Deck 01 | USS Allegiant ]
[Show/Hide]


“Looks like I’m back in the special ops trade,” Donna thought to herself, nodding as she listened to Commander Dewitt reveal her decisions. She had suggested it herself, knowing that it was the most prudent course of action regarding her skillset, but now that it was confirmed, brought a sense of melancholy to Donna that she hadn’t been expecting. The last time she had done ground operations had been while she had been with Starfleet Intelligence; before Donna Petterson had even existed.

Lorad’s and T’Less’s thoughts on the Commander’s distribution of personnel were less complicated. They both would be remaining aboard the Allegiant and within Breen space so their original orders and tasks stood as they were.




Sitting at her station. T’Less monitored the sensor’s as the Allegiant left the relative safety of the Erudite. With no immediate signs of a threat to them, she began to compare the changes in the system since her last scan, absently listening to the discussion between the Savi and Dewitt. Once they had completed their discourse, the channel was closed, and the Vulcan noted the complete lack of detection of the Savi dreadnought engaging its quantum drive. 

In the crew quarters, Lorad lay back on his bunk and considered what to write in the message to his sister. Especially as the last one he had meant for her had not been received so well.

“Samala, if you are......”
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on September 10, 2020, 11:45:11 PM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | Deck 1 | Airlock | USS Allegiant] @Auctor Lucan  @Number6  @Stegro88@uytrereee  @BZ  @RyeTanker
[Show/Hide]


The Captain made her decision and the Devore nodded approving as she mentioned his strategic deployment aboard the Allegiant on the Breen homeworld instead of sending him to Andoria. He would have maybe been able to help with the Thalaron bomb, but despite his experience with a lot of different weapon types, his actual knowledge of Thalaron particles was rather inexistent than superior. In the end he would have done the same Lieutenant Arnold would have done, well maybe with slightly more speed, but beside that there’s no real reason for sending him and not Arnold.

For Taa’gur the next hours would get quite interesting as he now had to refresh as much of his knowledge of Federation warheads and again he was already happy as he stood there in the crowed that the most Federation weapons were not designed only by the humans. At least from what he has learned about their species they had this certain ability to create as cruel as efficient weapons. An ability Taa’gur wasn’t really keen to meet down on the surface of this planet. Still he needed to be ready since whatever they’ll encounter down there, it’ll fall in his hand to disarm it as fast as possible and he’s definitely not come here to fail during a critical situation. But before he could start reading through some Federation weapon basics to refresh especially his knowledge of the not really used variants, Taa’gur needed to get comfortable with something less helpful in defusing a bomb. Actually the thing he was in a need to get comfortable with wasn’t really good to do more than one thing with it. Killing, or whatever this oversized huge gun would do if it’s fired upon a living being. Anyhow the Devore had to learn how to fight with this thing and since he already had the time to do so, he could also figure out if this thing would just make a clean hit or if it's just the wet dream of every gore fan. Not that he would have a real problem with the last one.



He was ready or at least he was as ready as someone in his position could be. The whole away team had probably no clue what exactly they’ll face down there. Beside some basic information they had nothing. It wasn’t even impossible that they would find some sort of biological bomb down there that could in a matter of seconds kill them all without any chance to disarm it, but it was also possible that they will just face an old Tricobalt warhead down there and will be able to go in and out in ten minutes. Who knows, it wasn’t Taa’gurs way to think about possibilities for too long.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: uytrereee on September 12, 2020, 05:34:16 PM
[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | Sancho my Horse, my Armor! | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

Frank was fundamentally surprised when his name was called out of the group, and for a moment he looked around, as if searching for another Frank Arnold in the group. His back struck erect, and he turned his attention to the Commander, offering a light nod, and a firm, "Yes Captain." He turned his head around the group, looking to pick out those among the gathering that would be his accompaniment, or rather, that he would be their commander. When Dewitt was done doling out assignments, Frank offered loud enough to be heard, "Gather your affects, and anything mission critical, we'll meet on the Erudite deck, one hour prior to the Allegiant's departure."

 He nodded firmly, and then his attention was directed to a debonair pilot, with a quick tongue. He smirked at her and offered far more quietly, "I think you mean you're going to have to nab up as much Arnold time as you can." He grinned gently, and turned his attention to the Tovarek Drone, it would be coming with them as well, which would be good, like as not it would be a valuable asset. Once they were dismissed, he cleared his throat to Jaya and offered lowly, "Meet me in the racks in about an hour?" He figured that would give him enough time to stow his crap.

When they were dismissed, he relaxed a little, and turned to the exit, striding off quickly to get his things together, so he could spend a few hours with Jaya.

((Just a short closure post))
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on September 30, 2020, 03:48:07 PM

NEXT MORNING | 0600 HRS. | ABOVE THE BREEN CAPITAL | ANSIRRANANA


(https://uss-theurgy.com/w/images/0/01/Breen_Mission.png) (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/images/0/01/Breen_Mission.png)

Mission Log, stardate 57653.74. In one hour, the Breen Council will convene in the Hall of Heroes, and we suspect that the Infested will do something which will antagonise them enough to attack the Federation. I realise, as we descend into the atmosphere and enter the capital, that we came here at the word of a Doctor that believed 'something' will happen. Yet since then, the Theurgy made contact with the USS Relativity - an ally made before my time aboard - and even the crew of that timeship was able to confirm that this mission is merited. While Captain Ducane of the Relativity was close-lipped about what exactly will transpire here, because of some bullshit about the information having too much of an impact on the timeline, I am somewhat relieved that Doctor Nicander spoke the truth, and didn't have us sent here for nothing.

The question remains, however; What will happen?

The best lead we have is that of Lieutenant Zark, whom detected that there was actually Federation personnel in the city, and how they might have used their diplomatic bag to smuggle something into the embassy, right in time for this great council meeting between the Thots of the Breen Confederacy. We'll be deploying a team from the airlock on top of the Federation Embassy, and they will infiltrate the facility in hopes of picking something up on close range scanners. In fear that the Allegiant might be compromised, despite the cloak, we won't be able to use its sensor suite at its full capacity, but if the ground team can't find anything, it might have to be our last resort.

I remind myself that unless we find something, we might have to drop our cloak anyway, and warn the Breen in time for an evacuation of the whole city.


- Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Dewitt, USS Allegiant NX-80978

[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Dewitt) | Bridge | USS Allegiant ]
[Show/Hide]
After finishing the log, Jennifer stepped out unto the bridge, seeing the cityscape of Ansirranana spreading out below the Allegiant's trajectory. Light snows and a cutting wind made the atmospheric flight somewhat of a challenge, Dewitt reckoned, but she had great faith in Jaya Thorne being able to land on top of the Federation Embassy with little trouble in any kind of weather.

"What's the ETA?" she asked and sat down in the centre chair on the bridge, the anticipation of the mission on hand making her sharp and alert.

"One minute at this speed, Captain," said Halliwell at Ops, the Klingon hybrid keeping her eyes on the read-outs on her screens, before contacting Chief Ji, whom was working one deck below them. "Ops to Engineering. We need more power to the cloak, otherwise we'll get detected when we land. Please advise if we have to make an aerial drop of the ground team."

Meanwhile, Dewitt turned her head to look at T'Less at the Tactical controls. "The Federation personnel will have to have come here aboard something. What Starfleet signatures can you detect out there with our sensor output this low?"

"I'm heading to the airlock," said Zaryn Arn, leaving his station whilst already wearing his full EVA suit (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=EVA_Suit). He gave the present women a little grin from behind his visor. "Wish us luck."

"We'll try to keep a transporter lock on you as long as we can," said Jennifer in answer and inclined her head, seeing the Trill leave the bridge to join the rest of the ground team that awaited him in the airlock of the Allegiant. Lorad would be there, whom she remembered from the first day he stepped aboard, after they had saved the Apache in the Azure Nebula. T'Kolla would be there as well, wearing the same kind of EVA suit that Arn did, and she could but hope those would protect them well enough even if those were no hardshell exosuits. Lieutenant Zark would be infiltrating the Embassy as well, and if something would happen to Arn, she'd have to take command of the team. It was somewhat reassuring, that she had medical training in case things turned sour.

"Thorne, depending on what Ji advises, deploy the ground team on top of the Embassy and then take us to the outskirts of the city, where the sensors and defence systems are more scarce. Stay within transporter lock, however, and keep your eyes on the morning traffic down here, though, because I am not sure this cloak will stay active if someone manages to scrape the paint of this ship."

Once they were approaching the Embassy, the pyramid structure of the Hall of Heroes towered over them, and Jennifer tapped her console so that she could speak to the away team in the airlock. "Once you gain access, focus on the scans, and if you see something suspicious, don't tarry. Make your way there immediately and confirm your findings. Set your weapons to stun, but don't let anything stop you. We'll remain in communication distance. Dewitt out."

After giving those final instructions, Dewitt turned her green eyes to look at the pyramid, wondering what the Breen would do if she'd be forced to advise an evacuation. Would they even heed us?


OOC: My apologies for the tardiness in launching this mission, reasons mainly being RL stuff besides the news about Steelphoenix being such a damper on everything. In any case, I am excited to have this underway, and I have some rudimentary ideas about how we can cover a lot of ground with each post. First, we have the deployment of the ground team, which @BZ can cover first. Next, I am giving full permission to NPC Zaryn Arn to you three active writers with characters inside the Embassy. So, use him to progress the story, and I will also NPC him when my time to post comes up again. So, @Stegro88 , @DaValle and @RyeTanker , with your upcoming posts, here are a few Objectives that you all can pick freely from, but the most important thing is that you all push events to the point where they detect very faint readings of protomatter somewhere in the basement of the embassy. Up until that point, here are a few ideas of mine, to add to your own if you so wish: [Show/Hide]
Supplemental threads on the Allegiant set before this scene (during the night before this mission) belong to Chapter 04 with the title convention CH04: S [D0Y|ZZZZ] Insert Title. If set before 1245 on Day 02, however, it belongs to Chapter 03, and can be set on the Erudite as well. There can be no Supplemental threads set after 0600 hrs. on Day 03, where this mission takes place.

The names of the away team can be seen below:

BREEN | ALLEGIANT CREW
- Chief of Mission (COM): Captain Jennifer Dewitt @Auctor Lucan
- CONN: Ensign Jaya Thorne @BZ
- Redshirt Operations: Ens. Klara Halliwell (NPC, due KIA)
- Tactical: Lt. T'Less @Stegro88
- Engineering: CPO Eun Sae Ji @BZ

BREEN | AWAY TEAM
- Redshirt Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM): Lt. Zaryn Arn (NPC, due KIA) @Auctor Lucan
- Medical Officer: Lt. JG XamotZark zh’Ptrell @RyeTanker
- Bomb Expert: PO2 Taa'gur Kolla @DaValle
- Gunnery Officer: PO3 Lorad @Stegro88

I am open to start supplemental threads on the Allegiant, set before this mission! If you have ideas for scenes that might involve a lot of the characters above, PM me. :)

Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: BZ on October 06, 2020, 01:56:38 AM
[Ens. Jaya Thorne | Snow is Always Beautiful | A Walk in the Snow Sounds Nice | Ready to Get this Mission Over With]
@Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @RyeTanker @DaValle




There was always something beautiful about snow.  The way it fell like petals from the sky gracefully dancing among the wind currents and finding themselves drifting ever closer to the ground until they nestled fully against others just like yet completely different than any others.  This snow was different though, because of the hellacious wind currents, because nothing about Breen could actually be nice, she found that the snow was one of attack, the kind of painful biting kind if she was actually out in it.  Thankfully, she wasn't going to have to go out in it.  She just had to fly in it.  Pelting against the view screens, the sensors, the cameras, and the hull of the ship. While she couldn't hear it she could feel every single heavy gust that was buckling against the ship and warping around the large cloaked beauty trying to make it to the capitol so the away team could get their ninja on.

A door opened to the rear of the Bridge and there were no foot falls that sounded so resolute and yet laden with the weight of command as Dewitts.  Sure enough, the red headed's words soon crossed the Bridge as she asked for the ETA.

“One minute is rounding up.” she called out with a chuckle since she had to be herself.  IF she got all serious now than Jen would know that things were rough and Jaya didn't want that up on her shoulders.  Nope it was up to her to keep status quo going at full speed.  Someone calls out to engineering for more power to the shields. 

The fact that the response wasn't near instant meant that the short Korean woman was likely busy as crap down there trying to be an Engineer when she was normally spending her days keeping the fighter assault bay running as fast as she could.

Thorne.  “Ugh so formal, J.” she said with a shake of her head and a scrunch of her little freckled nose just to keep some light in the situation.  She was told that depending on what Ji could do for them, they were to let the away team off at the Embasy roof and then go play cloak and dagger on the outskirts inside teleporter range, outside air traffic... “Do you want fries with that?” she asked sarcastically as she worked them through the city buildings, the traffic, and the wind buffets to lower the ship down closer to the Embasy roof so that the away team could get off. 

“I have given it as much power as the damn thing can take, any more and you won't be breathing oxygen and we won't be going forward any more.” said Ji seriously.

“So we will be going backwards then?” asked Jaya playfully.

“Fuck's sa-” Ji said cutting herself off and getting back to the job at hand.

“Dang, no fun today.” Jaya sighed wishing that Arnold was around he would appreciate her wit and humor in dark moments like this.  Finally, Jaya reached over and flipped switches.  “Deploying ground team now.” she said as the hatch opened allowing the team to disembark into the cold cityscape of Breen Hell.

“Don't turn into those ice statues from Narnia folks, it's not a cute look.” she said by way of greeting through the com system.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on October 07, 2020, 12:57:05 AM
[ Lieutenant T’Less | Bridge | USS Allegiant | Breen Space ]  
[Show/Hide]


“Sensor range is limited due to weather and power levels, preventing a widespread search,” T’Less thought to herself as she considered how best to go about the task set for her by Commander Dewitt. “Although, being a vessel on a diplomatic mission, it would not be attempting to conceal itself and the Breen, due to their nature, would keep it in a place where it would be highly visible to everything and everyone.” Deductions made, T’Less adjusted her sensors as best she could to cover the areas in sequence. 

As Ensign Thorne moved the Allegiant into position, T’Less looked away from her screens for a moment to watch the four figures disembark. With them safely deployed, Thorne began to manoeuvre away and T’Less refocused her attention on the sensors. It took several minutes for her to find what she was looking for but it was there, and though its presence was obscured by the large amount of Breen vessels in orbit, T’Less was able to locate it.

“Ma’am, I’ve located a Starfleet vessel in orbit,” T’Less reported. “Preliminary assessment is that it is of the Intrepid-class. I’ll need more time or more power to provide more details.”



[ PO3 Lorad | Roof | Federation Embassy | Breen ]
[Show/Hide]


Snow crunched under his boot as Lorad wrenched the door open. He didn’t know, or particularly care about the reasoning behind such a low-tech entryway, instead being grateful for it. They had scanned for surveillance devices and, with none found, Lorad had stepped forward. Now he was leading the way forward as the team began its foray. He was the most expendable member of the group, so it was a smart choice. His being the biggest also provided for a potential shield against incoming fire.

His accipiter was slung across his back while his sidearm was holstered at his hip. Use of either was going to potentially alert the buildings occupants so he wanted to avoid using them if possible. He was looking to remain undetected as much as possible which meant using his hands as much as possible.

The embassy building seemed largely unused, especially on the highest two floors. He was just about to begin his descent to the next floor down, when the door ahead of him opened and a Human male appeared. The genuine look of shock and surprise on his face told Lorad he was not expecting them and the Reman took advantage of that. Using his superior strength, Lorad snatched up the man and locked him into a sleeper hold before he could react. The man struggled but his strength was futile against Lorad, nor could he scream while trying to breath. The result inevitable, Lorad dragged the now unconscious man back and laid him down in a side office.

“Lieutenant,” Lorad called over internal coms. “Sleep him,” he directed, his Standard failing him in that moment, but he hoped he got his point across.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on October 07, 2020, 01:16:01 PM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | Federation Embassy | Breen] @Stegro88 @Auctor Lucan @BZ @RyeTanker
[Show/Hide]


The Devore followed the lead of the Reman as they made their way through the building. In every situation he was trying to keep his trigger fingers far away from the gun that laid in his hands. If he would use them, their whole operation was basically over. Though Taa’gur actual started to like those Federation phaser types, he, nonetheless, knew how loud it would get if they would use them, not even mentioning the sensors in the embassy that would probably detect them immediately.

Due to the shoulder strap of the rifle Taa’gur was able to use his left hand for more important tasks and currently the most helpful action of him would be to search for any traces of Federation weapon technology. He was anyway the one who had to disarm it, so he was probably also the one of them who could best distinguish the difference between a normal cosmic background radiation that could occur every now and then and some artificial created ones.

As the group went on, they encountered one of the embassy Officers and in a couple of moments Lorad took care of the situation. The poor fellow probably didn’t even realize what happened to him. After the man went down unconscious and was laid in another, not so obvious, place, the Reman gave some orders toward the Lieutenant. Taa’gur scanned the unconscious man again and thought for at least a couple of seconds that what he read on his sensors was definitely not right. The structural composition of his uniform was changed in a way that could only happen after contact with extreme aggressive radiation. The question now was to define which kind radiation the Officer was exposed to. Taa’gur decided to scan the man more intensive, but apparently the source of it wasn’t measurable in the whole upper embassy, so where ever the source was this Officer had to pass it before he crossed the massive arms of Lorad. “To all, that Officer there had contact with some kind of radiation. You all should look for traces of uncommon particles and radiation.” The Devore focused his sensors on such radiation and particles before went on behind Lorad.

The lower they came in the building, more traces of this radiation appeared, but still Taa’gur couldn’t tell what kind of radiation it was. Only as they reached the lowest levels of the embassy Taa’gur could find finally a solid trace of the origin of the strange radiation. Well actually he couldn’t less find a trace, than more spotting an Officer that had long enough contact with the source. The Vulcan looked out of a window and didn’t even realized that there was whole group of infiltrators behind him.  Before Lorad could take care of him though, Taa’gur tore the man at his neck till he fell down on his back, but instead of letting the man simply fall to the ground the Devore kneed down and let him fall on his thigh. As a reaction to the abrupt stop the head of the Vulcan snapped back and offered Taa’gur his throat completely unprotected. This short moment was enough for the Devore to strike one time hard on the trachea of the Vulcan. Now the man wasn’t really unconscious, but he was definitely not able to call for aid till the Andorian woman could take care of him. Taa’gur scanned the Officer again and could finally figure out what kind of radiation they’ve faced till now. The uniform showed a lot of different particles on it, a lot of them could be found on any colonized planet, but there was this one slight remains of a particle that shouldn’t be found anywhere near cities. The scanner showed the Devore that there was a measurable amount of protomatter left on the uniform of the Vulcan.

“My sensors show protomatter!” He send a couple of sensor specifications to the rest of the team. “Use this schematics for your sensors. They should be able spot any trace now.”
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on October 11, 2020, 06:15:55 PM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Federation Embassy | Breen]

@Auctor Lucan @DaValle @Stegro88 @BZ

Lt. Zark would have called the debarkation deja vu, except the snow and wind seemed much worse than the first drop.  Visually speaking it was a spectacular vista of fast moving snow and howling freezing temperatures.  If it was a more primitive time, one would wonder how anything could be spotted with the cold dampening the Allegiant's power output.  As her feet hit the snow covered roof, Lt. Zark's phaser rifle came up in a smooth motion as the away team took off at a brisk pace.  Time was definitely of the essence here, no stopping and scanning. 

The team quickly breached the upper floors and started to head into the heart of the embassy building.  Either security here is a joke or this location has some of the lowest priorities for security systems in the Federation.  That was almost too easy. It was almost eerie how unused the building was as they didn't encounter any sign of habitation in the upper two floors.  This quickly changed as as sudden eruption of violence occurred to the team's front. Lt. Zark had her rifle pointed at the disturbance, and kept her finger well on the trigger guard as the Reman used his immense strength to effectively choke the consciousness out of the human.  When the human went limp, the Reman's request to sedate the poor fellow came over.  Although it was hard to see behind the EVA suits face shield Lt. Zark's trademark stress smirk easily formed.  10 out of 10 for style, that's for sure.   She quickly made her way over and pulled out a hypospray from a pocket and slapped in a vial of anesthazine.  Normally used as an aerosol, minute amounts could be injected directly into the blood stream to get the same effect.  Making a quick adjustment to the dosage, Lt. Zark quickly found the pulse of the downed male and injected him.  With the dose he had, he should be out for a good 4 to 6 hours.  Maybe a case of overkill here, but if the mission took long enough for the sedative to wear off, they were royally in trouble anyway.

Thankfully there were no more encounters as they descended deeper into the building.  A quick change of the suits sensors to detect the radiation PO T'Kolla had detected was definitely causing concern as the concentration was increasing the deeper they went. Note to self, see if we need decontamination after we're done here.   The team's luck in not meeting anyone finally ran out when they encountered a lone Vulcan staring out the window and the Devorian seemed to rocket forward to incapacitate the Vulcan.  Lt. Zark could see the disaster unfolding before her and there was nothing she could do. T'Kolla was simply too quick.  The strike was text book, almost a work of art.  However every interesting story had it's drama and in this case, the sound of the strike was just a bit to wet and mushy to Lt. Zark's trained ear to be a good thing.  The Vulcan was down and insensate, but he was also starting to turn an alarming shade of brown and clawing at his throat as the sudden cessation of oxygen to his body took hold.

Lt. Zark quickly laid her phaser rifle aside as she closed with the prone and now thrashing Vulcan.  Quickly hitting her communicator "Lieutenant Arn, hold his arms down and still!"  Lt. Arn seemed initially as shocked by the action that had occurred but his training and discipline quickly took over as he laid his weapon aside.  Lt. Zark was aware of Lt. Arn calling the other team members to set up a perimeter while he landed on the Vulcan's pelvis and moved to pull the immensely strong arms away from the injured neck.  Lt. Arn was having a hard time of it even with the exo suits as the Vulcan's desperation fuelled strength fought the exosuit.  It took what felt like an hour, but was mere seconds to get the Vulcan under control.  Lt. Arn held a death lock grimace as he continued to keep the Vulcan from breaking free while at the same time watching his HUD's readouts for system stress and power reserves.

Lt. Zark quickly used a medical tricorder to scan the injured Vulcan and felt her ricutus smile loosen as the damage appeared to be less severe than the struggling Vulcan indicated. Making a quick adjustment on her hypospray, she jammed the hypospray to the Vulcan's neck injected him with a small amount of Anesthazine causing the Vulcan to go limp.  The Andorian medic didn't even notice this as she quickly ejected the Anesthazine vial and pulled out a vial of Tri-Ox.  Quickly slotting the new vial in, she injected the hapless Vulcan.  Lt. Zark would have much preferred a subdermal scalpel and an analgesic, to repair the damage, but this should work in the mean time for the period the Vulcan would be unconscious.

Tapping her communicator for the team frequency, Lt. Zark turned a glare on T'Kolla. "Let's get this body hidden away. We only have maybe 2-3 hours before he wakes up and starts screaming for help.  Petty Officer T'Kolla, when we get out of here, you and I are going to have a discussion on your questionable choice of incapacitation methods."
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on October 19, 2020, 04:52:35 PM
[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Dewitt) | Bridge | USS Allegiant ]
[Show/Hide]
When T'Less said there was little more to learn from their current sensor input, being at a power-disadvantage as they were with the cloak, Dewitt took a deep breath as she looked at the swirling snow outside the view screen. Thorne was taking them away from the Federation Embassy, dodging Breen atmo-shuttles whilst they tried to reach an altitude with less traffic in the blizzard. Fuck it, we need more intel.

"Ascend to the Intrepid-class ship, Thorne," she said, making the call. "I want to have a closer look. Remain above Ansirranana. Halliwell, you will tell us the moment we loose comms or transporter range with the away team, understood?"

"Aye, Captain," she said, and then her console chirped. "It's Lieutenant Arn, he's transmitting from inside the Embassy. Signal is weak... In fact, looking at that city block from this altitude... it seems like the Embassy itself is far more dampened when it comes to sensor readings when compared to surrounding buildings. Perhaps that building is indeed hiding something, and not just being low-staffed."

"Patch through the Lieutenant," said Jennifer as they entered the clouds above the city. "On screen."

On the side which Thorne wasn't seated at, the helmet-feed from Arn's visor showed dimly lit corridors, and the Trill was looking at the rest of the away team. They seemed to be dragging a body into the shadows, and Arn's voice was hushed. [Arn to the Allegiant. We've made a bit of a ruckus here, but we've yet to fire our weapons, so we will go down another level now. We have a lead already.] The visor's feed turned towards the Devore in the shadows. [Petty Officer T'Kolla has detected readings of protomatter on the diplomats here, and I've just calibrated my tricorder to locate it. It's weak, but we're detecting a source below the building. We'll pick up the pace and report back when we get there.]

"Protomatter?" asked Jenifer with a frown, knowing it was an unstable substance which every ethical scientist in the Federation and the galaxy as a whole had denounced as dangerously unpredictable. She recalled that the Maquis had incorporated protomatter in an implosion device, meant to overload the impulse drive of a Cardassian ship before the Dominion War. Some species in the Delta Quadrant used it for fuel nonetheless, but according to the Voyager's reports, the results were still unreliable - almost killing one of the ship's crew. "Be careful, Lieutenant. We have no way of knowing when or how that compound will be triggered, who will do it, or even what the yield is. Halliwell says the building has some kind of dampening field on it, so no wonder the Breen haven't detected it yet. That does suggest it might be big enough to take out the Hall of Heroes where it currently sits. In the meantime, we'll take a closer look at the starship the diplomats arrived on."

[Got it,] said Arn, and while he talked, they could see on the screen how the entire away team were descending the Embassy, with the Trill in the lead. [Unless contained during the transport here, the crew aboard ought to be contaminated as well. They can't all be Infested aboard that ship, right?]

"My thought exactly. I have a half-baked plan alread-" There was a loud commotion on the view screen, which made Jennifer stop talking. She head shouting, and it seemed the away team had run into trouble. The feed was cut before anyone on the Allegiant's bridge could make out what had happened. "Lieutenant Arn? Come in!"

Silence.

"Try to re-establish communication, Halliwell," she told Ops, while they ascended through the atmosphere and came closer to the defensive grid and the fleets of ships amassed in orbit of the planet. "T'Less, what can you tell me about the Federation ship now? Who's the commanding officer, and do you think we can impersonate a Breen ship if we hail them, using audio only? We just need a scrambler from the Universal Translator. My thought is, we could bring up the protomatter and see how they react, and then go from there. What say you?"

The risk was evident, in how poking an ant's nest could expedite the intents of whomever held the trigger... but if they could find a sensible CO and a non-Infested crew, they might also get help stopping the Breen from declaring war on the Federation. She listened to what the present bridge crew thought of the idea...

...yet little did she know that atmospheric exit had stirred the interest of a Breen patrol ship, who'd seen the fluctuations in the atmosphere. Thus, they earned a shadow, which followed their trajectory blindly, yet to see through their Reman cloak.


OOC: There we go! Permission to NPC Zaryn Arn during the altercation is given to all three of three active writers with characters inside the Embassy. So, use him to progress the skirmish, and if you want to, kill him off using the aforementioned Ambassador (or not) during this round (or the next). @Stegro88 , @DaValle and @RyeTanker , with your upcoming posts, the most important thing is that you all push events to the point where they reach the basement of the embassy and the "bomb" in question. Here are a few ideas of mine, to add to your own if you so wish: [Show/Hide]
Supplemental threads on the Allegiant set before this scene (during the night before this mission) belong to Chapter 04 with the title convention CH04: S [D0Y|ZZZZ] Insert Title. If set before 1245 on Day 02, however, it belongs to Chapter 03, and can be set on the Erudite as well. There can be no Supplemental threads set after 0600 hrs. on Day 03, where this mission takes place.

The names of the away team can be seen below:

BREEN | ALLEGIANT CREW
- Chief of Mission (COM): Captain Jennifer Dewitt @Auctor Lucan
- CONN: Ensign Jaya Thorne @BZ
- Redshirt Operations: Ens. Klara Halliwell (NPC, due KIA)
- Tactical: Lt. T'Less @Stegro88
- Engineering: CPO Eun Sae Ji @BZ

BREEN | AWAY TEAM
- Redshirt Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM): Lt. Zaryn Arn (NPC, due KIA) @Auctor Lucan
- Medical Officer: Lt. JG XamotZark zh’Ptrell @RyeTanker
- Bomb Expert: PO2 Taa'gur Kolla @DaValle
- Gunnery Officer: PO3 Lorad @Stegro88

I am open to start supplemental threads on the Allegiant, set before this mission! If you have ideas for scenes that might involve a lot of the characters above, PM me. :)
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: BZ on October 28, 2020, 02:03:13 AM
[Ens. Jaya Thorne | New Kinks | Not the Plan | Don't go to Narnia | Ready to Rescue]
@Auctor Lucan





It was a sad day when no one could appreciate good humor.  Jaya was hilarious, even she thought so, and she was such a good judge of character that even on her worst days she was almost always right.  Still, she had to admit that the atmosphere was far too serious even for as serious a situation that they were in.  She supposed that, in a way, that must be why Jen had picked her to show up and make sure that this flying boat was the life of the party.  But, she also knew that her flying skills were trusted and she was pretty badass all around.  Still, she liked to think it was the whit and charm that had earned her many places among the elite chosen for such a mission.

Upon orders, Jaya only nodded as her affirmation before they headed up to the altitude she was told to.  Jaya loved the way that the Allegiant felt, underneath her hands, it was a beautiful ship and it moved like a dream.  She didn't often get much off time to just fly and play and enjoy herself.  She really just wanted to play.  But here she was stuck over the Breen city waiting for the ice men to finish their march into the embassy and hope that they came out alive, together, and with the bomb diffused so they could move on and the Federation wouldn't end up being an enemy.

Or well, more so than before.

Jaya twisted in her seat as the video feed of the camera on the helmet of .. someone she couldn't be bothered with names at this junction of boredom, began to transmit what was going on.  There was a body being drug off, some stairs, some whisper whiskey, tango, foxtrot, kind of stuff and then some commotion.  That's never good. she thought.  The already tense atmosphere dialed up to 11 as she waited for more orders.  Dewitt was trying to figure out what to do, and what their next step was, Jaya wanted to fly in and rescue their buddies and take them back home.  But, the mission wasn't done yet and it was too important to abort.

Right now, all she could do was wait.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on October 28, 2020, 04:23:39 PM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Embassy | Breen]

@Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @DaValle @BZ

While the two Petty Officers hid the unconscious Vulcan away, Lt. Zark finished stowing away her medical equipment in the pouches on her exo suit.  With that task complete, she moved to cover the door while checking her HUD to see what other updates had come through.  Lt. Arn was in communication with Allegiant giving a status update when a red warning message flashed in status window, Ext Comm Lost: Jamming. Lt. Zark's eye brows shot up and she could feel her antennae attempt to do the same inside her helmet. Something had activated a dampening field and all communications had been lost with Allegiant.  This didn't stop her as she reached the door and took a quick peak outside.  Still nothing.  As she turned to face Lt. Arn, she could see him tapping the side of this helmet and punching combinations on his suit PADD.  It was obvious from the increasing speed and force that he was applying to his equipment that nothing was working.  For a moment Lt. Arn stopped working with his equipment and, frozen in motion and obviously in thought.  Lt. Zark could almost see the gears whirring inside the intelligence officer's head as he took in the implications of everything that had just happened. 

The two Petty Officers had gotten the body hidden away when Lt. Arn touched another button and Lt.Zark saw a window open on the team frequency.  "We've got a problem, I believe our intervention has been planned for by the Infested.  Given how few staff we've encountered, the ease of infiltration, and now the comm jamming all point to this.".  Lt. Zark and the others nodded their agreement, it wasn't exactly a trap, but the situation was immensely more complex than first anticipated with many more unknown variables being tossed in. "Makes sense.  Seeing how few people there are here, I would guess that our Infected infiltrator is the ambassador."   Lt.Arn made a continue motion with his hands. "With a staff this small, there's no need for an ambassador to delegate much of their duties so a lot authorizations like transferring items under diplomatic cover can be signed off by them.  The Infected also like to take over high ranking positions and the ambassador to another nation certainly counts."

Lt. Arn nodded at this and took another moment. "Speed is now of the essence, we need to find, apprehend, and interrogate the ambassador. Keep an eye on the sensors for increases in proto matter count.  That should hopefully point us in the direction of the enemy."  With that subtle change in designation a chill rush through the team.  They knew who their enemy was and they were in a race against time to hunt them down. "T'Kolla, lead off, followed my myself, Lorad, and Zark. Move out."

The hunt was on.


[Show/Hide]
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on October 29, 2020, 12:56:48 AM
[ PO3 Lorad | Federation Embassy | Breen ]
[Show/Hide]


Lorad was, conflicted. T’Kolla’s take down of the Vulcan had been, technically, well executed. Yet the Reman could help feel that it was much more than was necessary to immobilise the embassy official. He had seen the man ahead but while he had been waiting to see if he was alone, T’Kolla had brushed past him and attacked the Vulcan, almost killing him. They were not here to kill unless necessary and yet Weapons technician had felt the need to almost do that. If it hadn’t been for the Andorian’s efficient aid, the Vulcan would have suffocated to death.

Unsure what to say, Lorad dragged the Vulcan away and hid him behind some discarded furniture, securing his hands and feet in the process as the officers discussed what to do next. They had to find this protomatter and the ambassador. And without being in contact with the Allegiant due to a jamming field. Convenient. “Or perhaps not.”

“We should use turboshaft,” Lorad intoned after being relegated to third in line. It was a tactical mistake, in his opinion, given their situation. If there was a bomb, they would need T’Kolla to disarm it. Yet he had been placed in front, the most dangerous position. “We use suits to descend, scanning each level for life signs or this protomatter. We also avoid more people so less casualties,” Lorad explained, glancing at the place he had hidden the Vulcan, while considering his words. “Also safer if I lead. T’Kolla needed for bomb. Me, not.”



[ Lieutenant T’Less | Bridge | USS Allegiant | Breen Space ]
[Show/Hide]
 

As Ensigin Thorne brought the Allegiant up, T’Less kept her eyes focused squarely on the sensors and what they were telling her. And she didn’t have to wait long as the ship cut through the atmosphere and its disturbances to provide her a clearer picture.

“Captain, I can confirm that the Federation contact is an Intrepid-class ship. It is the USS Eirene. Records indicate that it was last commanded by a Martian-born Terran, Captain Julius Bellum,” she read off, having brought up the ship’s records about Starfleet vessels and their captains, reading Bellum’s personality profile to estimate the man’s responses to Dewitt’s plan. “I estimate that we would have a 62% chance of convincing him we were a Breen ship, based on their assuming that the hail was coming from the planet and not a ship. After that, it would depend on what, if anything, the captain knows about what is really going on.”

A warning tone sounded and T’Less looked across and her eyes rose slightly, running possible scenarios.

“Ensign Thorne, Full Stop!” her tone uncharacteristically loud and firm. Checking again, T’Less turned to Dewitt. “Apologies Captain. We have a Breen patrol ship approaching our position. I theorise that it has detected fluctuations in the atmosphere from our passage. Much like our use of particle sensors in the Azure Nebula."
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on October 29, 2020, 05:02:18 PM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | Federation Embassy | Breen] @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @RyeTanker @BZ
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Together with the Reman Taa’gur hid the body of the, now at least, unconscious Vulcan. It was definitely not his intention to harm the Officer that badly when he rushed towards him earlier, it was just too long ago that he trained such methods. Actually the last time he had to use non-lethal methods was before the Dominion War and considering this long break he was still astonishing fast with his moves. Maybe he just got too old for away missions, maybe he was just too enthusiastic for his first away mission after so long. Who knows, but at least from now on he’ll stop rushing in front of everyone else…

Lieutenant Arn, anyhow, had other plans for their team formation. The Trill gave him the order to lead the group and then he placed Lorad in the back rows. Not really the wisest decision... Taa’gur thought and apparently he wasn’t the only one of them who thought that way. The Reman protested already and Taa’gur joined his complain as well. “Sir, with all due respect, but it would be the most reasonable tactic to let the Officer with the biggest gun clear the way for the rest.” With a glance over to the unconscious body of the Vulcan Taa’gur continued. “Also, since the most of you have a clear problem with my methods, you should probably send someone else first. However, mister Lorad has made a good point by using the turbolifts. In normal Federation buildings those things are basically like the backbone of the building, if we want to reach any level and avoid security personal as well as equipment, they are our best chance.”

The Devore reached over to the next control panel of the turbolifts and hold his arm right next to it. After some moments of tipping on his interface the door of the lift opened and the groupe could look right down to lowest level of the shaft. “I have disabled this lift for the next hour or so. If it’s just one then they’ll maybe think it’s just a malfunction.” With the turbolift as direct way down they could move without any further incidents to the origin of the Protomatter. The scanner told them with every passed level of the empty turbolifts shaft that their target was somewhere beneath the embassy. So apparently the basement was their destination.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on October 31, 2020, 08:07:29 AM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Embassy | Breen]

@Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @DaValle @BZ

Lt.Arn had given a subtle nod to the change that was suggested by T'Kolla.  Violence may be called for soon and having the biggest gun around was a very good idea.  "Approved. Let's try to take the ambassador alive and get any information out of them on disarming the device."

The team piled into the turbolift like those human sardines in a can.  The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife as the team descended down into the bowels of the embassy building.  It was the tightening around the eyes, the shoulders, and the back.  Lt. Zark was coiled and ready for action, her primal level senses stretched for any subtle detail that would give a warning of any threats ahead.  The subtle shift in the volume of the turbolift indicated they were slowing down and weapons were brought to as ready positions as possible while the team stacked up against the walls as much as possible to keep the door area clear in case of any ambushes.  Lt.Zark felt her smirk tighten as the sound from the turbolift cut out.

The swish of the door opening was deafening by comparison.  Lt. Zark saw Lorad give the hallway a check.  She peeked over his head keeping rifle pointed at the floor to avoid bumping him in the head. It was Federation standard, grey and well lit, and completely empty.  Lorad led the way out and the rest of the team followed keeping an eagle eye watch on the corridor ahead of them and their sensors.  Knowing they were closing in on their objective was making the tension bad enough, but the emptiness of the basement made it even worse, but they were trained combat officers, and they were outwardly calm and focused on the mission.

With the maze of corridors, it was easy to get lost.  Twice the team had to turn around when the proto matter count dropped.  The team could feel this was taking too long.  Lt. Arn called team halt and to setup a perimeter.  His head was moving as if talking to someone, which was most likely the computer as he also started working with his PADD.  He continued to punch a few more combinations into his PADD and stopping to see the results.  The communication chime activated after on the team frequency. "It looks like the auxiliary power system is up and running at full power load.  Since the primary lines also show incoming power from the city, I surmise the ambassador has activated the device using the backups.  I'm uploading the path to the backup system."  Lt.Zark saw a map come up with a blue waypoint path leading them to their destination. "Move out." Lt.Arn ordered.

With the map, the team quickly made it to room and stack up outside the door.  Lt. Zark couldn't see much of the rest of the team as she got behind Lorad on the door's left, while Lt.Arn and T'Kolla stacked on the right side.  Lorad looked like he was about to jump into the room when he stopped. What Lt.Zark didn't see was as soon as Lt. Arn had pressed the button to open the door, it had responded with the negative chime. "Door's locked, l'll need to hack it."  Lt.Zark quickly turned around to keep the back covered from any ambushes.  It took a few tense minutes for the door to be bypassed, but it responded obediently and opened.

Lorad led the way, followed by Lt.Arn. A soon as Lt Arn had taken his third step, Lt.Zark moved in behind the pair and she could hear T'Kolla following.  The room was quite large and contained a couple of columns with each what looked like 10 to 15 rows of power cell towers organized much in the way a library organized shelves of books.  There were some support columns on the outside of the room, but the item of greatest interest lay at the opposite end of the room.  A micro fusion cell generator was running at full power, emanating a harsh yellow glow. Setup in front of the generator with wires running to it was a cylindrical device.  It had lights flashing quickly in the middle of it's mass and was beginning to vent some sort of vapor.  The protomatter scanner began beaping madly in the HUDs of all the team members.  They'd found the device.

A quick scan didn't reveal any life signs, but something about the readings didn't make Lt.Arn feel any better.  Quickly assessing the situation, he came up with a plan. "Lorad sweep right, Zark sweep left, T'Kolla with me. Meet at the device. Shoot to stun.".  Lt. Zark was not sure of this approach but didn't raise her concerns.  Dividing their forces in the face of unknown adversaries was a good way for each element to be ambushed, but it would reduce the risk of catching everyone in concentrated fire.  Keeping her reservations to herself, Lt. Zark set off to her side of the room, covering the 20 feet to the wall quickly.  With that the team lined up, they began a steady advance, weapons raised down the end of the room.

Lt. Zark kept her focus on the HUD and what she could see, more alloy, and walls.  The team made it about 15 feet, around 3 sets of power cells when the lights went out and a speaker came to life emanating a sensual husky female voice.  "You are all so predictable.".  Lt. Zark had enough time to hear a bang of a ventilation grate dropping and a bright light flashing in her face.  The next thing she knew there were two loud reports that sounded like a chemical firearm.  The first shot hit her directly in the abdomen and she let out an animal scream of shock, pain, and fury as the round penetrated her exo suit front.  Alloy shards, sparks, and blood went flying in all directions, painting a gorey tribute all over the wall and floor.  She felt herself folding inward and was suddenly knocked on to her back as the second bullet glanced off her should pouldron.  Her HUD was dancing madly with red warnings from suit damage and internal damage.  Peripherally she was aware of the light moving off and a turret deploying from somewhere and spaying phaser fire in all directions, at least it sounded like pulsed phaser fire, there could have been some other communication from the rest of the team.  So much noise.

As the shock wore off, the pain hit, and intense lance of fire she'd never felt before, she wanted to cry.  She placed her hand over the wound as the pain subsided into an intense and was shocked at the amount of blood that came away from it.  "Zark is down." she managed to grit out. She knew she was bleeding out and felt her strength starting to ebb, she needed a coagulant or she'd be royally screwed.  With strength born of desperation but with the loss of control from being injured, she began looking for the right medical equipment that would save her life.

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Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on November 10, 2020, 01:34:00 AM
[ Ambassador Marian Visser | Basement | Breen Federation Embassy ]
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After having left the turret on automatic targeting, her own bio signature exempt in its system, Ambassador Marian Visser could step out of hiding in confidence - smiling in the direction which the insurgents had gone to hiding.

"I am not entirely sure how you got here, but I know you Lieutenant Zaryn Kolari," she said, smiling at the wounded woman in the exosuit, and how she was trying to tend to her own wounds. Marian quite enjoyed the sight of the blue blood spilling forth from the entry-point of her carefully placed shot. Her overclocked TR-116 rifle had been loaded with tritanium rounds, and while the new exosuits of Starfleet were durable indeed, it granted better protection against energy weapons. Her smiling face was lit by the turret laying blanket fire towards the general direction of the intruders, and she raised her voice over the noise. "One of my likeminded sat in a cell opposite yours on the Theurgy. He saw you there, and so I could see you as well. Fascinating how you could have come all the way out here... Makes me wonder, did you get a lift, or did you manage to develop slipstream technology all on your own?"

"It's Arn now," came a tight-lipped shout from behind one of the pillars, suggesting that the Trill had a passenger altogether different from Marian's own inside him. He seemed to be the leader as well, as he continued to speak. "Is that thing what I think it is?"

Marian spared no glance towards the cylindrical device she'd set up in secrecy, raising her rifle as she ambled around the room and its many pillars so that she might get a better shot. Her smile remained, however, and her eyes were wide in excitement. She quite enjoyed the murderous glee that filled her. It was shared with the parasite inside, which wanted naught than to crack more suits and spill the delicious insides unto the floor. "Perhaps..." she said in a coy fashion, and saw the sillouette of the Trill behind one of the pillars. "What do you think it is?"

"That's a Genesis Device!" The Trill spat and tried to spot her, looking out from behind the pillar even as the turret blasted chunks of stone off from it. "You must have taken it out of the vaults below Starfleet Headquarters!"

Marian raised her rifle to her shoulder, took aim, and fired in quick succession. The sound of the tritanium round shattering the visor of Zaryn Arn's helmet was followed by his blood-curdling scream, and the metallic noise of his dying body trashing upon the floor. He fell into the sights of the turret, which finished him off with rapid, consecutive bolts.

"Correct," she said, and switched the setting on her rifle to automatic, meaning to kill the rest of the Theurgy crew that were hiding in the large room. "It's armed, and it will decimate this entire planet in five minutes. I am the only one with access to stop the count-down, so whatever you thought to do here... you are far too late."

With naught more to say, she laughed at their folly, and raised her rifle again. She saw their shadows moving and began to set a quicker step, firing continuously at those still alive. The parasite made her quicker, stronger than any of them, and she would relish picking them apart like the bugs they were.

[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Dewitt) | Bridge | USS Allegiant ]
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T'Less had caught on to the fact that they might have been compromised by the atmospheric shifts around the Allegiant's fuselage, and told Thorne to come to a halt. A sound order, which Jennifer had no intention to rescind. She caught herself holding her breath, anticipating that the Breen ship would try to smoke them out, but for the time being, nothing happened.

"Halliwell. On screen," she said, her voice lower than usual, as if the Breen patrol ship could somehow hear them.

"Aye," said the halfblood Klingon, and on the side of the viewscreen not directly in front of Thorne, the image of the patrol ship could be seen. It had yet to catch up to them, and Dewitt hoped that it would sail right past them without seeing them. It was still a long way off, and Jennifer reckoned - with her own background in Tactical - that their best option was to keep still and lay their trust in their cloaking device. Therefore, she gave another order instead.

"Can you give me the IFF identification of that patrol ship from sensors?" she asked, having an idea of what they could do. She had hoped for better odds than those T'Less had given her, but if she was right, they might not have to deal with the situation alone.

"It's on your armrest now, Captain," said Halliwell, her fingers tapping away at her bright console. "Shall I hail the Eirene, using the Breen voice scrambler? I've pulled it out of the UT."

Dewitt took a deep breath, her eyes still on the patrol ship on the screen, which was creeping closer, but still hadn't passed them by. "Yes, go ahead," she said, and then collected her thoughts so that she might phrase herself clearly. On the other end, they would just hear the Breen static that came out of their refrigeration suits. She glanced towards her arm rest. "This is patrol ship six-niner-alpha-two to the Eirene. We demand to speak with Captain Julius Bellum immediately." Too little time. The Breen Council was convening in the Hall of Heroes. What else could she say? "Otherwise, the entirety of the present Breen forces will open fire."

There was silence at first, during which time Dewitt kept looking at the patrol ship they were impersonating, anticipating that it might open fire any second in order to smoke out whatever it was they thought they had spotted leaving Breen atmosphere.

[This is the Eirene. The Captain is on his way. Please stand by.]

Jennifer felt like she was sweating bullets, watching that Breen ship approaching them from the aft. Come on...

[This is Captain Julius Bellum of the Federation starship Eirene. I demand to know why we are being threatened. Firing upon a Starf-]

"Be silent!" she snapped, the echo of the Breen translation heard on the other end. "The Diplomatic attachés you brought to Breen has smuggled a bomb with proto-matter payload into our capital, hiding it below your Federation Embassy. This is an act of war against the Confederacy, and we will not stand for it. Dare not deny it!"

[A bomb? That's preposterous, Starfleet would never dream of bombi-]

"Yet a bomb there is, nonetheless, and should our sensors be wrong and you deny this claim, we demand you verify that our readings are seeing something else, hidden underneath the dampening field you've raised around your Embassy." Jennifer leaned forward, even though the transmission was audio-only. "Mind you, if this is a misunderstanding, and you can explain what we're seeing, your ship and crew will be spared."

[Stand by,] came the voice, followed shortly by a more concerned addendum, [We... can't raise communications with the Embassy. We're sending a security detail down there. Stand by for verification.]

"Acknowledged," said Jennifer, and killed the comm line...

...only to see the patrol ship beginning to fire in their general direction - following their general trajectory out of the atmosphere.

Jennifer's eyes widened. "Evasive manoeuvres!" she called to Thorne, then turned her head to T'Less. "Do not fire just yet!"

Luckily, the Eirene were a couple of thousands of kilometres away, and whatever might happen next could escape their notice...


OOC: All right! Seven days of posting begins now! This is a brilliant chance to kill off Halliwell which we shouldn't miss, along with the cloak being compromised for a bit after sustaining fire from the patrol fit, until Ji can fix it, which will spark a need for some action. As for the team down in the Embassy, please don't kill off the Ambassador (she being an Infested, she would survive quite a lot anyway), and be innovative in how they might disable the phaser turret. Zark needs to get into relative safety and away from both the Turret and the Infested. Reinforcements from the Eirene can appear and get mowed down by Marian and the turret, forcing the Eirene to send more officers in the next round as well! Most importantly, have fun!!
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on November 12, 2020, 10:31:28 PM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | Federation Embassy | Breen] @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @RyeTanker @BZ
[Show/Hide]


The Petty Officer embedded in the new formation as they left the lift, his eyes still focused on the data his suit gave him about their current location. Every meter they advanced the amount of Protomatter grew on his screen and as they reached the door of the source he even had to shut the sensors down to avoid them from distracting him. At the door nonetheless the group had to wait till the last security measures were overwritten.

If they would have had any other option Taa’gur would have insisted that they should take another way. The whole room screamed that it was any kind of trap, but unfortunately also the only possible way to the bomb. Arn gave them the order to split up till they reached their destination and while at least Arn and Zark scanned the area in front, Taa’gur walked slightly sidewards to watch their backs. The last thing they wanted was to get trapped in a crossfire with nothing more than some pillars to cover them. Then before they even passed said pillars a bright flash turned the Devores attention back to their target. To his unpleasant surprise he found there, instead of Zark, a good view on the two phaser turrets and an unknown character. To avoid the incoming barrage of their gunfire Taa’gur threw himself behind the next pillar just moments before the first phaser turret had detected him and begun to shoot. Kneeling behind the pillar he spotted the downed Lieutenant Zark just an arms length next to him. So close and still if he would even reach his hand out to her to get her back in safety, those turrets would probably shoot his arm off. Except the shooting of the turrets he also heard that the other Lieutenant and whoever the woman was talked about the Protomatter device. The phrase Genesis Device was mentioned, but the Petty Officer was completely unaware about that thing and if he wasn’t occupied currently he could maybe search the little databank his suit had for that Genesis thing. At the end of their dialogue another one of the bullets that already have penetrated the suit of Zark hit through the helmet of Arn. His body smashed down shortly after. “Man down! Lieutenant Arn has been hit.” Taa’gur yelled through the Teams Intercom. He was sure that Lorad wouldn’t have missed that, but it was standard doctrine to inform the squad.

Taa’gurs mind crossed another thought almost immediately after the Lieutenant was killed. That woman will probably kill the other Lieutenant now. He stuck his head slightly out of his cover to get a good view of their positions and just as soon as his head was visible hit another one of those bullets the pillar. He pulled back, especially since the bullet has demolished the pillar. He had to find a way to get the woman behind that pillar without getting shot in the process. Then he began frantically searching through his equipment if he would have anything to irritate at least the turrets and just as he gave up searching for something, the door they have entered earlier opened again. In its frame stood now three other Federation Officers. “Cont...” came from Taa’gurs mouth, but right before he could finish it the ambassador and the two turrets covered the three Officers in energy bolts and some physical bullets. The Officer in the middle received almost all of the shoots and since he didn’t wore an exosuit like Arn or Zark the bullets of the ambassador ripped off almost unstopped his left arm and tore out major parts of his abdomen. Whatever was left then got shredded by the phaser turrets. His left comrade also received at least a couple of phaser shoots and collapsed dead beside him. Only the Officer on the right was lucky enough to just receive two phasers and then fall behind the wall and out of the turrets range.

In one fast move Taa’gur reached out of his cover to tear Lieutenant Zark to him. Even though the turrets were still locked on the door, the ambassador already aimed back at the Petty Officer. Luckly the woman didn’t hit the Devore but she scratched the visor of his helmet. The impact of the hit shook him back and at least for a moment he almost lost his balance. With the scratch in his visor he decided to remove it completely. There wasn’t much sense in shooting while seeing only half of your actual view.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on November 16, 2020, 10:30:13 PM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Federation Embassy Basement | Breen]

@Auctor Lucan @BZ @Stegro88 @DaValle

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Lt. Zark was dying, she could feel her life slipping away.  She could also feel her will fighting with everything she had to keep her alive.  It was a precarious balance in her mind that helped by the training that had taken over.  She momentarily paused as her assailant briefly looked her over before moving on to continue her killing spree.  There was no relief in this respite, if she didn't find some way to stop the bleeding, it didn't matter how many reprieves she got, she would be dead.  Every movement introduced some wave of ache or a lance of pain as she fought to find the right equipment in her pouches to stem the horrendous internal damage she'd taken.  Gritting her teeth, Lt. Zark mustered the strength to find out what state she was in

"Computer, scan for internal damage." Lt. Zark coughed out and was rewarded with blobs of spittle and blood covering the the bottom of her helmet.

"Wor....wor...king"  came back the computer's reply.  More red flashed all over her HUD and static and snow intermittently covered the window on the internal damage readout.  Damage to large intestine, stomach, small intestine, liver, bladder, blood loss at 2L/Hour. "Warni.....War......Catastrphic operator da-da-damage received. Seeeeeee........Seeeeeek Emergency medical attention immediately."

No shelat.  Then it got worse as PO T'Kolla's report on Lt. Arn came through.  Despair began to break through her confusing haze of emotions as everything was falling apart even faster than she thought could happen.  A flurry of phaser fire and rifle shots sounded out followed by wet messy sounds of meat and bone being incinerated and pulverized. Wha..? and any thoughts were brutally chopped off as a strong force yanked her from behind into cover.  Lt. Zark let out another scream as pain lanced through her abused midsection, barely hanging on to consciousness.  Her head was swimming and her vision blurry.  Another series of hacking coughs wracked her body and projectiles of blood covered her helmet visor. 

Her senses returned in what felt like hours, but her thoughts were still slurry and she had little to no awareness around her, just the pain and the need to survive.  Taking a deep breath, and it hurt like hell, she reached into a pouch and pulled out a vial. "Computer, identify vial." "Coagulant 100 milileters" came the reply. Lt. Zark didn't hesitate as she snapped the vial and poured it all over her wound.  She knew she would need surgery to undo everything the coagulant was going to seal, but it was better than bleeding out.  She screamed again through gritted teeth as the blood reactive disinfectant went to work prior to the coagulant kicking in.  The pain slowly ebbed away as her body pumped out more endorphins to counteract her haywiring pain receptors.  With nothing else to do Lt.Zark searched for and found a vial of adrenaline.  If it came down to a fight, this would be the only thing that would make her mobile and aware enough to go into action.  It took a try or two, but she got the vial into the hypospray. 

It was then that the state of her helmet registered, flickering and half covered in blood.  She noticed the blood loss number was going down, it wasn't great, but it could be worse.  Ripping her helmet off she was assailed by the smells and horrors of battle.  Her rifle obviously no where nearby, Lt. Zark placed the adrenaline in her left hand and unholstered her phaser pistol in her right, her sweat covered hair flat and matted to her head, breathing heavily, and a look of murderous determination in her eyes, she waited for the coagulant and her fate.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on November 20, 2020, 03:23:19 AM
[ Lieutenant T’Less | Bridge | USS Allegiant | Breen Space ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @BZ @RyeTanker @DaValle
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The Vulcan had researched everything she could about the Breen in anticipation of an encounter with them at some point. She had calculated that some sort of exchange with their forces was likely with a statistically high probability that Commander Dewitt would then attempt to bluff her way to a more advantageous position, much as she was trying to do now. T’Less was Vulcan, she was trained to express no emotion to events and to remain calm and logical. Yet, she felt, something, pride, satisfaction maybe, she wasn’t sure, at having both correctly prepared for and predicted their needing to imitate a Breen vessel.

T’Less’ introspection was interrupted as her console warned her that the Breen patrol vessel that had been closing to investigate the wake of atmospheric disturbance behind the Allegiant was now powering weapons. It was not unexpected, T’Less mused. They would have been tracking a climbing disturbance that had now vanished. Their altitude was still too low for it to have trailed off into space which meant that the crew of their assailant was not only well trained, but experienced. And if they were powering weapons, she knew what they would be doing next.

“Evasive manoeuvres!” came the order from Dewitt even as the T’Less noted the Breen opening fire. “Do not fire just yet!” Dewitt commanded. T’Less felt the instinctive need to object but held it back as she tried to examine the problem logically.

“Erratic and rapid movements will all allow the Breen to triangulate our position, enhancing their aim,” T’Less pointed out. “It will only be a matter of time before we must either break away for orbit so as to eliminate their ability to track us by our wake, or we are forced to return fire to protect ourselves.”



[ PO3 Lorad | Federation Embassey | Breen ]
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As directed, Lorad had swept right into the room, his Accipiter rifle up as he begun to clear his area. He hadn’t advanced far before the lights in the room disappeared. While not an issue given the vision filters in the suit, he was still learning the operations of the forearm PADD and it took a moment for him to switch to infra-red and by the time he had done so, much had begun to happen. First, the crash of something falling from height followed by two sharp cracks, not booming like the first sound but more ominous in their conciseness. That was when the phaserfire began. A turret had deployed from its concealed mounting and began to spray pulsed shots around the room. Lorad barely had time to dive behind a column and out of sight before he was shot. Finally, Zark, the Andorian medic, called out announcing she was injured.

Pinned as he was behind the pillar, Lorad was unable to move without bringing himself into the line of fire of the phaser turret and being shot at. That left him with little option but to listen to the discourse between their assailant, a female by her tone, and the Trill Lieutenant. He didn’t follow all of it, but he understood enough to be worried. A weapon powerful enough to decimate the planet, armed and on a 5-minute countdown. Unfortunately, he also heard the sharp cracks again from what he assumed was her weapon before a thud, something he instantly recognised as a body hitting the floor. Hearing no further words from him, Lorad could only assume that Arn had, at best, been rendered unconscious. Further shots changed his belief to a deathlier one, T’Kolla’s shouted words confirming it, as he tried to gauge the woman’s movement by the sound of the shots. She was hunting them.

Glancing out for a moment, Lorad chanced a look at the turret before diving back as phaser bolts tore at the pillar he was hiding behind. Knowing what he was shooting at now, the Reman dialled up the power levels and switched to a three-round burst. Taking a calming breath, Lorad leaned out and fired at the turret. His accuracy was impressive with the unfamiliar weapon, but his shots were intercepted by an energy shield flaring into existence around the autonomous weapon. Biting back a curse, Lorad ducked back as turret rotated back to reacquire him, showering him in more debris from the column. It was chewing it apart and soon enough the support would offer no more protection to him. 

“Support protection!” Lorad almost shouted as an idea struck him. Adjusting his weapon again, he waited until the turret stopped firing, counted to 5 and then crouched out, his weapon already raised. Sighting in carefully as he imagined his target, Lorad pulled the trigger and sent 10-round burst after 10-round burst into the wall at the base of the turret. The weapon was shielded but the power feeds for it wouldn’t be. The encapsulated tritanium rounds tore at the wall, carving through it with the 3rd burst and exposing his target for the next one. Even as the phaser locked onto Lorad, the Reman’s fire cut through the cabling and rendered the weapon inoperable, saving himself from a grisly death. 

Now safe to move around a little, Lorad moved position to try and ascertain the condition of his teammates. He found the Trill dead on the ground while T’Kolla had managed to pull Zark back into cover. He was about to ask where their huntress had gone when movement to his side drew his attention and he saw 4 Starfleet officers standing in the doorway they themselves had entered through, above the smoking bodies of two more, answering Lorad’s question of what else the turret had been shooting at.

No warning could be shouted before the remaining turret opened fire on them, stitching one of the men with multiple bolts as his comrades dived into cover. Lorad was adjusting his rifle again, returning to single fire when he saw the head of one of the men in cover explode. Combat instincts took over and Lorad rolled over himself to line up a shot on the predator stalking them. The shot was accurate, catching the woman in her left shoulder and sending her flying back into a pillar, dusting and debris showering her impact.

The Reman was about to climbing to his feet to confirm the kill when movement from his target stalled his speech. The redhead was still on her feet, her weapon held at her side as she glared at him through several strands of hair.

“That hurt!” she stated as her right arm brought her rifle up again.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: BZ on November 26, 2020, 04:41:54 AM
[Ens Jaya Thorne | Fly or Die | Wish I Had a Wingman |  Do We Get Hazard Pay?]
@Auctor Lucan




Full stop.

Jaya brought the ship to a stand still in exactly 4.36 seconds, well there abouts.  She wasn't really counting but she was pretty good at estimating at this point and later she could ask the computer exactly how well she had done on her estimations but for now she was just going to have to go with that being the actual time.  Because, it sounded good, and the bonus of it all was no one was complaining about whiplash, so she hadn't stopped too sharply.  She probably could have lowered it down to half but then people would be visiting sickbay with slipped disks, and belted imprints on their chests from restraints and there would be too many complaints, and then Ives would give her that 'you can do better' look from behind his/her Captain chair, and well.. no one wanted to disappoint the parents.

4.36 seconds was just fine.
 
“We have stopped fully.” she reported.

Jen wasn't in the mood to tease and play, which was a shame because she could be so fun when she was.  But she had put her Captain hat back on and the situation was a cluster so it was just better that Jaya tried to bring light into the situation and help the Bridge stay grounded.  Dewitt was all serious and orders, everyone else was getting that animal in the headlights look, and Jaya found herself just wanting to make everyone laugh but knowing that this was neither the time nor the place.  Plus people were getting used to her joking comments which meant she was likely going to have to change up her witty banter to something more fresh. Problem was, witty was just her thing.

Jen was pretending to be a Breen and was doing a damn fine job of it, if you asked Jaya, not that anyone was or would, but they could and she would certainly have an opinion.  Still, as much as she wanted to say nice things about her Captain at the moment she knew this was a serious moment.  Jaya was watching the screen while they viewed the ship that was communicating with them.  They were Federation and it was imperitive that no one knew that they were speaking to other Federation officers because then things got inky and murky and .. then just flat nasty. 

Jaya didn't like nasty.

The talk didn't end well, suddenly they were being shot at.  “I knew I was going to get hit on today, I just didn't expect it in such a direct manner.” she commented as Jen called for evasive maneuvers.  “Oh we want to dance?  Fine, we'll dance.”

She grinned darkly but with a great deal of glee.  Given the full reign of the speed stick was one of her favorite things in life.  The ship went from full stop to moving gracefully around the shooting.  She knew that she had to walk a fine line, they were cloaked and if they moved too fast and utilized too much energy then they would lose the cloak and be ousted for who they were.  Then it would get real, and while Jen was amazing, they had a strike team out there somewhere that needed to finish a job, and gettig found out right now would really put a kink in the ol' evening plans so to speak.

“Don't worry, I know about the cloak.” she called out to .. well who ever it was that voiced concern over such a thing.  “You're talking to Amazing Pilot Extraordinaire Jaya Thorne, I think you forgot so I felt the need to remind you.  I'll take interviews and give autographs after saving our asses later.” she teased.

Jaya was graceful when she flew and could do as she wished, she saved the engines for when they needed them the most. Evasive maneuvers weren't something that had to be harsh and fast, they had to be ahead of the game.  Jaya was not a tactician but it didn't really take one to figure out their next move.  She would stay still lone enough and count... 5... 4.... 3... 2... MOVE and she would shift the stick, a barrel roll later the shots newly fired missed into empty space.  Jaya wasn't an idiot, back and forth would only get figured out and get them shot.  So no, she had a random system.  First West, then South east, then North, then south west, then center, sometimes two rolls, but mostly one if she could manage, the take on the engine wasn't much and thus wouldn't tax the cloak any more than necessary.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on November 27, 2020, 04:41:21 PM
[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Dewitt) | Bridge | USS Allegiant ]
[Show/Hide]
As Jaya began to have the Allegiant dodge and dance away from the energy beams from the type-3 disruptor cannons on the patrol ship, there was still no word from Bellum on the Eirene. T'Less warning was sound, and it seemed the right option.

"Agreed. Thorne, ascend as quickly as you can, but don't let them hit us, because even if our powered-down shields might save us, the cloak will fail as power levels compensate for the hit," she said through clenched teeth as the Manta-class scoutship rolled and danced. As long as there was no confirmed hit, and if they were lucky, it could still be that the patrol ship would think they'd seen a naturally occurring shift in the atmosphere. They couldn't return fire before that point.

[This is Captain Bellum, we have deployed personnel to the Embassy, but there is indeed a dampening field raised around the building, so we have yet to receive any answers. We assure you that whatever is happening, we are not responsible.]

If you are one of the Infested, Captain Bellum, I am sure you would say that, thought Dewitt, her knuckles white as she held on to the armrests of her chair. There was simply no way of knowing, but at least the away team wasn't alone down there. Hard-pressed as their situation was, with disruptor beams piercing the thinning air around the scoutship, Jennifer tried to think of something to say. When she spoke, she had to take a deep breath in order to sound like she wasn't on a ship about to sustain a devastating hit any moment. Speaking of 'hits', Thorne's jesting had drawn a quick smile from Jennifer, however fleeting given the circumstances.

"This is patrol ship six-niner-alpha-two," she said through the Universal Translator filter, wondering if the bridge crew was questioning why a simple patrol ship would contact them instead of... some 'High-Thot' down there on the planet, "planetary defences will be armed and your ship will be destroyed unless you drop the dampening field around your Embassy. Do this immediately, so that we might verify the absence of the proto-matter bomb!"

And also, so that we might have a chance of beaming out our team, she added silently after she killed the transmission, hissing through her teeth as a shot nearly hit straight through their viewport. Arn, if your team is still down there, you better disarm that thing you found... Otherwise I'll have to drop this charade and warn the Breen directly.

A reading showed up in the corner of the screen. Another patrol ship.

"Thorne!" he barely managed to say in warning, before the introduction of another source of enemy fire came out of nowhere - catching them all unawares. Obviously, the first patrol ship had called on reinforcements. Two disruptor beams chased them, followed by a third, which caught them over the ventral side of the ship. Sparks and a hissing noise of leaking plasma erupted at the front of the bridge. Dewitt nearly fell out of her chair, but luckily, it was a glancing hit to the ship itself. Warning chirps erupted all over their consoles, but there was no sign of a hull breach. The overload of the already strained EPS grid, however, made a conduit burst in the deckhead above Thorne and Halliwell. The former barely escaped the fiery out-pour, but the latter...

"Halliwell!" Dewitt exclaimed, far too late, the woman already lost. Moreover, the Reman cloak was failing them, their existence flickering on and off in the thinning atomsphere, alerting the Breen forces of their presence. Realising this, and knowing they had no shields either, Jennifer, tried to contact Engineering. "Ji! Get the cloak back up, but if that's impossible, we need shields now. T'Less! They are arming torpedoes. Target them with whatever we can muster from our phaser emitters!"

Their only hope of survival now, as Dewitt saw it, was to cloak after leaving the mists of the atmosphere, or surrender.

[ Ambassador Marian Visser | Basement | Breen Federation Embassy ]
[Show/Hide]
It had been a pleasure to kill the ignorant fools that had spilled through the doors, Visser recognising them as crew from the Eirene. She had bit her lower lip in elation, seeing the effects the weapons fire had on their flesh. Seeing them, she had also realised someone tipped off Captain Bellum, but it was far too late to stop the count-down.

The hit she'd sustained in her shoulder, oh what force! What ecstatic feeling of pain! The sensory overload of her Host body's nervous system was almost orgasmic to Visser, and she was up on her feet in short order - firing her rifle single-handed since the other arm wasn't working any more. Oh, it had hurt, as she told the shooter in the golden exosuit, and she'd quite enjoyed it. Her overclocked TR-116 rifle wasn't supposed to outlast the defence of the Genesis Device, since no manner of maintenance would save it, so she had no compunction about sustained automatic fire against the officers still alive, starting with the one that shot her. She was strong enough to fire it one-handed, but the accentuated recoil set her otherwise impeccable aim off. As practised as her Host was as a marksman, having learned to shoot in the Academy, she ended up chasing the figure among the pillars with a hailstorm of bullets instead of hitting him.

"Come out and play! We have so little time!" she called into the smoke-filled room, her shout emphasised by the second turret opening fire anew - targets unseen.

She debated whether or not she'd try to beam up to the Eirene, but knowing that Bellum might be on to her, she knew she'd have to spin quite a story after she'd been brought to sickbay.

A story, that would definitely involve the newly arrived crew of the Theurgy, and how they were responsible for the decimation of the Breen homeworld. She just wanted to stay a little bit longer, just so that she could toy a little bit more with the feeble skin puppets, before she finally dropped the dampening field and had the Embassy's transporter system beam her up to the orbiting Intrepid-class ship.

"No? Well, if you'd rather play hide and seek," she called to them playfully, "I suppose I just have to find you..."

With a grin, eyes wide, she searched the smoke with her rifle extended in front of her self - listening for movements.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are..."


OOC: All right! Seven days of posting begins now! Feel free to illustrate how Halliwell died on the bridge from that plasma conduit. Also, please feel free to coordinate some manner of multi-faceted attack against the Ambassador, but don't forget about the second turret and the potential arrival of more Starfleet officers from the Eirene! Leave the results of attacks against her open-ended so that I can write the outcome in my next post? :)
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on December 06, 2020, 10:03:28 PM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Federation Embassy Basement | Breen]

@Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @DaValle

Awareness returned suddenly to Lt. Zark in a grunt of anguish as a fresh lance of fire shot through her body.  Her head began swivelling and Lt. Zark felt her temperature drop as the swinging of her head cooled her face off.  Her automatic reaction was to bring up her phaser pistol as well and nothing seemed to happen.  Her eyes dropped to her right hand and bugged out.  Her hand hadn't moved, she didn't even feel the strain of trying and failing to lift the weapon.  Focusing more, her arm responded and she saw the weapon come up off the ground; the movement seemed a little syrupy.

Whoever had pulled her into cover had taken off and the sound of wild firing in all directions could be heard throughout the room. "Come out, come out, wherever you are...".  The Infested Ambassador's taunt could be heard loud and clear, mixing equal parts invitation and arrogance.

Grimacing in pain and instinctually placing her left hand on the gaping hole in her armour, Lt. Zark heaved herself forward on to her knees and moved forward to the support beam.  Each movement released it's own grunt of pain and her vision swam.  She reached the support beam and took a steadying breath before peaking out passed the beam.  The phaser turrets were swinging back and forth spewing orange death at an unknown target.  The firing was dimly noticed by the Andorian as small amount of movement attracted her attention below the turret.  It looked like power cables were hanging below the turret.  Unsure if it was sloppiness on the Ambassador's part or inexperience in engineering matters became irrelevant as the turret swung towards her position.  Her ears picked the telltale sound signature of transport in progress and the turret swung mercilessly back toward the sound before releasing another stream of energy fire. Sparks and screams quickly resulted. 

More chemical rifle shots sounded trading fire with something that was very unfamiliar, presumably The Accipiter.  Taking a moment to steady her pistol on the support beam, Lt. Zark steadied her aim at the base of the wall mounted turret and pulled the trigger.  A long stream of phaser pulses flew at the turret striking an energy shield that contemptuously absorbed the fire.  Her arm slipped a bit further down and the next stream of phaser fire impacted on the unshielded cables sending a shower of sparks and debris flying toward the back wall.  The turret which had been pointed at Lt. Zark's head fired one shot that impacted the support beam then shut down.

The concussion of the shot with shower of sparks and alloy forced Lt. Zark to pull back around the beam faster than she could control and she let out another shout as the wound responded badly to the abuse.  Grimacing, she pulled herself back towards the wall and sat up breathing heavily and moaning.  Her head rolled to one side and she had time to see a human head and a phaser rifle pointing out peaking passed a power bank and looking right at her.  She looked like a Starfleet security officer who was clearly terrified and working hard to control it. "This is Keegan to Eirene, my team is down and I'm injured!  Many casualties from previous teams!  Starfleet officers currently engaged and under heavy fire!  I can see one now in armour.  She looks like an Andorian and is critical. Send reinforcements in armour to my signal!  Do not use, repeat, do not use previous transporter coordinates! It's a killzone."

"You knocked out my turret you rodent, I'm going to enjoy making you suffer for that." the Ambassador added to the din.

Lt. Zark could only groan and cough out more blood as she began losing awareness again.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on December 08, 2020, 01:19:05 AM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | Federation Embassy | Breen] @Auctor Lucan  @Stegro88 @RyeTanker
[Show/Hide]


Their situation was dire to say the least. One out the rest under heavy fire with no way to escape. The Devore waited till he would see a chance to get to the Protomatter bomb. Not that he actually knew how these thing would work. He has obviously prepared himself for this mission but he has never heard about a device like that. It wouldn’t change anything nonetheless. There was maybe a chance that he could disarm it, but not as long as the turret keeps shooting anything that moves in the room. This problem anyway got solved pretty effective by the Andorian he saved earlier. Even in her current situation she was able to hit the unprotected places of the turret.

The ambassador didn’t took the destruction of her turret as calm as she took the first one. The Petty Officer saw his chance though. Well actually he heard his chance. With the lights still out, his sight was pretty limited without the suits visor to help him, but when the woman screamed out her location he was able to shoot in her direction. More or less her direction. In the end only two of eight shoots hit their target. Under better circumstances this number would be an embarrassment. Right now though it was acceptable. For the ambassador the shoots were nothing serious though, for someone who could easily survive the Accipiter a normal phaser rifle was nothing more than a toy gun. Still the shoots delivered the message he wanted to send her: “You’re alone and vulnerable now.” Without her turrets and with the certainty that the whole city will explode sooner or later she may try to escape and this could give Taa’gur the time he needed to deal with the bomb. He may not know how exactly it worked but in the end there’re a couple of natural laws even this object had to obey.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on December 08, 2020, 03:19:07 PM
[ Lieutenant T’Less | Bridge | USS Allegiant | Breen Space ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @DaValle @RyeTanker
[Show/Hide]


"Hit, ventral facing,” T’Less catalogue as she read her screens. “Shields depleted; EPS grid strained.” As if to punctuate her thoughts, a conduit in the bulkhead above them breached, filling the space beyond it with a fiery gout. Commander Dewitt was lucky in avoiding it. Ensign Halliwell, however, was less fortunate as her head and shoulders were engulfed in the scorching outburst. T’Less heard the Commander’s exclamation but like her, knew that it was far too late to save the officer. Idlily, T’Less hoped that the young woman felt nothing as death embraced her. Still, there was much to do as she noted the arming of torpedoes aboard the Breen vessels even as Dewitt stated the same thing.

“With the cloak down, they can both identify us and target us freely,” T’Less analysed, going over their current tactical situation in her mind even as she recalibrated the Allegiant’s Type-VII phaser arrays. Short bursts would both make it easier for her to hit any torpedoes fired at them while making it harder for their position to be triangulated in the clouds. “Except they can see us on their sensors,” T’Less chastised herself. “Until we disappear again!” she realised, her hands rushing over her console, searching for the relevant protocols.

“Activating Aldean Scrambler!” T’Less advised. Unfortunately, she was too late to prevent the launch of a pair of torpedoes from the closest Breen vessel. Thorne had noticed the launch as well and immediately threw the Allegiant into an evasive manoeuvre; something that T’Less had to compensate for as she opened fire at the pair of projectiles. Her first burst missed but her next was accurate and the torpedo’s detonation bloomed in the atmosphere for everyone to see. Refocusing, the Vulcan targeted the second torpedo and quickly turned it into a similar visage as the first.

“Torpedoes intercepted.”



[ PO3 Lorad | Federation Embassey | Breen ]
[Show/Hide]


Lorad, despite having been briefed on the capabilities of an infested individual, was still surprised when the woman had so casually shaken off the shot from the Accipiter in his hands. He had attempted to bring the weapon to bare for a second shot but was forced to evade instead, ducking behind a pillar as the infested beat him to the draw. Projectiles zipped by him through the smoke and Lorad ducked out to return fire; his attempt unsuccessful as he dodged again to avoid a stream of solid rounds.

Her voice echoed through the smoke and dark, taunting him to come out and play. And as much as Lorad wanted to face her, he knew that in a straight up melee, he could, at best, match her strength; and that was a tall ask. But time was running out. The bomb was present, and no doubt, activated. Lorad himself couldn’t disarm it which only left him one role to play in the current situation. The announcement that her second turret had been knocked out was a welcome sound and gave Lorad an idea. Darkness and obscurity were a Reman’s home. “Time to play my advantage,” Lorad thought as he stalked off through the dark and smoke.

His suit wasn’t built for stealth movement but there was thankfully enough background noise that he was able to sneak into position without alerting the infested. The fact that she was focused on murdering his companions and the other arrivals also aided him. As the flame-haired woman advanced past him, Lorad stepped out from behind the column concealing him, booted the odd rifle from her one-handed grasp before leveling his accipiter at her abdomen and pulling the trigger to fire the weapon on its highest setting.

And unlike last time, as the woman sailed away, Lorad kept his aim fixed on her, ready to fire again if the first shot proved insufficient.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on December 22, 2020, 02:21:00 PM
[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Dewitt) | Bridge | USS Allegiant ]
[Show/Hide]
With her brow furrowed and beaded with sweat, Jennifer Dewitt's green eyes darted between Thorne at the helm and T'Less at the tactical station. The viewscreen was filled with criss-crossing disruptor fire from the Breen patrol ships and the explosions of torpedoes that the Vulcan managed to hit. The air of the small bridge smelled of burned human flesh and singed hair - spreading from Halliwell's body as it lay slumped across the LCARS screen she'd operated. The computer was chirping warnings about damage sustained, and the answer from Chief Ji came over the static of the intercom.

[Engineering here! I can't restore the cloak if you want shields too, and if you keep firing up there, you can have neither!] The Asian woman's voice was laced tightly to keep any panic from coming through, and Dewitt realised that the mission was about to fail. Captain Bellum wasn't making progress by the sound of it, and they had no idea if they away team of theirs was even alive. The Breen Council was convened, and the protomatter bomb, whatever it might do, could go off any second for all they knew.

"Ji... give us shields."

[Aye, Captain!]

The only reason the Allegiant wasn't completely compromised was because of the Aldean sensor scrambler that T'Less had activated, which at least kept the Eirene and the Breen both from knowing whom they were. It made them no less a target for the latter, unfortunately, and Jennifer saw no other recourse. She shut her eyes tightly, knowing that as far as they had come... they had no choice.

"T'Less... Signal our surrender to the Breen, and hail them. I need to warn them before it is too late, and before we can no longer say anything. Just... keep the Eirene out of it for now," she said, and got to her feet. Thorne's head whipped around and her friend from the Black Opal looked at her with dismay, but she said nothing. For once, she had no joke to offer. She turned to T'Less, making sure she got no objection.

“Commander, I…” The Vulcan tried; her voice dying off as Dewitt’s demand registered.

"Now, Lieutenant," she insisted, but she took the edge of it with a small smile.

“As you order,”  T’Less replied reluctantly as she ceased firing while opening a channel to the Breen ships pursuing them. “Breen vessels, please cease fire. We surrender, I repeat, we surrender. Please acknowledge this transmission.”

Once the Breen ceased firing upon them, Jennifer took a deep breath, before the viewscreen came alive with the sight of the four Breen on the patrol ship that had spotted them. Thorne had turned the Allegiant around to face their pursuer at this point, and Jennifer straightened where she stood. "I'm Commander Jennifer Dewitt, and our intentions are peaceful. We are here to prevent a bomb from detonating in the Federation Embassy building. A bomb set by a common enemy, merely having used Starfleet's presence to deliver it. We are here, acting to prevent disaster upon the Breen and the heart of your Confederacy, and perhaps in error, we opted to do so without your awareness and involvement... merely because we believed the chances of success would be greater in doing so," she said, speaking quickly but clearly.

In reaction, the Breen talked among themselves, their helmets distorting their voices into static chatter, but one of them addressed the Allegiant. "Continue," the Breen said, the Federation Standard word sounding strange through the mouth-piece of the suit.

"We hope that given the gravity of the situation, you do not destroy this ship, but let us assist you in preventing the detonation." By the look of the Breen and how they talked amongst themselves, it was evident she hadn't won them over, even if she was being listened to. She had no choice, she realised, as she looked towards T'Less for a brief moment. They would have to understand. "Time is short, and you must deploy forces inside the Embassy building. Leave my crew alive... while I offer myself to your custody. I will answer all the questions you may have, as long as you heed my warning, and save the capital. I swear by the truth of my words, and merely ask that you do not cast blame on the Eirene, for they knew not what they delivered."

At least I hope that's the truth of it, she thought, heart beating fast while the Breen debated on what to do amongst themselves, I may not know if Bellum is one of them, but there are hundreds of Federation officers on that ship...

Thorne and T'Less might have objections, but whatever they said to try and stop her, she had to put the mission first. Her own life mattered naught. The Federation could not have the Breen as an enemy in any war to come. "Bridge to Engineering! Lower shields. Now, Chief Ji..." she said, and closed her fists at her sides. She mustered her confidence, and her voice cut through the debate the Breen held on the patrol ship. "Beam me over now, and put me in contact with whomever I need to speak to. Time is short."

Before the Breen could act on it, however, she turned her eyes to T'Less, her voice much lower. "As soon as you have enough power for it... cloak, and once the dampening field is down.... get the away team out of there. You're in command now, and my orders are for you to make sure this ship returns to the Theurgy. Do not try to rescue me... for regardless if the bomb goes off or not, I will try to keep the Confederacy from turning on the Federation. Even if it's the last thing I'll do in this life."

She then looked towards Thorne, and she smiled. "It has been a privilege, Jaya. Make sure to hold the Voice to his promise."

And then, she vanished from the bridge, and the feed from the control ship was cut.

[ Ambassador Marian Visser | Basement | Breen Federation Embassy ]
[Show/Hide]
Picking herself up from the wall, Ambassador Visser was laughing under her breath, which made the broken body of her Host hurt all the more - the pain an experience beyond she'd ever felt before. Her laughing grew a bit louder still when she saw how quite a lot of her lower torso was missing. Her spine had merely been grazed by the close-proximity shot, so she could still stand, even if she had to carry herself at an odd angle. Her once impeccable dress showed signs of phaser burns as well, having been hit by more than just the large rifle that the biggest one carried. She really didn't think she could return to the Eirene any more in her present state, but what did it matter? The Genesis Device would ensure that the Breen joined the war.

"Exquisite," she said, and her booming voice wasn't contained by the restrictions of the present reality, echoing between the pillars. She felt blood running down her lower lip as she grinned at the survivors in the darkness. Unarmed, having lost her toy, she walked towards them with swaying hips - eyes wide as she stared at them. "Give me more..."

Though she wouldn't make it easy on them, of course. What was the fun in that?

Using the floor beneath her feet for leverage, she leapt eight feet up into the air, against the side of a pillar, and then launched herself straight down towards the tall officer with the big rifle. Her strength and quickness was no longer bound by the physical laws of her Host body, the flux in which she existed lending force to the blow she dealt unto the exosuit. She went for the head, meaning to crack the helmet and shatter the visor so that she might reach the gooey insides next. The big one wasn't alone, however, and she spotted the one with the ridges above his eyes. The one who had shot her with his rifle moments ago. She smiled at him, before she left the big guy behind and closed the distance, meaning to tear the shooter's suit apart with her fingers and split his chest open with equal ease.

Ambassador Visser never saw the Andorian, however, whom had been shrouded by smoke.


OOC: All right! Seven days of posting begins now! @RyeTanker , feel free to finish off the Infested next. Keep in mind that she'll more or less have to be completely destroyed before she stops moving. @DaValle , time is overdue to start working on the Genesis Device. @Stegro88 , I leave it to you how much he can help with that. The three of you should now work together to disarm it, and I will not be posting again until that happens, so set the pace you want. If a medical officer from the Eirene comes down there to stabilise Zark, no worries, as long as she doesn't end up on the Eirene. :)

Thanks to @Stegro88 for the T'Less dialogue!
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on December 28, 2020, 05:46:35 PM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Federation Embassy Basement | Breen]

@Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @DaValle

It's hard to imagine that a body missing a large amount of mass was capable of making a lot of noise, but the Infested Ambassador's body hit the ground with a solid thud followed by the sharp clacking of alloy bouncing off hard surfaces as the TR-116 rattled off into the back of the room.  The injured Andorian's eyes went wide in shock and almost instantly followed flashed with a vicious smile as it was pretty clear the Ambassador was out for the count.  Looking over to where the Eirene security officer was, she saw nothing.  It looked like Keegan had taken off to check out the sound.  Lt. Zark's intuition on this was rewarded when a strangled scream came from the security officer's direction and the Andorian whipped her head back towards the Ambassador and her eyes tried to leave her sockets as her antennae shot straight up in shock.

Somehow the Ambassador had gotten up and was moving. It couldn't be possible!  Any being that took that much damage was done for! Dead!  Even the Borg would be out of commission from that much damage, but the Ambassador was up and moving and if her mind wasn't playing tricks on her, she was enjoying this as her hips were swaying.

Reaching really deep for any reserves of will and energy she had left, Lt. Zark placed the unused adrenaline hypospray to her neck and gave pressed the trigger.  She barely heard the hiss when a sudden rush of energy infused her system and the syrupy numbness in her limbs fell away.  She knew she had to help and she vaulted up from her sitting position and her strength almost gave out on her as pain lanced it's way through her body causing her to stumble.  Lt. Zark kept a death grip on her pistol and managed to use one of the power banks to stabilize herself as she kept moving forward.  Dropping the now empty hypospray and clutching the hole in her exosuit she moved with a speed born of desperation and adrenaline.  Her sensitive hearing picked up the Ambassador calling out to the rest of her party and then a ruffle of clothing and what sounded like air rushing.

Lt.Zark didn't know the full capabilities of the Infested, but any being that could move after losing that much of their body was bound to be terrifyingly powerful and she knew that rush of air meant one of her team would die.  She just reached the corner and was bringing her pistol to bear in the direction of the Ambassador was headed and could see death and doom land right in front of Lorad.  She would never get her pistol aimed in time and Lorad was dead.  It didn't matter how much stronger the Reman was compared to her, the Ambassador was literally inhumanly strong.  She had even taken the time to land just a little further away from Lorad to walk up to him and bring his death.

It was a complete shock then when phaser fire erupted from behind her and a stream of orange pulses flew passed her and slammed into the Ambassador.  The Ambassador stumbled and like a feral beast operating on instinct forgot about Lorad as she whipped around to face Lt.Zark's direction.  Keegan screamed a war cry and let loose.  She was clearly a natural shot as even her terror induced fire all struck the Ambassador all over her torso.  That should have ended the fight except that Keegan in her terror had forgotten to ramp up the power settings on her phaser rifle.  Lt. Zark had no such problem as with the flick of her left index finger, she slid the power setting to maximum and another flick with her thumb, changed the fire setting to single. The Ambassador had been momentarily checked by the incoming fire, a motionless target, and Lt. Zark could see every detail in adrenaline induced sharpness, the blood leaking out of the Ambassador's mouth, the wild excitement in her ice eyes, the sheen of sweat covering her face, the tongue sticking out in  sexual ecstasy..... Also, her eyes and brows tightening, a feral smile on her mouth, and pistol sight lining up with Ambassador Marian Visser's nose.  An orange nova bloomed in her sight at the end of pistol and dissipated just as quickly to be replaced by an explosion of blood, bone, and brain matter where Marian Visser's head once was.  An eyeball spiralled off into the room spinning like a mad top as singed and burning bits of red hear fluttered in every direction.

All fire ceased and collective breaths were held to see if that was the end.  One breath, two breaths.  The headless body started to shamble forward, zombie like and an ancient feral part of Lt. Zark's brain gibbered at what she was seeing, but her training took over as she licked her lips and aimed lower for the legs and fired.  Another explosion of organic matter as left leg was severed at the thigh and the headless body fell over.  It would crawl, it had too, and there was only one way to deal with this.  Zark stepped out and shot off the arms creating a macabre tapestry on the floor, blood and tissue fanning out behind the body, the smell of burnt meat assailing her nose. Bile was rising in her throat, but she couldn't throw up yet, she had to finish this.  She made it to the limbless body that was thrashing about and dropped her pistol.  Instead she grabbed one grenade from her belt and dropped her knee on the body to keep it still. Breathing heavily, Lt.Zark screamed her pain and frustration as she jammed the first grenade into cavity of the Marian's torso, spilling blood and guts out. She could barely feel thumb depressing the arming button on the grenade as he withdrew her gore covered arm.

"Run!" was all she got out as she vaulted over the body. 

Lt.Zark made it three steps when a bang and a concussion slammed into her knocking over.  She managed to get her arms up but it wasn't enough as the cumulative stress and injury she'd taken caused her body to call it quits.  She had the vague sensation of flying to the ground and her head slamming into the ground.  There might have been a crunch in front of her face, and then blessed darkness.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on December 29, 2020, 02:17:17 PM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | Federation Embassy | Breen] @Auctor Lucan @BZ @Stegro88 @RyeTanker 
[Show/Hide]


While human in form the Ambassador move more like a reptile that searched for its next victim. This time her victim was the Reman that had despite his physical superiority against the most humanoid species no chance to stand against the overwhelming power of the Infested. After she was finish with him she turned her attention toward her next victim, which was the Petty Officer, but before she had the chance to get him the other two Officers interfered. This was Taa’gurs likely last chance to deal with the genesis device now. By the flickering lights that came from it he estimated the remaining time on less than two minutes. Let’s break the record then.

He reached the Device and started a full scan of its inner process. Carefully he examined the readings of his scanners doubting as to what it showed him. The Protomatter was concentrated in the main chamber underneath a small antimatter fusion generator. Not the newest model according to his high energy lost ratio. But yet there wasn’t anything special about it. The really fascinating aspect was build in the lowest part of the small pillar. A submitter, not larger than 2 inches, from which the cabling led to the wall behind the genesis device. Taa’gur scanned this part as well. The cables were connected to a huge energy source, very likely the embassy's own power generator. The resulting devastating of such a power input would be unmatched to any kind of weapon Taa’gur has ever seen or heard of. Even the worst Doomsday weapons were just merely able to destroy one planet at a time, but this thing would trigger the Protomatter to collapse and as a result expand in form of an energetic shock wave that could reach even the borders of this sun system. Every single atom in its way would get absorbed and reused to create a new star system. The very lives it will murder during this process will be used to create a system where the circle of life started all over again. Ironical brutal. No wonder it was invented by humans.

A normal defusing was never an option for this device and the Devore needed to get a little bit more creative to find a way to crack this challenge. His first thought was to change the submitters frequency, but even in a lab at the Daystrom Institute this could take days if not months. Not to mention the fact that he couldn’t even say in which way he needed to change the frequency to disarm it. Then his attention drifted on the cables behind the device. If there was a chance to cut off the main power supply of the device, he could use the resulting time to remove the Protomatter container.

The Devore moved from the device to the wall where the cables ended and removed the panel in front of it. The chaotic cabling behind was now visual. Apparently the Ambassador hasn’t thought that she wouldn’t have to deal with this any further. Taa’gur tried to figure out which of the incoming cables was connected to the generator. After seconds that almost felt like hours for the Petty Officer he finally found the right one. As he tried to remove it from its attachment point though the genesis device begun to increase its Protomatter radiation outbreak. He turned around to analyse the device and why it reacted so aggressive on the lost of its main power and found on the other side of where he scanned earlier the answer to his problem. While he thought earlier that the genesis device consisted of two separate parts he now saw that in fact the embassy's power was also used to contain the Protomatter. If he would remove it he would have to cut off the main power and link the Protomatter to a new power source in the very same moment.

Glancing around in the room seeing the chaos and devastation of the battle he came up with an idea. Rushing towards the junction again he scanned the remaining cables and found the one he needed now. The embassy's dampening field was still running but he now had to get message through to the Allegiant. His last hope was that they could simply blast up the power generator on his signal. It wouldn’t just destroy the generator, but also the dampening field transmitter and the team could get beamed out of their misery when the bomb is no thread any longer. But the only way to get a message out of the embassy was by using the embassy, or at least its one communication array. That was the cable he was looking for right now. Fortunately for him he found it fast enough and send out a message with a standard Starfleet encryption. “Here’s Petty Officer T’Kolla to the Allegiant. I’m sending you the coordinates for an orbital strike on my signal.” He send a little countdown of seven seconds after he finished his transmission. Now all they had to do was destroying this power generator and he could disarm the device.

Waiting for the countdown to finish he made himself ready to replace the energy source of the Protomatter container. Actually he changed the power source of the containment field for the Protomatter and its radiation. Now Taa’gur just needed one more ingredient to finalise this, another power source. This was nonetheless his easiest problem now since he could just use the remaining backup charges from his phaser rifle as some sort of portable battery. It wouldn’t last for long but it didn’t need to anyhow. The timer hit zero and the Devore opened the genesis device to connect his charges with the only hand sized tube in which the Protomatter was enriched. What he did forget though was the fact that even if the Allegiant would have hit the generator immediately there would still be a short delay between the impact and the shut down of the energy network of the embassy. In a fracture of a moment the tube was cut off from the network and therefore a tiny amount of radiation passed out the tube. Not enough to have to any kind of serious destabilising of the surrounding matter, but before Taa’gur could contain the radiation his left arm was penetrated by a larger amount of it. The strange matter begun immediately to consume the first layers of his suit. Every single molecule that got consumed heated up his left arm and after a short while the now almost plasma like burning mass reached his uniform.

The device was thus far stabilized and when the Petty Officer stretched out his hand to pick up the Protomatter, he saw the contamination on his arm. Yet it hasn’t had any significant size just some millimetre but this amount was already enough to burn his arm off. To prevent it from happening he grabbed one of the remaining power cells and cracked it open. Inside of the cell was a highly energised substance. Power plasma how he called it lovely. It may was still unhealthy to drop something like this on your wounds but still it was the better alternative to what the Protomatter would do. The pain was almost unbearable but the Petty Officer needed to focus on the tube now.

Storing the device, and linked power cell, in one of his suits remaining spare rooms Taa’gur stepped further away from the leftover of the genesis device. With the phaser rifle in his right arm he aimed for the emitter at the ground smelted the rest of the pillar down. Whoever may found this will never figure out how to use it.

Still the team wasn’t safe yet with both Zark and Lorad being out and at least on of them needed serious help. The Petty Officer returned to his crewmates as he saw that there were another Eirene Officer now beside the one who helped the Andorian earlier. By the colour of her uniform Taa’gur could tell that she was a medical Officer and as she saw the Andorian laying on the ground she did her best to stabilize the woman. As T’Kolla approached them he asked the medic a little bit exhausted: “How’s her status?”

“She will get through for now but I have to take her up to the Eirene for further treatment.” The medic responded while holding one of her devices above the wound of the Andorian Officer. Before the other Officer could ask the Devore something though, Taa’gur stunned either of the Officers with his Phaser. “Allegiant, three to transport.”
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on December 29, 2020, 03:42:05 PM
[ Lieutenant T’Less | Bridge | USS Allegiant | Breen Space ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
[Show/Hide]


"Tactical situation, worsening,” T’Less summarised mentally as she targeted another incoming torpedo. “Our only advantage at present is the cloud cover and the Aldean sensor scrambler. They are having to target us visually and Ensign Thorne is making that as difficult for them as she can. But it is still only a matter of time until they can bring more ships to bare or our cloak can be restored. Without it, we cannot escape.”

It seemed that Commander Dewitt had come to the same conclusion as the Vulcan Tactical officer about their dwindling odds of success and had chosen a course of action. One that T’Less did not agree with. Time slowed as the expected commands were given by the Human female before her and T’Less found herself pausing, not wanting to follow through with them as her mind tried to find an alternative.

“Commander, I…” The Vulcan tried; her voice dying off as Dewitt’s demand registered. Logically, she knew that it was the course of action with the highest percentage chance of success at this point, given known factors. Logically, she should have no difficulty in carrying out the order given to her. But, as the gravity of what the Commander before her intended to do sank in, T’Less found herself reacting emotionally. She did not want to carry out the order as it would mean losing another member of their crew. And while it was not to death as many had been, what the future may hold for Commander Dewitt at the hands of the Breen could possibly be a far worse fate for the Human officer. “As you order,” T’Less replied reluctantly, Dewitt’s offering of a small smile doing little to ease the guilt within the Vulcan as she ceased firing while opening a channel to the Breen vessels pursuing them.

“Breen vessels, please cease fire. We surrender, I repeat, we surrender. Please acknowledge this transmission.” Her heart was in her throat as she waited for the Breen to ceasefire but when they finally did, T’Less found herself unable to calm, knowing what was to come next. Transferring the Breen the main viewscreen, T’Less could only sit back and watch as Dewitt attempted to negotiate the mission to success. She wanted to object, her heart was telling her to, but logic dictated that this was the course of action with the highest probability of success. And T’Less found herself offering no objection when Commander Dewitt offered herself up to the Breen.

With a final set of orders issued, to rescue the away team if possible and then escape back to the Theurgy, Dewitt was transported away, leaving the bridge empty except for Jaya Thorne, the late Ensign Halliwell and T’Less herself.

“Chief Ji,” T’Less called out after opening a channel to the Allegiant’s engineering section. “Inform me the moment you can restore the cloak,” she directed as the Vulcan set about finding a way to fulfill Commander Dewitt’s final orders to her. “Ensign Thorne, the moment we are cloaked, set a course for the Embassy. Bring us close to the storm as you can manage so that we can use the atmospheric turbulence to disguise our wake.”



[ PO3 Lorad | Federation Embassey | Breen ] Attn: @DaValle @RyeTanker
[Show/Hide]


Lorad could scarcely believe what he was seeing. He had been briefed about how formidable an Infested was, along with their ability to receive a positively obscene amount of damage and remain a threat. A small part of him had remained doubtful that the briefing was entirely accurate and yet, before his eyes, the Terran female stood, laughing even as her could see through a significant portion of her lower torso. 

She was bleeding, burnt, and seemingly enjoying what had been done to her if her words were to be believed. Incredulous, Lorad centred his sights on her upper chest, his aim to decapitate her completely. Yet even as he squeezed his weapon’s trigger, he knew his shot would miss as the Terran moved in a manner impossible for her species.

She was on him in an instant, having leapt into the air and then springing off a pillar to dive at the Reman. Unable to resist, Lorad was carried to the ground, the Infested straddling him. He saw the blow coming as if in slow motion but there was nothing he could do as her fist impacted against the armoured visor of his helmet, cracking it. The Reman watched as the cracks spread under her fist and then felt the transparent panel shatter, cutting his face in multiple places. 

“I’m sorry Samala,” Lorad thought to himself, his last thoughts being of his beloved sister as the Ambassador’s fist cracked the helmet around the now fragmented visor.


Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on January 03, 2021, 03:23:34 PM
[Ens Jaya Thorne | Bridge | USS Allegiant ]
It had all happened so bloody quickly, and Jaya hadn't had the damn chance to say anything. It had been such a rapid decision on Dewitt's part to just surrender that - as winded and riled up by adrenaline that she's been at the helm - by the time the combat came to a close her mind had become entirely blank. Surrender? What the hell? Jen? What are you even...?

And suddenly, the moment came... and went.

"It has been a privilege, Jaya. Make sure to hold the Voice to his promise."

And then she was gone.

"Wha- Wait, no! What the...! Jen!" she managed, even as her friend and commander vanished in shimmering light, off to be some damn hero or something. Did she just sacrifice herself for the sake of the mission? Who the hell knows what the Breen might do to her! Will they even bother agreeing to the terms and spare us here? Jaya looked at the patrol ship on the viewscreen, knowing Dewitt was there now, trying to tell the Breen there was an emergency. A threat to the Hall of Heroes, or whatever they called it. Would they even listen to her? Wasn't it too late? I guess it depends on the away team still...

"Ensign Thorne," said T'Less to her, bringing her train of thought short, "the moment we are cloaked, set a course for the Embassy. Bring us close to the storm as you can manage so that we can use the atmospheric turbulence to disguise our wake."

Numbly, feeling like sh'd missed the opportunity to say what she thought of Jen's idea to her face, she realised the Vulcan had already ordered Ji down in Engineering to restore the cloak asap. She realised that Jen had even ordered them to get away, knowing that if the Allegiant would just vanish from underneath the masked noses of the Breen, it would look even worse for her. Is she insane?

[Engineering to bridge, plasma levels are restoring... I am repairing a conduit down here. We should have the cloaking device back online in... one minute. Tops. Ji, out.]

"Lieutenant," said Jaya and looked at the Vulcan. "We can't seriously leave Jen behind. She wouldn't leave any of us behind, would she? You are not seriously going to follow that order, right?" she said, any kind of humour that frequented her mind now gone. At least for the moment. Before there was any time to answer her question, it seemed the dampening field had been lifted from the Federation Embassy, or one of the away team members found some other means of communication.

[Here's Petty Officer T'Kolla to the Allegiant. I'm sending you the coordinates for an orbital strike on my signal.]

"What? Orbital strike?" Jaya cued the info up on the targeting displays superimposed on the viewscreen. "Sensors say that's the building's power supply lines. They want us to turn off the lights?"

[Seven, six, five...]

"What the fuck! I have to get in position!" she realised and took the helm once more, throttling up at full impulse so that they had a direct line of fire down next to the Embassy building.

[...three, two...]

"I'm in position!" she shouted to T'Less, and ignoring any kind of reaction from the Breen ships that monitored them, and turned the ship's cannons towards where they needed to be for the Vulcan's targeting displays.

[...one. Fire.]


OOC: Please go ahead and write Ji cloaking the Allegiant in your post, Stegro, and picking up the away team. Jaya will fly as ordered through the blissard to get into transporter range. T'Less might want to head to the transporter room to greet the dishevelled team?
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on January 04, 2021, 03:24:36 PM
[ Lieutenant T’Less | Bridge | USS Allegiant | Breen Space ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @BZ @DaValle @RyeTanker
[Show/Hide]


Ensign Ji’s assertion that they were less than a minute away brought a moment of relief to the Vulcan tactical officer as she worked at trying to keep her remaining crewmates alive and attempt to complete the mission. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few; or the one. She had been taught that back on Vulcan, during her earliest lessons in logic. And as she worked at her console, she clung to those words like a drowning woman to a life preserver. 

And then Jaya spoke up, saying only what T’Less had already told herself. But she had her orders. Cloak, rescue the away team and make sure that they returned to the Theurgy. Do not try to rescue her. T’Less was in command. Very clear. Very direct. Very Human. Before she could respond though, the dampening field was breached, somehow, as Petty Officer T’Kolla requested an orbital strike, before beginning to count down. 

Logic was discarded as T’Less acted on instinct and training, arming the primary phaser cannons and adjusting the yield to suppress as much of the collateral damage as she could manage. As she did so, Jaya brought the Allegiant around, granting T’Less a clear line of fire. A part of her wondered how the Breen were reacting at the Allegiant’s movements and the arming of its weapons. She could only hope that the Chief was accurate in her repair assessment.

“Firing,” T’Less called out as she issued the computerised command. The Allegiant hummed, as energy was released and the viewscreen tracked the pulses all the way into impact. The Vulcans accuracy had been good, but she had not accounted ground destabilisation from the high-energy impact. As a result, a neighbouring building lurched as part of it collapsed as the ground under it buckled from the blast. 

“Cloak restored. Go!” came Chief Ji’s voice and Jaya did not have to be told twice as the Allegiant lurched forward, heading directly for the blizzard that was beginning to engulf the capital. The ship bucked as the storm began to exert itself, nature once again showing that it was not a force to be underestimated.

“Ensign Thorne, I will go to the transporter room to facilitate the teams beam out. Once they are aboard, I want you to set a course a quiet, out of the way spot in the system so that we can evaluate and debrief about the mission,” T’Less said as she stood, her back cracking audibly as stress and tension was released. “Once there, I will attempt to contact Captain Ives and update him.” Orders issued, T’Less exited the bridge, sparing only a single glance at the deceased Halliwell.

In the passageway beyond, T’Less entered the first door on her right and stepped behind the console that housed the transporter controls. Bringing them online, the Vulcan began searching for the 4 members of the away team. When the call came through from T’Kolla that there were three to transport, T’Less idly wondered which of the team had not made it. Yet she had a job to do and the homed in on the locator beacons in the team’s suits. Unfortunately, she was only able to lock onto to two of the beacons. Choosing an alternative approach, T’Less locked onto the unique composition of their upgraded suits and transported them all four sets.

“Away team aboard, Ensign Thorne,” T’Less called out once the shimmering dissipated. “Execute!” That taken care of, the Vulcan looked over the team, cataloguing their apparent condition. Lieutenant Arn was clearly dead while the status of Petty Officer Lorad was not visible beyond his initial signs of life. The Andorian medic, Lieutenant zh’Ptrell appeared severely injured while the Devore was seemingly in the best condition of the bunch.

“Petty Officer,” T’Less said, addressing the Devore. “Meet Zark in the medical bay and see what you can do for her. I will take care of moving Lorad and Arn into the mess hall for now before joining you. Then you can tell me if your mission was successful or not.” Orders issued; the Vulcan proceeded to perform a pair of site-to-site transports to match her directions before shutting down the transporter systems. Going next door, T’Less confirmed Lorad’s condition before leaving him and stepping across to the medical bay where T’Kolla was with Zark.

“Please recap your mission, beginning with if you were successful or not,” T’Less requested as she reached for a medical tricorder.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on January 05, 2021, 05:36:52 AM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Med Bay | USS Allegiant]

@Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @DaValle 

Voices swim at the edge of the dark.  One of them sounded like the Petty Officer T'Kolla.

There's a musical shimmering noise.  What's going on? There's beeping and another voice.  Sounds female.

So sleepy.

Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on January 09, 2021, 08:14:42 PM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | USS Allegiant | Breen] @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @RyeTanker @BZ
[Show/Hide]


Before the transporter could beam him and the other team members up to the Allegiant Taa’gur glanced around the dark room. At least half of the pillars were either fully vaporized or damaged beyond repair, Ambassadors Vissers body was spread across half of the room and the liquid metal of the genesis device slowly flowed away in all directions until it eventually cooled down again. It was the sight of a battlefield they left behind. They maybe have saved millions of lives now, but even the most stupidest propaganda agent of the Infested could spin an horrific story out of this. How about the brutal assassination of the Ambassador and the following try to slaughter all those innocent citizens of the Breen homeworld.

After a couple of moments they ended up on on the Allegiant, greeted by a Vulcan Officer who ordered him to get Zark to the sickbay. Wondering why they weren’t encountered by the actual CO, Taa’gur kneed down to heave up his andorian crewmate. Her wounds were still visible and so close it looked even worse than before. With one arm behind her back and the other under her knees he stood up and made his way to the sickbay. After he left the transporter room he started to realize why it wasn’t the actual captain he encountered before. The ship has obviously taken some hits earlier that caused massive damage. Avoiding a couple of flicking cables in the hallway before the sickbay he finally made his way into the medical station. Carefully he placed the body of the andorian woman on the bed in the middle of the room.

“Computer initiate Emergency Medical Hologram.”

“Your request couldn’t get processed.” The computer responded in its calm voice.

“What?”

“The Allegiant has no EMH in its database. Please contact a medical Officer for your issue.”

Taa’gur slammed his fist on the wall of the medical bay. Why has this flying piece of shit no damned EMH. Looking to the Andorian he knew he had to do something or she would die there. “Computer scan Officer Zark and give me a list of her injuries. Order them by the likelihood they could kill the Lieutenant.” Some moments passed while the scans were performed and Taa’gur used the time to open the exo-suit of her. After inserting the maintenance code the main parts of the suit softly divaricated giving the Petty Officer a clear view of her injuries. “The scan of Lieutenant Zarks abdomen shows that she’s been hit by a metallic object. Her blood lost will reach a lethal amount in six minutes. The wound itself has been contaminated by various substances and splinter. The estimated probability of dying from an infection is...”

The door opened again as T’Less entered the room. “Computer stop.” He turned around to the Vulcan and listened to her order. “Yes Ma’am. We’ve encountered one infested inside of the Embassy, the Ambassador herself. She was also the one who killed Lieutenant Arn, but got finally eliminated by Officer Zark.” Taa’gur reached with his hand in the pocket where he stored the Antimatter. “Antimatter. Enough to blow up the city, maybe even more, but it wasn’t used in that way.” He stored it back in his pocket and returned to Zark. “The infested have installed in an object called Genesis Device and as you can see I was able to disarm it and destroyed anything left to find there.”
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on January 14, 2021, 02:41:34 AM
[ Lieutenant T’Less | Medical Bay | USS Allegiant | Breen Space ] Attn: @RyeTanker @DaValle @BZ @Auctor Lucan
[Show/Hide]


Listening to the debriefing, as succinct as it was, informed T’Less about the major points of what the away team had encountered on the surface. The fact that he was still carrying around a container of protomatter notwithstanding, the mission had been a success. They had prevented a bombing and killed another of the Infested. Yet that tally did nothing to soothe the Vulcan against the losses they had suffered in completing their tasks.

“Well done,” T’Less acknowledged, glancing at the display behind where Lieutenant Zark was laying. She was no expert, but it seemed that the only person who could save the Andorian, was the Andorian herself. Unfortunately, she was currently unconscious and without drastic measures, was likely to remain that way until her life expired. Neither she, nor the petty officer were able to treat her. “The burdens of command,” T’Less mused as she reached for a hypospray, programming in an analgesic.

“I am authorising the awakening of the Lieutenant,” T’Less declared as she injected the Andorian before reprogramming the hypospray with a stimulant. “You will only have a few minutes once she awakens to receive treatment instructions from her to prolong her life. Focus on life-threatening injuries and blood loss. I will check on Lorad in case we have a need to ask Zark about treating him.”

“Are you ready?” T’Less asked, pausing for only a moment before injecting the Andorian. Setting the hypo down, the Vulcan picked up a medical tricorder and left the medical bay, tapping her combadge. "Ensign Thorne, Chief Ji, an update on our status please."



OOC: Hope this gives everyone something to work with. I'm looking forward to reading the hurried pace in the sickbay. Can Zark and T'Kolla save her life in 4 minutes?
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on January 14, 2021, 08:06:50 AM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Med Bay | USS Allegiant]

@Auctor Lucan  @Stegro88 @DaValle 

Awareness oozed back into Lt.Zark's brain and sound began to pierce the syrup that was her mind.  It took a moment for her brain to register the sound.  It was the piercing shrill of a dying patient.  Who's dying?  Wait, I'm lying down.

With this last thought, Lt. Zark's eyes flew open and she rapidly began searching the room for the biomonitor.  When she found it, her heart sank.  She only had a few minutes before her body would give out.  Her mind began moving moving at a light second a minute for a solution.  She couldn't be alone, and her eyes found the Devore.  Before he had a chance to say anything, she hurled into into a desperate bid to save her life.

"T'Kolla, listen to me. Get the cortical stimulator and put it on my head. Get the cardiac stimulator and attach it to my chest. Attach a biomonitor to my temple. When the medical tricorder shows I have life signs, put me in a coma." Her desperate need to tell T'Kolla what to do was taking it's toll as she swallowed then her eyes began to flutter from her impending loss of consiousness.

"Put me on the transporter pad" the last breath seemed to take everything she had as the biomonitor began wailing from immenent cardiac arrest.  "Set it to" a final pained breath"diagnostic level 4"

As Lt. Zark's eyes closed, her head lolled to one side. The biomonitor shrilled the fatal tone of a heart ceasing to function.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: BZ on January 16, 2021, 06:32:27 AM
[Ens Jaya Thorne & CPO Eun Sae Ji | Not the Plan | Figuring it Out | Fucking Shit!!]





Jaya was still ridiculously pissed off at Jen.  In fact she was fairly certain that she would have a little welcome home present for Jen when she stepped foot on this ship again. And she had better come back.  It wasn't an option that she didn't come back because Jaya was the kind of friend that would turn over all hell's creation and then some to find the people that were important to her.  She may brush off a lot of things in her life with witty comments however she was also the kind of person that needed the right people in her life to stay surrounding her.  She would do anything that she could to make sure that they stayed close and lived as long as possible.

Jen's choice was absolutely unacceptable.

You didn't even cover it with me... I would have told you the eight million reasons it was wrong..

While the team headed down to the lower decks to make sure that everyone came home properly... Except Jen she was tasked with flying them over to a 'quiet' spot of the sector they were in while they assessed, had pow wows, and tried not to think about all the ways that Jen was probably being punished or messed with on her end. 

Pulling up the map of the area around them she decided where they should hide out.  She needed to be close enough that if Jen pinged them and wanted to come on board for a fresh black eye and a lot of angry curse words in her they could grab her too.  Or something.  Jaya definitely had something to say when the red head was back in her presence again.  Finding a spot that was close ish and seemed like it was something that would be safe enough they could hopefully hide long enough to figure out their next step.

Once she got the all clear from down below she began to make their way in the direction of the spot she had picked out in the shadow of a moon.  She began to head that way as she chimed in with the Chief.  “CJ, how is it going down there?” she asked.

“Who the fuck is CJ?' came the voice of the Korean woman down below.

“You obviously.”  she admitted with a flare of her free hand.

“My. Name. Is. Ji.” she said short and to the point.

“Well that doesn't answer my question, does it?”

If glares could burn through multiple decks of a ship then Ji's would burn holes straight through and singe the asshole of Jaya Thorne, but luckily laser eye balls hadn't become a thing yet.  “We're fucking red lined over here because of the fucking cloak and everything else going on.  But we're making it well enough just don't ask too much.” she stated over coms.  “Call me CJ again and I'll brand my name on the back of your fucking fist.” she grumbled cutting the line.

Jaya grinned.  “Aye Aye”
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Stegro88 on January 22, 2021, 03:16:14 PM
[ Lieutenant T’Less | Sickbay | USS Allegiant | Breen Space ] Attn: @RyeTanker @DaValle @BZ @Auctor Lucan
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T’Less listened as the updates came while she used the tricorder to examine the Reman. She was not a trained doctor or nurse but if she was using the tricorder correctly and understanding what it was telling her, then Lorad, while badly beaten and in terrible condition, was not in danger of dying. He would wake up eventually and be in terrible pain until someone with more training could treat him but for now, it seemed safe enough to leave him be. The Vulcan felt the need to check in T’Kolla and his treatment of Zark. It turned out to be the right thing to do as she found the Devore in the passageway, Andorian in arms as he struggled to shift her deadweight somewhere.

“Petty Officer, please explain,” T’Less requested, trying to remain calm despite her internal clock telling her that Zark could not have many minutes left for dying. As she listened, and tried to understand what Zark had told T’Kolla, that clock inside her kept ticking down. Finally, she had a basic understanding of what the Andorian was trying to do but instinctively knew that there was more to it than just the diagnostic. She couldn’t remember the specifics but that just meant that it wasn’t safe.

“I cannot allow you to do that, Petty Officer, for more reasons than I have time to share right now,” T’Less declared, knowing that with her words she was consigning Zark to the executioner’s block. Now she had to keep the axe from falling. “Help me put her back on the bed.”

Once Zark was repositioned and hooked back up to the computer, T’Less read over the screens quickly, seeing that time was shorter than she had expected. She moved around the bed, positioning herself above the Andorian’s head.

“Wake her,” T’Less commanded as she laid her hands carefully upon Zark’s face. "And the standby for instructions." As the system responded to the Devore’s ministrations and the Andorian was forced back into consciousness, T’Less began to murmur, her eyes closed as she focused.

“My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts. Tell me how to save you.”
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: DaValle on February 11, 2021, 07:53:10 PM
[PO2 T’Kolla (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Taa%27gur_Kolla) | USS Allegiant | Breen]
At: @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @RyeTanker @BZ
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The events in the small medical chamber came thick and fast after the Vulcan gave Taa’gur the command to wake up Zark. Soon after T'Less inserted the Injection in the neck of the Andorian Officer her body showed the first reactions to the drugs that now floated her System. Before she was fully back though T’Less left the room to look for Lorad. All that the Devore could do now was to wait till Zark was able to give any advice for her treatment. Even the sightliest hint would have helped the Petty Officer. Normally he was the one who caused such damages with his weapons not the poor soul that had to deal with the aftermath of them.

The Andorian woman almost jumped back to life as her brain has eventually been kicked back on by the Injection and Taa’gur waisted no second that they may not have right now. “Lieutenant Zark can you hear me?” The Devore asked her with his best loud and clear voice he had. “Ma’am, you’re dying and I’m not the best trained doctor here, so I need your help! What should I do?”

Her answer followed soon, though Taa’gur had the impression that she wasn’t even completely back when he started to yell at her earlier. It didn’t matter. Somehow Zark has definitely understood what was happening and the Devore could tell by the ways her eyes scanned everything in the room that she was currently searching for a way to treat herself. The answer she gave was… well… interesting. Not the first part though, that was simple. Attach two stimulator and one Biomonitor to her and then throw her mind back into stasis. Even with his limited knowledge Taa’gur should be able to do that.

Her second request was what hit him off-guard. Zark wanted him to put her on a transporter pad to then set it on some kind of diagnostic level. He surely heard about the theory to save people in the short term memory of a transporter. Theory was maybe to much credit for it, some sort of modern space myth would be more suitable to describe it. In theory, anyway, there wasn’t even a problem to do it, if he remembers his short lessons about transporters correctly, but in practise there wasn’t any kind of example where this method had succeeded. At least Taa’gur has never heard of one before.

The stimulator were placed and with some help of the ship computer he was able to put the Andorian back in an artificial coma. There wasn’t anything he could do to save her from dying as of right now so why don’t give the transporter thing a shot. Couldn’t be worse than letting him doctor around on her.

He tried to carry her body out of the medical while preventing all of the newly attached devices to fall off her, but before he reached the transporter room he got intercepted by the Vulcan Scientist. Very vulcan-like she demanded an explantation from the Petty Officer, one that he wasn’t really able to give her, as he wasn’t the one who came up with this insane transporter idea. “Ma’am, the Lieutenant has requested me to upload her in the memory of the transporter pad in an attempt to save her from dying till we meet up with the Theurgy again.” Explaining this plan out loud sounded even more desperate. The Vulcan Officer reacted the only way Taa’gur expected any Officer to react to such a plan. She forbade it and ordered him to put the unconscious body of Lieutenant Zark back on the medical bed. After that T’Less gave him the order to wake her up again and he did just that. Then he awaited her next commands even though he didn’t know how Zark could tell them anything useful in her current situation. While waiting there right next to the bed, ready to strike as soon as T’Less would know how to deal with Zark’s injuries, he begun to realize what the Vulcan was doing there in front of him.

He never witnessed a Vulcan mind meld before, but he didn’t take long to identify her movements as such. His mindset changed in a blink of a second, what was once the readiness to help Zark changed to an agressive view on the Vulcan. "Gahallars" It screamed through his head "It's your duty to kill them, Soldier!". Every single muscle in his body begun to tense on the sight of T’Less’ hands moving towards Zarks face. His stance shifted automagically in an battle ready one and at least one of his hands moved toward his hand phaser. It all happened so fast, but before he could start to actively resit his reflexes his body has already started to build up a mental blockade and only in the last moment he was able to restrict his body from acting even more on its own. Luckliy for him he didn’t carry any hand phaser on him right now and the rifle was still laying in the transporter room.

Apparently his little intern struggle wasn’t as invisible as he hoped it would have been. As he came back from his physical as well as mental defensive stance, he realized that the Vulcan has already gave him a new order. “I’m sorry Ma’am, what did you’ve just said?” He asked wondering how long he was away.


OOC:
Gahallars = extremely insulting word for Telepaths. (Translation: Mind-digging-head-worms)

Sorry for the long absence Its the finnal month for this Semester and somehow i thought that I've already replied here.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: RyeTanker on February 22, 2021, 11:25:38 PM
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark)  | Med Bay | USS Allegiant]

@Auctor Lucan @Stegro88  @DaValle  @BZ

Lt. Zark woke groggily and unsteadily. The light was blinding and painful.  That was all she knew at the moment.  A dull throb in her abdomen brought back memories of her situation and she mustered the strength to open her eyes. I guess I'm on Theurgy now? Surgery over? she asked herself.  As she began to take in her vision, hope turned to dismay as she saw the face of the impassive Vulcan T'Less and T'Kolla.  She was still on Allegiant and still dying.  A flicker of an experience surfaced in her mind of something otherworldly and foreign.  Lt.Zark's eye brows shot up as she remembered the mind meld.  T'Less had performed a mind meld to bring her up to speed on the situation and it was grim. Zark knew she needed to perform surgery on herself.  She remembered her training at the Academy about certain field expedient operations that medics had learned to do that would make Starfleet medical most displeased during the Dominon War and it looked it this would be one of those situations.  With a smile and sigh she took in her setup. 

Lt. Zark felt her head and felt the cortical stimulator.  Looking down she saw the dual linked grey boxes of the cardiac stimulator.  Good at least I have a chance at being revived.  Looking around, she saw a surgery kit had been laid out and the biobeds monitor showed the steri-field was up and running, she also had a brace on her arm with tubes and fluids running into it.  Looking at T'Less, "Has the local anaesthetic been applied?" Receving a nod in reply, the Andorian turned to T'Kolla.  "I need you to keep an eye on the heart rate and blood pressure monitor.  When the number on there starts turning amber, tell me to stop. I could continue for a bit, but then I need you to press the button for the general stabilizer.  You're not a trained anesthesiologist, so this is the best we can do.  Make sure the plasma packs are constantly full.  It's going to get chilly in here for me to operate most efficiently as I need you to lower the room temperature to 5 celcius.  I also need you to strap down my legs, feet, and waist soon." She turned her attention back to the Vulcan.  "Lt.T'less there should be enough time for you to get some cold weather gear for the PO after we start." 

Staring at the ugly flesh crater in her abdomen before taking a steadying breath and reaching for the probe on the medical tricorder and began scanning the injury while watching the monitor. "Computer, begin forming image of my abdominal injury. Pattern for projectile weapon and shrapnel."  The biomonitor next to her bed indicated working and forming and image as she moved the wand over the wound.  Angry splotches of red peppered their way through the image of her abdomen indicating various breaks, debris, and trauma. There was too much on the screen for her to parse out. "Computer, adjust image for coagulant affected areas and foreign debris, leave still bleeding as red."  The computer obediently recoloured the screen and her eye brow quirked as the damage was terrible but no where near as fatal as she'd thought. It was a distinct possibility that the Infested Ambassador's choice of round was a severe case of overkill as the tritanium round had more penetrating power than was needed. A duranium round would have tumbled and lodged itself inside her killing her for sure, but the tritanium tipped round had gone pretty much clean through.  There was a large amount of shock damage, but not as much shrapnel as she'd originally anticipated.

"T'Kolla, I need you to close my back before we begin. Use the auto-suture and ready another one after this."  Steeling her self, Lt Zark grunted as the Devore turned her on her side and held her there while he sprayed the compound all over her back.  It was a total relief to be put onto her back again after as the Devore set about restraining her.

As the room began to cool, her focus became better as metabolic efficiency went up.  Lt.Zark put on a pair of gloves and grabbed the suction tube and jammed it into the wound eliciting a grunt.  Pausing momentarily to catch her breath and to make sure the tube wouldn't move too much, she grabbed a pair of tractor forceps off the tray and began probing the wound.  "Computer, set forcep target to identified debris."  The computer beeped in acknowledgement and indicated all systems ready.  The one thing they tell medics about but she had never experienced till now was the fact that you still generally feel everything.  In this case, there was a substantial amount of rubbing around the wound and inside her.  Her eyes were focused on the screen in front of her as the computer generated an image of everything going on inside her.  It still caused some pain and noticeable grunts of exertion warred with queasiness as she plucked her way through the wound to pluck out the bits of armour that had gotten lodged in her body.  The first time was the worst, with the wet slurping followed by rivulets of blue blood and other liquids that made it passed the suction system. The tractor forceps made tiny adjustments to the direction it travelled using the image she'd scanned in and virtually guided itself to each piece of debris and using a extremely low powered forcefield to gently push the various body parts out of the way. When she reached the offending piece of metal, the tractors engaged and notified Lt. Zark on the monitor.  As she pulled the forceps out, a disgusting wet slurping sound could be heard in the room.  Her nostrils flared as her chest gently heaved with exertion as she examined the jagged blue coated metal before dumping it in a sanitizing solution. She needed more air to keep going. "Computer, increase oxygen and air flow by 10%."  Each time a new piece was pulled out, it elicited a grunt followed by a wet sucking sound and a little plink as the foreign piece of metal was dropped into a beaker.  This was followed up with some  additional suction to get a clearer view of the internal wound and jamming in applicator of autosuture.  It was good thing that the medical technology of the 25th century the suture material also acted as a disinfectant.  She could only hope she was pulling and putting all her parts back together in the right place, otherwise the real surgeons were going to have to destroy all the work inside her, then repatch and replace the bits they'd taken out.

She'd totally lost track of time, but fifteen times, the forceps went in and came out with little pieces of metal or cloth.  Fifteen times, the autosuture went in afterwards to seal the damage.  Some times, she got some water from a cup with a straw to keep her throat from getting parched.  In 5 of those extractions, she'd nearly thrown up as she'd also had to put in a laser scalpel to remove bits of her small intestine that had been seared by hot metal.  It didn't really get easier with each piece.  Steadily though, each affected area turned green for repaired. When she was done with this evolution, she removed the gloves with a snapping sound and laid them on the tray.

Now for the hard part and for this she needed a few minutes for a breather.  There was a major hole in part of her small intestine that would need to be cut out and sealed.  It was routine but challenging for a surgeon who had two hands.  For a wounded person,  nearing the end of her strength, this was possibly an act of heroic suicide, but if the small intestine wasn't reattached, who knew what havoc the leaking liquids would wreak.  She was more exhausted than she'd thought possible.  The only thing she wanted at this point was a cup of hot tea, her pet Saucer sleeping on her chest, and a soft bed with a week of sleep.  Her eyes turned to T'Kolla who was watching the screens, still as a statue.  "Thank you for everything." she said to his back. "Computer, set new forceps for intestinal tissue." She grabbed another set of gloves and put them on before grabbing a new set forceps and an tube spray with a surgical disinfectant.  Taking a breath, she dove in again.  It was clear the anaesthetic was starting to lose effectiveness as little pins of pain poked at her as she made her way deeper inside.  She used the pain to focus herself.  The sooner she was done, the sooner it would end.  Steady was the winner here, do it right.  The mantra repeated itself blending with the pain into focus for the goal.  Reaching the damaged section, she used the disinfectant to spray down the entire area before pulling the tool out and grabbing the laser scalpel then diving in again to slice away the damaged parts. Noxious liquids began bubbling out of the wound.  "Computer, increase suction by 25% and set ventilation to max." She couldn't afford to stop now and the biomonitor began beeping as her vitals hit amber and some spiked red. The wound cleared as Lt. Zark yanked out the first piece of intestine and dumped it on the tray before diving in again.  This time she moved faster than the forceps could cope with and the pushing sensation in her caused wave of nausea threatened to make her throw up.  She paused momentarily to regain her breath as the increased amount of general stabilizer took hold before proceeding.  She neatly sliced of the other damaged portion before pulling out the damaged tissue liquid coated scalpel. Grabbing the autosuture, adrenaline pumping she dove in again, ignoring all warnings, and manoeuvred the separated ends of the small intestine together before applying the autosuture.  When she was done she pulled all the tools out and was gratified to see all the angry red splotches now showing green of a repair.  Her bio readings also flowed back to green, though a few hovered around amber for a bit before turning green.

Seeing she was out of danger, she prompty turned to the side of the bed away from T'Kolla and threw up all over the floor.  Nobody ever said anything about the smell.  Maybe she should have gotten a mask.  Looking back at the monitor, the repairs were still holding for now.  Taking off her gloves, she turned to the Devore.   "Water please." When she got the water, she used it to rinse out her mouth and spat the contents back into the glass.  "Sorry about the mess.  I think there's a tractor vacuum on the ship somewhere.  Put on a set of gloves and dump everything into the sterilization tray down there. She pointed at a drawer with a bioahazard sign. "You can raise the temperature, and attach a new IV, plasma, and anesthazine bag, tie down my upper body....." A grateful smile creased her lips and eyes as her antennae turned towards him. "and thank you again for everything."  With that, the Andorian medic closed her eyes and fell asleep to the rhythmic beeping of the biomonitor.



OOC:

Apologies for lateness of the reply, it took a certain something to watch a video of a gsw surgery being done before coming up with this.  Anyway, our smiling maniac lives and we can get the rest of this show on the road.  Thanks for everyone's patience.
Title: Re: Chapter 04: Horns of a Dilemma [ Day 02 | 1245 hrs. ]
Post by: Auctor Lucan on February 24, 2021, 03:42:02 PM

EARLIER


[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt (https://uss-theurgy.com/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Dewitt) | Breen Patrol Ship ]
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For all good it had done to stand her ground and make the Breen officers on that patrol ship heed her, to agree beaming her aboard and spare the lives of her crew in exchange of hearing her warning about the threat to the Hall of Heroes, Jennifer Dewitt hadn't had the time to say her piece. Much less speak to anyone of import.

The Allegiant had fired straight down into the Breen Condeferacy's capital, dealing an orbital strike right next to the Federation Embassy and subsequently the Hall of Heroes. This, at a time when the Breen Council had convened. Eyes wide, she'd seen it happen from aboard the patrol ship. The Breen officers had begun shouting in their distorted voices, leaping at the task to destroy the Allegiant as soon as it began to move and power up its weapon systems. They had made the mistake of beaming Dewitt to their small bridge, however. Seeing what was about to happen, Jennifer was certain that what T'Less and Thorne were doing had to be affiliated with their mission. So, she had followed her gut instinct. Knowing it might compromise her further, perhaps even jeopardising the chances of speaking with the Breen leadership, she just couldn't stand there and see the Allegiant destroyed.

Using the moment of distraction, she had disarmed the Breen that had a disruptor rifle aimed at her, struck him to the deck with it, and screamed at the bridge crew to not open fire. One of them hadn't listened, so she'd shot his console to make her point. Then, the Allegiant had cloaked once more... and it had made a cursory smile cross Jennifer's face, knowing that her small crew had made it. She'd surrendered her newly acquired weapon, putting it down on the deck, and raised her hands in submission. This... might not have looked so innocent, she thought, but she'd really not had any choice, had she?

One of the Breen had struck her across the head from behind, and then everything went dark.

- FIN
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