[2381] yo'SeH QIn ghor

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[2381] yo'SeH QIn ghor

January 11, 2020, 06:41:00 PM

[ Sogh Valkra | Privateer Marauder | C Deck | meQtaHboghqachDaqSuvqoHmeH ]

The pirates had thought themselves stealthy. Cunning. Well-hidden, with their inferior cloak and slow prowl through the local gas giant's rings. And all the while, the Qigh'YoD had been passively scanning their drive signature to ensure that this was indeed the ship they had been sent to hunt, and not merely some hapless civilian freighter who was horribly lost. Stranger things had happened. And the Aldeans got awfully prissy when the 'wrong' ships were destroyed in the name of pursuing security.

There had been little time for the enemy vessel to react. The KDF cruiser decloaked and fired its blistering forward battery as soon as the envelope would permit its disruptors to pass - savaging the smaller ship's engines and crippling her ability to manoeuvre. The damage to their plasma manifold also delayed the ignition of their shields - meaning the generators could be targeted directly.

Valkra's team - and several others - were already standing by on the boarding transporters, each able to beam up to a dozen soldiers per transfer. They were positioned such that they would cover all angles as soon as they materialised, without having to orient and potentially cost themselves precious seconds and lives. As soon as the shields were confirmed down, over they beamed. The sites had already been chosen - corridor junctions, some medium sized compartments... but no cargo bays. Besides the fact that most such bays had large doors that led directly to space, it also carried the distinct drawback of having to fight in a fucking cargo bay.

As her vision cleared of red-orange energy motes, she and the warriors around her came under fire. Some of it was even accurate, if not quite precise. One of the Klingons to her left ate a phaser beam and collapsed where he stood. He was immediately avenged. The teams split off, moving down separate corridors, distant sounds and chatter on her comm betraying where the other main groups were fighting the crew on their own terms. This ship was not slated for simple destruction - the particular group to which this miserable lot cleaved had caused enough trouble that the Aldean client government wanted them rooted out entirely, and so the ship was to be boarded and thoroughly plundered for its secrets.

That's where she came in. Today, she was employed in a role that saw little use now she was no longer aboard a strictly House Daa'maq vessel - data acquisition. Her team's job was to get her to the main computer core, so she could make sure they got their data straight from the source.

The marauder's deck rumbled under another salvo from the Qigh'yoD, as the boarding team prowled along its corridors. The calls from the warriors charging through the other passages of the stricken vessel echoed from the bulkheads, interspersed with disruptor reports and the ripping blasts of phaser fire. Valkra led her team around a corner and collided with one of the pirates. No time to reach for her mek'leth - instead she grabbed a fistful of the man's tunic and rushed forward, slamming him into the opposite bulkhead as her compatriots swarmed around her, pelting disruptor bolts down the corridor to force the pirate's friends into cover. Valkra slammed the man occiput-first into the alloy wall, stunning him, then hefted him onto his toes as she advanced further down the corridor, firing her own pistol over his shoulder at his crew mates.

The chief benefit of a meatshield's armour was that it counted twice for the victor - on top of her own.

His stunned state didn't last forever, though, and he was soon squirming in her grip, trying to free himself from his position in the middle of both lines of fire. She switched her grip to his throat, then unceremoniously jabbed the muzzle of her disruptor into his ribs over his heart. She pulled the trigger before stepping over the smoking corpse.

"Barricade!" called a bekk, ducking back to avoid decapitation by phaser.

"Suppress them!" she ordered. "Make them cower!"

A torrent of lurid green energy bolts poured down the corridor, spanking off the hastily-erected metal plates behind which the enemy hid. On cue, the grenadier pulled a short bundle of charges from his bandoleer and threw them clear of the barrier. "Cover!" he barked. A portable force field generator was thrown to the deck ahead of them, to absorb the blast wave in the confined space of the corridor. The KDF team ducked back as the explosion rattled their bones, the flash leaving them blinking spots out of their vision. In front of the field, though, the bulkheads had been buckled and blackened by the impact, doubly so as the blast wave had reflected from it - and nothing remained of the defenders. The force field dropped.

"Move. There are more to kill."

[Their engine pit has been fortified,] another Sogh called over the comm. [The cowards hide behind secondary shields. It will take longer than anticipated to dislodge them.]

Another corner, another counter boarding team to be dispatched. It was as if they thought they could bury them under corpses - the few hundred aboard this ill-equipped pirate vessel couldn't possibly expect to prevail against the two thousand proud sons and daughters of Kahless aboard the Qigh'YoD, could they? Valkra peeled a solidly-built Verexian from her mek'leth before sheathing it again.

Well, if they wanted to be stupid, she was happy to kill them for it.

A few minutes' bloody work took them to the heavy doors to their computer core - predictably, locked. "Grenadier, knock politely. I want this open," she demanded. The rest of the team took what scant cover was available in the corridor. Bekk Mokr chose to simply hold up the body of the one the marauder's crew as a blast baffle. Valkra laughed. "At least he'll be of more use to us than he was to them!"

The shaped charges detonated with a perfunctory crump and bowed the doors inward. Valkra was the first through, and took a disruptor shot to the shoulder for her trouble. The dispersive layer in her cuirass sublimated, robbing the bolt of its destructive power for the price of spinning her round and back out of the threshold for her trouble. "Get in there and kill that whoreson," she barked from one knee, working her shoulder in circles. It felt as if she'd been kicked by a drakoulias. Retrieving her disruptor with some muttered curses, she followed into the computer core again in time to see the disruptor-riddled corpse of her attacker drop from an elevated catwalk with a wet crunch. The woman's neck was bent at an unnatural angle, even before you accounted for all the smouldering holes in her torso.

"Sogh," called the heavy, shifting his disruptor cannon on his hip. "There is another."

Well, that's stretching it, she thought to herself as she came around one of the isolinear stacks. The coward quailed at the sight of them, hiding behind his hands and making odd noises in whatever barbarian language it usually spoke. Sighing, she reached up to her comm and flicked on the translator circuit.

"-n't kill me, please, I want to live, I can get you money, uh, weapons, anything-"

"Information?" she put in.

"Ah, what?" he asked, clearly taken aback for the moment. "I mean, they don't tell me- I don't know much, I mean-"

Valkra, bored, raised her disruptor and put the man out of his misery before flicking off the translator again. She didn't know why she bothered. She headed back to the main access console, placing her scanner at one end to help her read what she was looking at.

"Honourless-" she started to swear, before slapping her comm again. "Bridge team, progress."

[They started plasma fires on all approaches. We cannot get to them.]

"Engine pit."

[The shield is down, and we are - petaQ!-] the report of a disruptor washed out the link, [-in the process of taking control. One minute.]

"There is a self-destruct order from the bridge. Forty seconds remain on the timer."

[Then today is a good day to die. We will not have time to stop it.]

"Qigh'YoD, destroy the bridge."

While she spoke, she was pulling tools from her thigh rig and a bandoleer of more specialised devices of her own manufacture. She removed the front panel from the console, found the cluster she was looking for with the scanner, and jammed a data spike into it. Between scrapcode, good old fashioned targeted overloads, and some fairly virulent examples of e-war programs, she locked out every existing command code.

[Brace,] was the only reply from the cruiser. Almost immediately afterwards the ship rumbled again, hard enough that she actually had to take hold of the console stanchion. [Bridge destroyed.]

Valkra didn't respond, concentrating on not allowing the craven owners of this ship to deny them their prize - and ensuring the boarders would (mostly) live to fight another day. She had complete control of the ship from here, but the countdown was taking some effort to halt. In the end, she managed it with twelve seconds to go.

"All teams - self-destruct cancelled. Eliminate the remaining crew."

[Qapla'!] came the chorus response. She set to work mining the library for their navigational logs.

To her team, she nodded at the door. It would hardly be fair of her to stop them from joining the fun. "Go. I must remain. Mokr! Guard my back."

Re: [2381] yo'SeH QIn ghor

Reply #1 – January 19, 2020, 01:04:46 PM

[ Sogh Valkra | qab yuQ | Qa'pat System | meQtaHboghqachDaqSuvqoHmeH ]

The marauder's computers had, luckily, yielded the information that the boarders had not been inclined to extract from its crew. In their defence, the pirates had been disinclined to offer a proper fight, instead having elected to cower behind inadequate defences and fire screens. But it had only taken a few hours' work to break the computer's firewalls and reveal its secrets - the pirates' base of operations in a neighbouring system with no name, as well as the name of another ship or two in their fledgling operation.

The Qigh'YoD warped in-system under cloak, and wasted no time making for the planet they'd dubbed 'qab yuQ' upon reading the first sensor returns. A storm-wracked ball of dirt and rock and wood, with only a few scattered enclaves of primitives on its eastern hemisphere to recommend it. They were only just industrial; not even worth incorporating into the Empire.

This combination of remoteness and mediocrity was likely why the pirates had chosen it. The gravity was a little higher than standard, but the air was breathable (more or less) and the climate didn't try to kill you all that often. That didn't stop them from placing their outpost on the opposite side of the planet from the primitives, however. No need to embroil themselves in some distracting dispute over territory in a way that would only end with someone like the Federation coming in to moralise over their plight. No one needed it.

Orders were given and preparations made. The Qigh'YoD would stay under cloak in orbit to ambush any ships that might return once the attack was commenced. The destruction of the base itself would be left to assault teams, deployed via landing craft given transporters' inviability through a cloaking field. Valkra's was one of the teams assigned - and she got to bring the toys. Four kinds of explosive, her bandoleer of tricks, a team accompanied by a disruptor cannon and photon grenade launchers... it was like the good old days of the Dominion War.

While the others around her bantered and laughed in the dropship as it slipped down over the polar mountains, Valkra stayed quiet, checking her weapons and gear. A soldier without her sword was useless. Carefully, she threaded some stray hairs back into her braid and tightened its knot. Thoughtfully, she nodded to herself, allowing one small moment of peace before battle. Today is a good da-

The shuttle rocked as it took a hit, alarms screaming over the din. A ragged hole had been blasted into the hull, just aft of where Valkra had been sitting. Of the warriors that had so recently been laughing a joking in those seats there was no sign. There was an awful eternal instant where nothing happened... then physics reasserted itself on her perception, and she grabbed the headrest of her seat before the slipstream could blow her out of the shuttle in turn. The turbulence was bruising. Her feet dangled in clear air, illuminated by the screaming thruster assembly on the wing.

Computer! she tried to yell. Raise a force field!

The wind sucked away her words, the noise so loud it was more felt than heard. Another jolt shook her grip, nearly dislodging her completely... but the pebble had been pushed from the hilltop. It was now an inevitability. She roared in frustration, despite the fact she couldn't hear it at all. Beneath the shuttle, a forest flashed by - intermittently illuminated by passing disruptor bolts.

Her grip failed.

As the dropship rocketed ahead of her while she acquainted herself with freefall, she saw the flicker of a force field cover the breach in its hull, though not before shedding a few other pieces of debris. At least the rest of her cohort might survive to the ground. But that was all theoretical, and she had some pressing practicalities to address first. Namely, the fact that she had no descender kit and she was about to land at speed in the middle of an alien forest. Valkra arrested her tumble, falling spread-eagled through the cold air and wondering if it would be a tree that finally managed to kill her, after countless attempts by Jem'Hadar, Syndicate enforcers, Romulan skirmishers, Aldean gangers, and other Klingons. A tree.

Or perhaps not; a clearing came up by pure chance as she dropped beneath the canopy line. She stayed spread for as long as she dared before tucking and trying to get her boots between her and the ground in order to roll once impact came. She misjudged it - the twilight and her disorientation conspired to hide her altitude from her. She hit hard, bouncing high, and tumbled head over heel when she came back down. The ground was rocky under the brush, and only her armoured cuirass saved her. Her explosive satchel disappeared as its strap broke with a snap.

Another jarring impact with the ground, and she was now skimming backwards only half a metre or so above the ground. It wasn't for long. Valkra slammed into a large rock, and was englufed in blackness.

Quote

"Life forms detected, Captain."

"Show me."

"Bah, savages. Barely more than hunter-gatherers."

"Widen the search. I want that base."

"Reading an active shield grid... coming over the horizon now. We've found it."

"Have they detected us?"

"Not possible, Captain. They're just cowards, hiding behind their shell."

"Weapons."

"If they have them, they're powered down. We won't see them with a passive scan."

"Sound the launch. Send a hundred to put that base to the sword. We will wait in ambush for their friends, as soon as they scream for help."

Valkra woke with a start, slumped against a huge chunk of granite, and in possession of a new desire to have Words with the ship's sensor operator. Somewhat groggily, she reached over to activate her comm, only to discover her sleeve was bare. The movement also produced a sharp pain in her upper arm - careful prodding lent the suspicion that she had broken her humerus minor. Then that will be my gun arm. Tightness in her chest implied at least a couple of broken ribs. And stiffness everywhere else betrayed the innumerable bruises and scrapes she had accrued. Scanner. She should scan herself to see how badly she was hurt.

That pouch was also empty. She wheezed a sigh, before reaching for the little medical pack she carried on her thigh instead. Ultimately it didn't matter how hurt she was. She was alive. Lifting the flap of the pack she discovered that nearly half of the hypospray vials in there had been shattered... but of the rest, the ones she sought were intact. There was no analgesia present; pain was a tool like any other. It told a soldier which parts to favour and hide from her enemy, it delineated new limits, and it motivated the soul. The hypo hissed as it discharged a pair of doses into her leg - and immediately, her vision began to clear and her vitality rallied. A metallic taste in the back of her mouth told her that her adrenaline was spiking again.

Valkra stood carefully, ensuring that there were no new injuries to reveal themselves as she took her own weight. "Hmph," she grunted. The fall had not yet overmatched her.

A low, wet growl sounded behind her, from the top of the rock. She spun to see some svelte predator-feline, dark and striped, crouching atop the granite and tensed to pounce. She raised her disruptor (and ignored the fracture-pain in her arm), but only sparks issued from the muzzle. She swore colourfully, tossing the useless pistol aside and diving in the other direction. The leopard-thing slammed into the ground where she'd been standing, claws raking for purchase, as Valkra drew her mek'leth. "Is this it?" she spat at the creature, as if it could understand her. "Try!"

Another pounce, but this time she stood her ground and flourished the shortsword in a defensive pattern with her uninjured arm, cutting deep into the cat's clavicle before she wrenched it further to be rewarded with a spray of something arterial. A hellish yowling heralded the creature's demise. Planting a boot on the leopard's chest, she ripped the mek'leth free, and wiped it on her sleeve before sheathing it again.

Flashes on the horizon betrayed the direction of the pirate outpost, under attack from her comrades. A final fruitless glance around the clearing in the hope of spotting her satchel, and she set off at a jog.

Perhaps she'd catch up in time to join in.

Re: [2381] yo'SeH QIn ghor

Reply #2 – April 12, 2020, 10:47:03 AM

[ Sogh Valkra | qab yuQ | Qa'pat System | meQtaHboghqachDaqSuvqoHmeH ]

She hadn't made it two kellicams into the misted forest before she found another warrior who had also been the victim of an unplanned ejection from their dropship. Valkra slowed her run to a jog, then a halt, ignoring the low burn from her chest and the ache in her arm. She looked around, sweeping the trees for any sign of concealment or ambush before she approached the man. There was no clearing here, and his landing had been foreshortened by the trunk of a tree some distance from the ground.

That impact had not been immediately fatal, evidenced by the lavender streak across the rocky ground. That, and the pair of dead leopard-things of the same species as that as had attacked her at her own 'landing zone'. A pair of broken legs had failed to stop the Klingon from fighting back, clearly... Though the spattered pool of congealing purple blood painted a fitting final scene for him.

One of the predators had latched onto his neck (and was still slumped across his body), but the still-smoking holes through its torso showed that his disruptor had meted out in kind the punishment he received. The other animal lay further away, most of its head a crater. Valkra nodded in respect. A better ratio than hers, and she had most of the use of all her limbs. Not the foe they had sought to face, but he had died fighting all the same.

She crouched down next to him, and pried his obviously-functional pistol out from his stiffening fingers. He wouldn't be needing it any more... though she did put his d'k tahg in its place, in case he needed it on his journey. Valkra nearly left then, but had a late thought and checked his other arm for his comm. That hand was still wrapped in the leopard's fur, but the arm itself was easily reached. She fixed the comm to her own sleeve to replace her lost unit.

"Valkra to ground team."

[Sogh! We thought you were dead.]

"Not yet. How far away am I?"

[Six kellicams, give or take. We have breached the outer wall.]

"Mark my position. I have found Km'gor; he has gone ahead of us, to prepare a hall in Sto'Vo'Kor."

[Marked. But you must hurry, Sogh. We will not wait for you to catch up!] As if to punctuate the point, the rapid report of a disruptor cannon screamed over the link, undercut with a guttural Klingon chuckle. [A much better fight than aboard their pathetic corsair.]

Well, that just wouldn't do. She wouldn't be left behind like some forlorn targ pup!

Slipping the disruptor into her empty holster, she set off at an easy lope again into the darkening forest.