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CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

[Samala & Tesserarius Lorad | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @FollowTomorrow @Absinthe
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“The Borg brother?” Samala asked in Reman as she and her Lorad stepped out of the turbolift. “Is there anything else you need to tell me Lorad?”

“We don’t have the time,” Lorad responded as he stepped around his sister and began to retrace his steps towards the Main Deflector Control room where he had left Suq and the snakelike crewmember that were working on the cloaking device. “It feels good to be armed again.”

“I can’t believe you let them take your weapons,” Samala said as they walked. She was still feeling tender in her abdomen and her left arm was still in a cast and pretty well useless, but she could feel her strength returning.

“I did not have much of a choice. They were removed when we were brought aboard,” Lorad explained. After dashing out of the Main Sickbay, Lorad had led his sister to where their weapons were stored. Ensign Sel was not there and the petty officer present, while hesitant at first, eventually returned their weapons. Pointing out that more weapons with different settings meant more dead Borg had been very effective. “But we have them now.”

“And I’m planning on keeping them,” Samala stated firmly as they approached their destination. Lorad said nothing as he entered the room. He wasn’t sure how the ship’s crew would react to them being armed as they were. Seeing the short man present, Lorad greeted him.

“Suq, I bring Samala,” Lorad called out in Standard. “We fix cloak now.”

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #1 –
[ Lt. Jg Suq Reylin Efreya-Xan | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

“Oh,” Suq jumped, his reflexes making it seem far more exaggerated than it needed to be. He turned around and there were now...one reman, and one non-reman. That’s a weird siblinghood.
“Hi Samala, I’m Suq. Lieutenant, junior grade. I’m an engineer.” He waved, “You’re very pretty, so is your brother. That’s F’rell, floating over there, she’s a warp core theorist.”

With introductions over, he dug around for and scooped up the PADD with the supposed Reman computer downloaded on it. Time to get down to business. “I need someone to go over the code here. It’s not translating into Federation right and we need to make sure this cloak covers the whole vector. We’re up against borg, so...no room for error. No pressure.” He mumbled. He was still afraid, but he'd had a few moments to just...not think. Now he was ready to work. Still paranoid, but a working paranoid.

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #2 –
[ F'Rell of the 12th House | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | USS Theurgy ]

The Reman had returned with another humanoid he introduced as his sibling. They looked similar enough, but to F'Rell's eyes, most humanoids looked similar enough to be the same species or even related. She had taken some getting used to people to really notice differences among them.

"<We have delayed too long, I require a translation matrix between Federation and Reman code,>" she intoned, cutting right to the chase. "<Are you familiar with either coding language to a degree that you will be of use in assisting us in building such a translation layer?>"

Her tone was curt, almost irritable, something quite unlike her. However she was stressed and she continued to see how her friend worried and fretted, even though he contained much of it. She did not like them going into dangerous places. These humanoids seemed to wish to be unsafe and she wished they would cease this and abandon such dangerous activities, yet she could only do what she could do to help them stay alive. The ship was damaged and she was concerned that any more abuse and the structural integrity field would begin to fail, much less the deflector control system. Much of the warp control system was in a state of disarray, with new code put in over old code. The whole of the control system needed an overhaul and the programming would need to be repaired and cleaned. But there was no time. Right now it was a matter of making things work.

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #3 –
[Samala & Tesserarius Lorad | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @FollowTomorrow @Absinthe @SummerDawn
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“Well, aren’t you a floating ball of charm,” Samala announced, her voice filled with snark. “I’m guessing that my brother couldn’t help you with this coding that you seem to so desperately need and that no one else aboard this ship is overly familiar with Reman code.”

“There is one, but I have not seen her to ask her,” Lorad hedged from behind his sister, getting the feeling that Samala’s attitude was going to cause trouble. “I told them that you were the best chance they had to get this working in time.”

“And that is why they brought me out of stasis and healed me,” Samala observed, raising her left arm to look at the cast on it. “Mostly anyway.”

“Samala,” Lorad implored. “We have no time for this. This ship is about to enter a battle with the Borg and the cloak can help us. But only if it is working properly. Can you do it or not?”

“I’ll need time,” Samala decided as she accepted the PADD from the Efrosian engineer. F’rell she mostly ignored. Despite never having seen anything quite like her before, the last 30 minutes, from her perspective at least, had not been very pleasant.

“I will make sure you get it,” Lorad said as he pulled out his father’s disruptor pistol and set it to change to an alternate frequency after each shot. Not a usual feature on Reman weapons, his father had added it after hearing about Lorad’s mission to the Borg cube. It should make it harder for the Borg to adapt, at least for a time. The disruptor only had so many frequencies it could fire at, and Samala’s weapons shared those same frequencies.

Satisfied, he holstered the weapon and then patted each of his knives. His father’s was on his left hip while his own was strapped around his right calf. Not the most convenient position for it but he did not have the time to choose a better spot. He hoped he would not have to use the blades, for obvious reasons of proximity, but he also doubted that he would get a choice if the battle turned against them.

The Theurgy shaking from the first impacts of weaponry announced to everyone that the battle had been joined.

“So it begins,” Lorad noted calmly looking at the ceiling before turning to look down at his sister. “Samala, hurry.”

“This is not going to be pretty,” Samala declared before dropping down to kneel next to cloaking device.

“Just make it work,” Lorad commanded as he moved to put himself in between the doors and everyone else in the room. If the Borg wanted his sister, or the others, they would have to go through him.


OOC: Everything Lorad says in this post he says in Reman. Also, not sure if SummerDawn is having Kala remain in the Deflector Control Room with us. I will edit this post to include her presence if she will be with us.

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #4 –
[ Lt. Jg Suq Reylin Efreya-Xan | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Samala got straight to work, partly because F’rell was rude to her. He sighed, not even going to try to repair this social break, because the borg would likely claim one of them anyway. All of them, most likely.

Still, Suq was not the man to lie down and accept his fate, even if his terror told him to do so. He was sitting by the console, reading over the same coding Samala had in Federation standard, though slower than her. She and Lorad spoke to each other in Reman, though the UT translated them.

“Don’t think the borg care much for pretty anyway.” He commented as he scrolled through. “Triple check the power input parameters for me. Not sure if I got that one right and I can only patch the conduits so many times before we need new ones. And we already need new ones.” He climbed up on the console and sat, his legs dangled.

“F’rell, do you know what to do when we get boarded? Get as far away as possible and use plasma conduits to your advantage. Borg can’t adapt to being atomized. And you already know my death wishes, so make sure people follow those.” Really, he was speaking idly, as he was gong over code. It somehow helped him read, as difficult as it was for him. It also helped him feel less...well, existential terror.

"Actually, do you think you could pass me a collector? I don't trust the phasers." He admitted, "Thinking I might just sample from the conduits."

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #5 –
[ F'Rell of the 12th House | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | USS Theurgy ]
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For a long moment F'Rell did not seem to react to anything said, she instead focused on the task at hand. Those around her were doing as they should be doing, though some of what her friend spoke did concern her. It was not in her nature to plan for death.

"<If the Borg do somehow manage to board this ship, I do not fear. The T'Fanrell know of the Borg, we have seen them, though we are unaware of how much they know of us. I have seen what they can do, but I do not fear them. We are driven by purpose, I do not believe it will be the Borg who bring us to our fall,>" she said thoughtfully. "<We will succeed. There is no other option.>"

She fell silent and returned to her task, quickly imputing code to run the various systems cohesively. It was not pretty code and in truth part of her wondered if she was using too much T'Fanrell code, but the moral dilemma would not matter if she died, the moral issues paled in comparison to the risk of losing her friends. If it came down to it, she was already banished, her vow to keep the secrets of her race would no longer matter.

"<We will succeed.>"

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #6 –
[ Samala & Tesserarius Lorad | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn:  @Auctor Lucan @FollowTomorrow @Absinthe
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Behind him, Samala, Suq and F’rell worked on getting the cloak to interact with the ship’s systems. Lorad, stayed out of their way and on alert for anything. Borg intruders were at the top of his list but escaping prisoners or random crewman disorientated from that battle were also to be watched for; one to aid, the other to remove as a threat.

Time passed beyond perception as Samala read and wrote code, the PADD resting in her lap as she used both hands to speed up the input of data. The coding was messy but Samala was confident that it would work. It would be like opening a secured door with a hammer instead a lockpick but the result was the same. Speaking both Reman and Federation Standard certainly helped as well.

The ship rocked from a second barrage of hits and sparks flew from a console on the other side of the room. Lorad shielded his face from the brightness just as a disjointed voice filled the air.

[WE ARE THE BORG. WE WILL ADD YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN. YOUR CULTURE WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.]

“Suq, are shields up?” Lorad called out in Standard, turning to look at the short man just as the door hissed open. What stood in the doorway answered the question.

The drone stood as tall as Lorad himself and looked at everyone in the room in turn, his single remaining eye passing across them in a disinterested fashion before catching sight of the cloaking device in the middle of the room. A red beam appeared, fixed on the device and the drone took a step forward. It would never take another as Lorad drew his disruptor and shot it in the head. The body seem to freeze in place before it fell back through the door.

“Hurry!” Lorad shouted in Standard as he changed position to the other side of the room, pistol at the ready. “More will come.”

“And they know something is here now,” Samala noted as she doubled down. She’d never felt the Borg’s approach, not that she had been actively trying to. She’d kept her telepathy locked down tightly since leaving sickbay and the presence of the Borg was not encouragement to change her mind on the matter. “Just a little bit more. There!”

“Suq, I’m done here,” Samala said as she stood and moved over to the engineer. “It just needs to know how big this warship is so it knows how big to make the cloak. Type it here and then test the interface,” Samala directed, setting the PADD down just as the door opened again. She whirled around to see a pair of drones, in single-file, standing there. Her brother didn’t hesitate and immediately executed the first one with a short to the torso and as it collapsed to the deck, Samala drew both of her disruptors and fired a pair of shots into the second one, sending it crashing down as well.

“Samala, single shots,” her brother reminded her in Reman “They adapt.”

“Sorry,” Samala apologised, her training coming back to her too late. “What happens now?”

“Now I drag the bodies clear so we can close the doors,” Lorad said as he holstered his pistol. “You, cover me. And watch for crewmembers fleeing.”

“Got it,” Samala acknowledged, moving to stand in the open doorway.

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #7 –
[ Lt. Jg Suq Reylin Efreya-Xan | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @Stegro88 @Auctor Lucan @Absinthe @Arista @chXinya @Top Hat @Cosmos @Brutus @Masorin

The hit threw him off his perch on the console, but he landed on his feet this time. They’d been hit, so it began. It was time for business.

“Shields down, prepare for--” The doors opened. The visage of a drone made his heart stop. This is the last thing so many people see before they are...lost. Seconds melted together. Suq remained standing, frozen in terror. An eternity interrupted, as a disruptor shot from one of the siblings ended the drone. Two more went down the same way, with the same efficiency he would expect from Starfleet's best.

It was enough to startle Suq back to life too. He took the PADD from Samala’s hands and began typing—he almost thought to enter in the Resolve’s dimensions. No, he reminded himself, Theurgy. Much, much larger. 1145m x 200 m x 375m, to be precise. Enter. Run test. Put the PADD down, grab tools from his toolbelt.

He kept an eye on the quick simulation the PADD ran, testing all components of the cloak. There wasn’t time for an in-depth test. This was simply the PADD using it’s computing power to guess at what could happen. His hands reached for the hyperspanner, started disassembling it, he walked over and took the collector he had requested earlier and did not get. Power cell removed, set collector to off, start yanking out the tiny safety chips, insert power cell, cover up collector. By the time he was done, he not only had a weapon he liked, but also the PADD finished. He grimaced at some of the results, but it should work. There will be no warp core explosions caused by him this day. He thumped his badge.

“Lt. Suq to bridge. Cloak is ready to go. We had a drone in here, so the borg know we have it. Remember not to fire weapons under cloak unless you really want to be seen for some reason.” He powered on the collector. It made a whine, a sound that wound up and became higher and higher pitched until only Suq could hear it. He’d effectively broke another tool, but that’s okay by him.

He heard other things too. Drones made a specific sound, not unlike a long, continuous inhale coupled with the grinding of metallic parts and flesh. They walked heavier too. They were not silent, to him anyway. "I hear another drone. Out the doorway, to our left. A few meters, it's walking towards us. Be careful."

OOC Note: The bolded part is important for those I tagged who are on the bridge of the Theurgy. It does not mean Suq's voice changed; it only serves to make it visually easy to find information that relates to Battle of the Apertures. I hope I tagged everyone relevant?

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #8 –
[ F'Rell of the 12th House | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | USS Theurgy ] attn: pretty much everybody on the Theurgy
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It seemed as if the moment had taken so long to prepare for, a number of delays after a number of delays, and now it had at last arrived and they were not prepared. The Borg had come and they had very little by way of defense against them, well F'Rell had little by way of defense. So her purpose had to be simple. She had to get the cloak to not only work, but to keep working.

"<Bringing cloak online and charging deflector array,>" F'Rell said as she began to bring the various systems she had powered down for the installation of the cloak back online. Now she would see how the cloak would handle the power input of the ship and if the configured energy stream would flow into the deflector as it should.

She kept her silvery eyes on the screen as she watched the system come alive. "<Cloak is now available on standard power settings, however, the cloak may fail if the power fluctuates too much due to damage of power drain from the weapons or shields.>" She spoke not directly to anyone, but rather as if making a note more too herself, her translator conveyed this as regular speech. "<Preparing to activate cloak.>" It was not in her nature to wait for orders, she was not a member of the fleet and even when she had been under the authority of her own kind she had always done things her own way. She took the risks and let the consequences happen. It was how she handled things. On that day her failure had cost the lives of many crewmen, and now she knew she was risking more of them. She could not be wrong. She could not fail again.

"<Activating cloak.>"

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #9 –
[ Tesserarius Lorad | Corridor | Deck 27 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @SummerDawn
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[Samala, another threat has been removed,] Lorad communicated to his sister through their link as he released the drone’s body to the deck. It had been busy trying to access a computer panel and either hadn’t noticed his approached or hadn’t deemed him a threat. Now it never would. It had been Human once, but not it was just dead; it’s neck completely severed. Even a drone needed a neck.

[How many do you think remain on this deck?] Samala wondered, her tone conveying distraction.

[I don’t know. The deck extends further than our link will allow me to travel,] Lorad responded as he stalked down a corridor before turning. Ahead of him, a drone was approaching and Lorad began to backpedal before a phaser beam impacted the drone in the side, sending it crashing to the deck.

“Hello?” Lorad called out in Standard. “I am Lorad. It is safe.”
[ Samala | Main Deflector Control Room | Deck 27 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @FollowTomorrow @Absinthe
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[Brother?] Samala asked as she worked at the PADD. When the snake thing had panicked and activated the cloak, Samala had realised the futility of it and immediately deactivated it. To the outside observer, the ship would have disappeared for a moment before reappearing. She could understand wanting the cloak but with drones already on board, cloaking the ship was pointless; the Borg could just use the signal from the active drones on board to target their weapons. Better to not waste the ship’s energy on a pointless exercise.

[I have found another survivor.] Lorad replied. [We are returning.]

[Stay safe.] Samala directed before looking at Suq. “Was anything damaged when the cloak came on? They’ll have to be careful about power usage to maintain the cloak correctly.”

“As for you,” Samala said, directing her attention to the room’s other occupant. “Using the cloak with drones on board is a waste of power. They would just direct their weapons at the drones,” she explained. “Suq, you might want to tell that to whoever is in charge.”

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #10 –
[ Lt. Kala Marika | Corridor | Deck 27 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ]
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With the oddball team that'd been assembled to intergrate this cloaking device, a reman, an efrosian, a couple humans, and a flying creature of some sort, Kala had volunteered to focus on the EPS feeds into the deflector control room where the device was being placed and the interface sorted out. It was buried in that activity that she'd heard the alarm klaxon's go off. Of course, since they'd gone to alert she'd not paid much attention to the exact alarms, she just kept her phaser at her side and if something felt off she glanced up..

That was, until she'd seen a pair of unmistakable figures pass by the intersection near her. The stiff mechanical walk and the tech plastered all over them was impossible to mistake. Borg. She swore under her breath, just what they needed, and just her luck. Today wasn't turning out to be her day despite the respite earlier. Shooting the one, she quickly fired on the second before it had a chance to adapt. She had to get back to deflector control, there was strength in numbers, and while she fully expected she'd end this day as one of them, one didn't get lucky twice, she didn't want to, not yet.

Turning another corner, she saw a drone focused on something beyond in a cross corridor. She already had her phaser raised and shot the being, hoping it was nobody she knew. Stepping over it, she saw the Reman from earlier. "It's just me. Kala. We need to get back to deflector control and setup a perimeter."

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #11 –
[ Lt. Jg Suq Reylin Efreya-Xan | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @Stegro88  @Auctor Lucan  @Absinthe  @Arista a @chXinya @Top Hat  @Cosmos  @Brutus  @Masorin 

“DAMNIT, F’RELL--” Came the agitated shout as he heard the ship. The cloak still made this unique whine, something he’d never heard before. Even Romulan cloaks didn’t make a sound quite like this. “They didn’t tell us to cloak! Turn it the fuck off!” He scrambled, but before he could shut it off, it was already powering back down. Thank goodness for Samala--and why did F’rell even do that?

He had no real time to sit around and ask. He had to let it go. Too much was going on. He just had to continue trusting those around him. He made it to a console, ran over the ship’s status quickly.
“...All systems nominal, looks like we weren’t cloaked long enough to damage anything seriously. Some power fluctuations, the computer’s handling them, they’ll be gone in a few seconds. Suq to bridge,” He spoke, just as he thumped his chest a second time, “We had our cloak turn on for a split second there. It’s taken care of now. Just be aware, we can’t cloak with drones on board.”

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #12 –
[ F'Rell of the 12th House | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | USS Theurgy ] attn: @Auctor Lucan @FollowTomorrow @Stegro88 
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It all happened at once. The cloak came online and she watched the power systems activate and channel power from the warp core into the cloak and from there to the deflector dish and forming a perfect field around the ship. Her silvery eyes gleamed as hope came back to her. She'd seen the Borg, she knew they had to hide, had to run, had to get far far away.

And then through the sound in the room, she watched as the whole system shut down with it their entire chances of living through the encounter. The modified tricorder meant to translate her speech slipped from her appendage and fell to the floor.

She turned to Suq. He was saying something, but it didn't matter.

None of it mattered. They were about to die. It was all for nothing. She had abandoned her race, come out into this never-ending horror, and now she was about to lose it all. She was going to lose the home she had found and it was all for nothing. Or worse she would be forced to yield her knowledge to the Borg. The Borg would come to her people, a people with no weapons with which to fight back.

In a swift motion, she suddenly moved up to the open Jefferies tube and down the narrow passage.

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #13 –
[ Samala & Tesserarius Lorad | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @FollowTomorrow @SummerDawn @Absinthe @Auctor Lucan @Numen
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Lorad, with Kala in tow, were approaching the last turn before reaching the control room when Lorad held out his arm, stopping Kala in place. He had heard the distinctive sound of Borg drones ahead and just as a shadow appeared on the floor of the junction ahead of them, Lorad pushed Kala against the wall of the passageway.

“Stay still,” Lorad whispered as quietly as possible, trying to appear nonthreatening to the drones that appeared. There were 3 of them standing there, 1 complete drone along with two recently assimilated crew members. They were quickly joined by another pair of drones from the cube and all five of them pivoted in unison and moved off towards the control room. Turning to Kala, Lorad spoke to her in Reman, knowing it would be translated by her combadge. “Follow behind and make sure nothing else follows us.” [Samala, 5 drones are approaching.]

Samala’s response was not easily describable by Lorad given the telepathic nature of their communication but it nevertheless brought a smile to the hulking Reman’s face, a smile that quickly dropped as he rounded the corner and, instead of 5 drones, saw 6 of them approaching the doors. He was about to call to Samala through their link but the doors to the control room opened before he could. It was too late. Drawing his disruptor pistol, Lorad fired down the passageway at the closest drone but the shot was met with the characteristic green field that marked the Borg’s invulnerabilty to his weapon. Cursing in Reman, Lorad holstered his pistol, dropped into a low crouched to draw his knife from its sheath on his calf begore lunging forwards, knife leading.



The warning from her brother of the approaching Borg caused a series of mental images to flash through her mind, most of which she sent to Lorad unwittingly. Clamping down, Samala moved o the side, drawing a pistol with her right hand once again before glancing at the Efrosian engineer.

“Suq, we have Borg coming,” she warned. She was about to say more when the doors to the control room opened and the drones began to enter. Raising her pistol, Samala counted 6 drones instead of the 5 she was warned about but tossed the number aside as she aimed at the lead drone. Firing, she switched her aim to a second one and fired again. Her first shot was accurate and lethal, the drone collapsing to the deck but the shot at the second impacted a green shield and dissipated. 

“Fuck,” Samala cursed. Suq may or may not have said something to her by she never heard is as she holstered her disruptor and then reach around to the small of her back, grasped the hilt of her knife and drew the blade from its sheath. She’d always been told that melee combat against the Borg was tantamount to suicide but not it was either a choice between assimilation and death. Samala knew which she would choose.

Sidestepping, Samala raised her knife to confront the first of the drones when something impacted the rearmost of the remaining Borg, sending it to the deck. As the other standing drones spun to react to this assault from the rear, Samala lunged forward herself and, using all her strength, buried her knife into the deck of one of the recently assimilated drones. Until it was augmented, it was a comparatively easier target to remove; if such a thing could be said about a Borg drone. As her target dropped to its knees, Samala reached over its shoulder and grasped its chin, braced her cast over the other shoulder and reefed sideways, snapping the former human’s neck audibly.

Lorad’s surprise attack had worked, removing a drone from the battle, his knife buried deep into the back of its head through the unprotected skin. It had also caused the other drones to turn about to face him, allowing Samala to make her own surprise attack and remove a second opponent. But that would be the limit of their good fortune. The remaining four drones, one of whom was recently assimilated, circled themselves up before advancing on a target each. Samala had one black armoured drone while Lorad faced off with two of them. The remaining unarmoured drone chose the Efrosian as its target.

Lorad pulled his knife free from the head it was embedded in and backed into the passage way slightly to give himself room to move as the two drones advanced on him. One of had once been human while the other had the distinctive ridges of a Klingon. No matter, they were both Borg now.

Samala had extracted her knife after breaking her target’s neck and dropped back into a combat crouch as her target stared at her. A red beam emanated from its augmented eye, passing over her before the drone began to advance. As it stepped over the dead drone, Samala lunged forward but her knife’s blade was turned aside by the exo-plating armour of the drone. Ducking a backhand from the drone, Samala twisted away to revaluate her diminished options.

Lorad was having his own issues. While the drones were not coordinating their attacks but they were unrelenting and he was loath to continue backing away. Kala was behind his, but a human female would be completely outmatched in physical combat with a Borg drone. Even he, a tougher, stronger being, was hard pressed. His advantage had been surprise, but that was gone now. Thankfully, the drones were not seasoned fighters and so he was able to avoid their attacks thus far but unless he did something, he would be driven away from the control room.

Snarling, Lorad, instead of avoiding and retreating from another backhanded swing from the Klingon drone, instead advanced into it. His left arm came up to block another swing as he slashed at the hopefully softer abdominal armour where it flexed. But is knife was turned aside and Lorad had to step back and duck to dodge another swing. In ducking, he was able to see a drone pressing Samala into a corner and that was when something in him snapped.

With a roar, Lorad drove himself forwards and upwards, ploughing into the drone, pinning one arm to its and riving his knife up into the soft skin under the jaw; even as he rode the drone to the ground. As its other arm came around, Lorad swatted it aside and twisted the knife left, then right, before pulling it free. Several bits of Borg implants came with the knife but Lorad just flicked them free before jumping to his feet and running for the control room. But he was too slow.

Samala was out of options and room and when the Borg swung at her again, she instinctively raised her left arm to bloke it as she had been trained. But her arm, so recently injured, could not withstand the impact and she screamed as her arm faltered. Dropping her knife from the pain, Samala cradled her arm even as the drone advanced, its assimilation tubules extending. But it never reached her. 

Lorad reached the drone with seconds to spare and kicked out its right knee, unbalancing the drone. Next, he wrapped his arm over the drone’s head and, with every ounce of strength he possessed, pulled it backwards over his knee while jamming his knife down as hard as he could at the intersection of the exo-plating on its chest. Shockingly, either from aim, strength or luck, the blade pierced the seam and buried itself up to the hilt. At the same time, Lorad’s knee stopped the drone’s downward motion but his arm kept pushing, snapping the drone’s neck. Instinctively and without thinking, Lorad wrenched the knife sideways, twisting the blade to cause more damage. But the exo-plating held where the knife blade finally gave out and snapped clean off.

Breathing deeply, Lorad rolled the corpse aside and turned to his sister, broken knife hilt in hand. But the pained look on her face transformed to horror and before he could turn, he felt a hand on his shoulder and two tubes piercing his neck. The pressure increased at the injection point and Lorad closed his eyes even as he tried to wrench himself free. But the drone held fast even as a bright light flooded in from the single external porthole in the room.

Samala didn’t acknowledge or understand the light. She didn’t care. Her brother had just been injected while saving her life. He had given his life for hers. Yelling through the pain, Samala reacted without thinking and pulled her disruptor while cradling her arm as best she could. Her first shots, while surprising well aimed given how close her brother was to the Borg, were all stopped by the green shield of the drone but she kept firing in her anger and then, somehow, the shield disappeared and the drone’s head exploded from a barrage of disruptor pulses.

As the drone crashed back, Lorad twisted sideways and fell back against the wall of the room, pain wracking his body and his breathing heavy. Samala had somehow killed the last drone standing in the room and Suq was somehow alive. That Efrosion was continuing to surprise Lorad. Samala shuffled her way over to him and rested a hand on his arm, drawing his attention.

“Brother, I....” Samala said meekly, words failing her as tears began to form in her eyes.

“Ssssshhhh, sister,” Lorad coached softly as another pain wave wracked his body. He had seen this before and he needed to explain it in case he lost consciousness. Some of the others had. “What time is it?”

“What does it matter about the time?” Samala asked, confused. “You don’t have long.”

“The time Samala!” Lorad demanded.

“Suq! What is the time?” Samala yelled as Lorad groaned from the pain. As it ebbed away, he heard Samala’s voice again. “He said it is 1124 ship time. Why?”

“Because I have less than 12 hours before I turn into a drone just like them.”

=-O
OOC: I hope Suq is ok with handling his drone. And that no more come charging down the corridor.

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #14 –
[ Lt. Jg Suq Reylin Efreya-Xan | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @Stegro88 @SummerDawn

“Suq, we have Borg coming.”
These were trigger words. Something about them made his brain go ‘click’ and ‘vrrrrrr’ and he was like a machine. A damned-by-the-spirits machine. He stood up and left the cloak behind. He heard them approach. Hand to collector, thumb on the release button. He’d be moving in close-ranged for this. It would likely risk his life. Samala tried to shoot one, it had adapted, and she moved into melee combat anyways.

She was still speaking, but Suq did not speak. He often forgot to do so while in combat like this. He’d fail to give orders or fail to verbally acknowledge them sometimes. It’s why he was never considered for tactical back in the academy.

They were encircled, Suq standing at the ready. Lorad disposed of one drone with efficiency. Four more remained. One targeted Suq.

It was at this point that his awareness of his comrades shrunk down considerably, so that his brain could spend more processing power on the current situation. The drone was bigger than him, and looking up, seemed to be either Vulcan or Romulan. It was not armored like the others, blessedly. It approached, and Suq moved at it like he would lunge for it. He did not lunge, but slipped between it’s legs mid-walk. He stood up quickly as he could, raised his arm, made a motion like he meant to plunge the collector into the small of the drone’s back. It was not a knife, it made no cut, but…

His thumb was on the release, and with the safeties off, the collector poured all of it’s stored energy out in one powerful burst, in the same form of energy he collected it in. The entire power-pack emptied out in one single burst, a wave of kinetic energy that exploded the torso of the borg in front of him, spraying metallic shrapnel and gobs of sickly, infected flesh everywhere, as well as a soundwave to make everyone’s ribs rattle and their ears hurt.

Especially Suq’s ears, which were already very sensitive to begin with. They were ringing and his head was dizzy. His hands moved to turn off the collector and replace the power pack as his eyes span in their sockets.

He sort of heard someone ask about the time. A quick glance at the console gave him the answer he needed, and he shouted it out louder than he really had any right to,
“11:24!” He rubbed the side of his head, looked over, and…

Oh no. Lorad. No--He ran over to him, but Samala was already there, and neither of them knew what to do.
“Spirits, no,” He whispered to himself, “Not now, not this one--”

And he shook, because of all the deaths he’s seen, he knew this one would be the worst.

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #15 –
[ Lt. Kala Marika | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]
After dispatching the first drone, their path took them past the drone and Kala, despite her dread at even glancing down, had to look. Seeing a teal uniform she knew it probably wasn't anyone she knew, at least the partially assimilated face didn't look familiar. She'd seen numerous freinds, coworkers taken down by these machines when they'd invaded the Cayuga. The pitched battle to save that ship ending in numerous deaths, several at her own hands, faces she still could see when she closed her eyes.

She paused when Lorad, through the universal translator told her to stay still. She'd heard the same sound he had, the now too familiar whir of the machinery of drones, a sound she'd not soon forget. She was no tactical officer but knew she had his back so once the drones set off for deflector control, she followed Lorad, keeping an eye out behind them in case other drones made their presence known. They only had a short distance to go, the drones were close to the entrance, they had to be, when she heard the whine of an energy weapon discharging. She initially glanced down the hall before turning to see a disruptor beam glance off the shields of the lead drone.

Opening fire herself, she managed to down one drone with her weapon but a second shot against a second glanced off much like the disruptor had. She glanced down at her weapon, the rotating nutation of the weapon was active so they'd managed to adapt to the weapons base frequency, which didn't bode well as Kala was no match for a drone one on one. She'd trained somewhat in hand to hand combat, but that was the basics in the academy, the stuff you learned so you at least had a chance against a conventional opponent. Drones were a whole different ballgame, the mechanical augmentation gave them strength that even the strongest of the security crew on Cayuga had been hard pressed, and going hand to hand often proved fatal, the protocol for a crew undergoing assimilation was to kill them before their implants could protect them.

This Romulan, or Reman she wasn't sure which, seemed hellbent on his own death as he rushed down the hall, some sort of bladed weapon drawn. He was soon at arms reach of the drones, taking them on with what appeared to be his compatriot. Kala would have fired on more drones, hoping to distract them but the risk of hitting Lorad or the women with him was too great.

And just like that it seemed like the fight was over. He'd successfully fought them off though she could tell from his movement after he'd been hurt. She wasn't about to rush into the fray, even down like this a borg drone could be a threat, a single working arm, a single assimilation tubule piercing her ankle and within minutes she would become one of them, a threat to her own kind, a casualty like the drones that lay on the ground.

When she did approach, carefully watching the dead drones for any possible sign of life, she finally came to where the group was clustered around Lorad. She looked around, ensuring there were no before she knelt before Lorad. "I'm a trained emergency medic. Let's look you over..." her face went white as a sheet, seeing the two holes in his neck. She'd seen them on every assimilated crew she'd encountered. "Shit." Standing, almost leaping away from him she pointed her phaser at Lorad. She couldn't reconcile why he wasn't almost immediately changing, becoming one of them but she knew he would, and heaven help them if he did while their attention was turned. "He's infected."

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #16 –
[ Samala & Tesserarius Lorad | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @FollowTomorrow @SummerDawn
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Kala’s reaction to his predicament was not unexpected by Lorad. To the best of his knowledge, every single person that a member of Starfleet saw injected with nanoprobes was either executed by a fellow crewman or assimilated by the Borg; either task being completed with a span of 5 minutes. So, the panic and fear that he saw on the Bajoran woman’s face as she pointed her sidearm at him was anticipated. His sister’s reaction, not entirely so.

Samala jumped to her feet and blocked Kala’s line of fire with her body, cradling her broken arm that radiated pain from her rapid movement. She wasn’t about to let her brother be executed when he believed he wasn’t an imminent threat. Gritting her teeth, Samala released her grip on her injured left arm and dropped her right hand to rest on the top of her holstered disruptor.

“I don’t know who you are, but I promise you two things,” Samala snarled, her voice low and teeth bared. “You will have to kill be more you can kill my brother. And before I die, I’ll kill you. Make your choice.”

“Samala,” Lorad growled, rising to his knees and laying a hand over his sister’s preventing her draw. “Kala is right. I am now a threat to this ship and crew. That includes you,” Lorad explained in Reman. Kala and Suq would get the translation but he needed to be clear in his words now.

“Brother, you could never hurt me,” Samala declared adamantly, turning her head to look down at the Reman brother. “You have only ever protected me.”

“And yet I have hurt you in the past,” Lorad pointed out. “And now that I am infected, I could do so again. I am hoping I have 12 hours as we were promised. But so much time has passed, that that may not be how much I now have. Please, let’s not waste it fighting amongst ourselves.”

“Lorad, I…” Samala began, tears threatening to well up in her eyes. Relaxing her hand, she rolled it over within her brother’s clawed grip and held his hand. “Can anything be done?”

“I don’t know. The Romulans believed not,” Lorad noted calmly. “But that does not mean they were telling the truth. We were just Remans to them.”

“Then we will go to sickbay and I will make them save you,” Samala announced as she pulled her brother to his feet, Lorad groaning from the pain and effort.

“No, we have to stay here and protect the cloak. The ship may need it,” Lorad pointed out.

“The cloak is working and these two can protect it,” Samala said, sidling up to her brother to help him walk, despite her own injuries.

“Samala,” Lorad said, pulling away from his sister and using the bulkhead to support his weight. “You’re not thinking clearly. Of the four of us here, we are the best fighters. No offence,” Lorad said, glancing at the two present Starfleet crew. “We cannot both leave.”

“We’ll send others down to help them,” Samala hedged, wanting to be on their way. “Time is short.”

“Yes, time is short, but we should not risk making it shorter still,” Lorad explained. “You need to stay here with Suq. Between you, you can fix the cloak if needed and protect it if necessary.”

“What about you?” Samala asked.

“Kala will escort me to the sickbay,” Lorad stated, leaving unsaid that if he began to turn faster than he so far had; that if he became an imminent threat, that she would put him down. “We will send others down as we find them. And after the battle is over, you can come and find me.”

“You promise?” Samala asked, a tear crawling down her face. The pain in her heart was drowning out the pain from her arm. “I want your promise. You haven’t broken one to me yet and I won’t have you starting now.”

“I promise,” Lorad said, unsure even as he said the words if he would be able to follow through on them. “Now, make me proud and stay strong. I will see you soon.” Finished, Lorad squeezed his sister’s shoulder once before stumbling out of the room.

Samala said nothing, ignoring Kala as she followed her brother from the room. Instead, she collapsed to the floor, leaning against the wall as she wondered if that was the last time she would see her brother.


The trip both to the turbolift and within the car itself was silent and introspective from Lorad’s point of view as he looked back as his life and wondered if he had been a good man, a good Reman. As the car slowed at Deck 11, Lorad looked at the Bajoran woman that had come with him and said only one thing in Reman just as the doors opened.

“Thank you for not immediately shooting me.” A response was not forth coming as a Starfleet crewman, lunged through the door at Kala. Recognising the signs of initial assimilation in the skin, Lorad intercepted the assault with an arm and hurled the now Borg drone out of the lift before stalking out himself; shunting the pain away as adrenaline flooded his system once again as the call came to fight once more.

Examining his opponent, he realised that he recognised her. It was Ensign Ryuan Sel, or at least, was. Now she was Borg. Implants had begun to erupt from her skin but her mannerisms, her behaviour, they did not align with what Lorad knew of drone behaviour. Instead, it reminded him of how an animal behaved. One that was crazed and out of control.

“Sel,” Lorad growled out but the drone ignored him as it charged forward. Lorad once again intercepted it, trying to defend Kala as best he could. He shoved Sel back again but she returned anew and he found himself struggling to defend himself. Unlike their previous bout, Sel was now stronger and with his own strength sapped by his infection and low energy levels from the battle, the fight was far closer to even than Lorad would have liked.

Wrenching her sideways, Lorad was pulled over himself as the drone that was formerly the Mistress-At-Arms refused to release him. Their combined mass tumbled to the deck with the drone somehow gaining the high ground, pinning Lorad beneath it just as another wave of pain wracked his body. As the Borg raised its arms to strike at him, Lorad realised that he would not have the strength to defend himself.

“Samala, I’m sorry.”

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #17 –
[ Lt. Jg. Suq | Main Deflector Control | USS Theurgy ] @Stegro88

Between Samala and Lorad, he couldn’t keep himself from tearing up. He didn’t know why; he hardly even knew Lorad, besides as a gruff, concerned Reman. Less than an hour he’s known him, and here he is, wiping tears away from his face for him. An expression of emotion freely given, despite his mistrust. He didn’t even take offense when Lorad said that he was not a good fighter--that was just truth. And Kala took him away. The moments moved by too fast, and he didn’t even have time to process all the emotions running through his chest.

“...Samala. Let’s do our best for him. Okay?” He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. In that moment, he felt like he was sharing some part of his soul with her, however tiny. Even if she could be infested...he just couldn’t keep himself from caring. She would be hurting. Hurting so hard for him, just like he was but at least ten times worse.

“...the borg will know we’re here and know we have a cloak. They may try and sabotage it. I’m down a warp core theorist too. Can I trust you to keep an eye on my back while I monitor the warp core?” He was watching her eyes, and his face already said yes, he can trust her. He had to. He had no other choice here. Samala had to be hurting, and he did what he always did--give her something to do. Keep the squad together until they were safe. Talk feelings together later.

Somehow, he felt like he had a responsibility for her now.

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #18 –
[ Samala | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn:  @FollowTomorrow
[Show/Hide]


As much as she hated to admit it, the Efrosian was right. They had no idea of the state of the battle beyond the room they were in. They could guess at a few things due to their continued breathing and having access to the ship’s systems, but that was it. They could be winning the battle or losing it and the two of them wouldn’t know it until someone, or something, told them.

“I’ll get through this,” Samala promised herself as she looked up at the white-haired man. “I’ll get through this and when I do, I’m going to go and find my brother and make them fix him. And to the black with anyone that gets in my way.”

“You’re right Suq,” Samala said, speaking for the first time since her brother’s departure. Flexing the fingers on her left hand, she felt the pain in her forearm flare up. “Broken. Either again or still. Result is the same,” she noted to herself. “I’ll watch the door for you and try to keep any Borg away from you.”

“Pity the cloaking device isn’t the original one,” Samala mused silently, her face hardening with her thoughts. “If it was, I’d make sure that we don’t end up as drones and that the Borg don’t get Reman cloaking tech. Although they’d need a new deflector control room. Not that it would matter to me.”

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #19 –
[ Lt. Kala Marika | Turbolift | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]
The walk from main deflector control had been a quiet one, Kala wasn't sure what to say or do really, the man she was escorting was not assimilated, had been attacked, but remained Reman, not Borg as so many before him had turned. Kala herself had shot several crew during the pitched battle on her last ship, and it was something between providence and sheer dumb luck she'd not pulled the trigger on Lorad the moment she knew he'd been infected.

"Your welcome," she was about to say as the doors of the lift opened, only to have a crew person lunge at them both. Initially she wasn't sure if the crew person thought they were infected, but when Lorad threw them out of the way, and Kala could get a good look at the person for the first time, she knew they were Borg. They also seemed to be somebody Lorad knew as he growled out the name 'Sel.'

The drone, or the person who was becoming a drone as the usual Borg implants rapidly began to cover their body, seemed focused on her and she stepped back as Lorad wrestled with the women, her slight frame seemed more powerful, enough to match Lorad as they fought. Kala knew the Borg implants would increase her strength several times making the fight difficult for the Reman in his weakened state.

That much became evident as the two crashed to the ground, Lorad struggling. Kala raised her weapon, dialing up the setting of her phaser to a setting that would a kill a Borg and as 'Sel' raised a fist to smash Lorad she fired, striking the Borg, knocking her off Lorad. As she stepped forward, firing a second shot into the Borg women, the women collapsed to the deck, laying still. Kala fired a third shot for good measure, leaving a smoking crater in Sel's chest, ensuring she would stay down.

Going over to Lorad, she offered her hand to the Reman. "Sorry. Wasn't expecting a random Borg would be waiting for us." She paused, "Who was she anyways? You seemed to know her name."

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #20 –
[ Tesserarius Lorad | Turbolift | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @SummerDawn
[Show/Hide]

The Reman honestly believed that he was looking at his death as the drone that was formerly known as Ensign Ryuan Sel raised its arm to strike. Its assimilation was progressing even as Lorad watched it from his position beneath it. The drone’s strength had already been partially augmented and the Reman had found himself evenly matched, what with his injuries and his own ongoing assimilation. But it was another Bajoran that would be the one to save his life.

Kala’s phaser fired once and then again, striking the back of the drone twice and knocking it off the Shock Trooper and sending it to the deck itself where it remained still. But the woman wasn’t content with the situation. Instead, she stepped forward and fired for a third time, leaving a crater in the former Mistress-at-Arm’s chest.

“You didn’t deserve this end, Sel,” Lorad thought to himself as he stared into the eyes of the drone. Eyes that he remembered watching as he sought to help her not 12 hours after he had been brought aboard the Theurgy.  Now, he would never get the chance. “No one does, but especially not you. I’m sorry.” Turning to look at Kala, Lorad nodded his head at her but his thanks was cut off by the arrival of a quartet of security officers.

“Is everyone alright?”

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #21 –
[ Lt. Kala Marika | Main Deflector Control | Deck 27 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]
"We are alright, though my compatriot needs to get to sickbay. He's been injured." A small white lie, she didn't want him to die at the hand of an overzealous security officer. She holstered her phaser, "Part of our team is located in deflector control, trying to ensure the cloaking device remains operational. This man I have to get to sickbay."

She noticed how the guard looked down at Sel, the dead Bajoran women. "I am sorry, she was assimilated and we had no choice." Kneeling beside Sel, Kala felt compelled to look the women over, look her in the face, face the death she'd caused to another sentient being. It'd been different when she'd killed drones before, there wasn't really anything personal, the drones were mindless, covered in armor, and there'd been no time to dwell on their deaths.

But this was different, the killing had closer, not more personal per se, but for Kala it felt that way. She didn't know if they'd locked eyes, but she felt the officer was owed something, some measure of respect. She also noticed the women was Bajoran like her and as she knelt beside the body, she placed her hand on the women's shoulder. "Be at peace sister. You are with the prophets." What compelled her to say that she had no idea, but she looked up at the guards and Lorad. "Who was she, this women?"
 

Re: CH05: S [D06|1110] Deflectors, Cloaks and Daggers.

Reply #22 –
[ Tesserarius Lorad | Turbolift | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @SummerDawn
[Show/Hide]

“I understand the choice that had to be made,” Lorad said to Kala, speaking in his native Reman tongue. “And if our situations had been reversed, I would have done the same. But that does not stop me from wishing it did not have to be so,” Lorad spoke, reaching down with a clawed hand to close the Bajoran’s eyes.

“Her name was Ensign Ryuan Sel and she was the Mistress-at-Arms for this ship,” Lorad said to Kala. While the woman didn’t seem to recognise the name, it was clear that the members of the security detachment did. “I did not know her well, but I feel like I could have,” Lorad stated as he climbed to his feet.

“I thank you for your words and though I do not know the funeral customs of your people, I would ask that you remain with her to see that they are carried out,” Lorad requested of Kala. “The security detachment can escort me to the sickbay. I’m sure they won’t hesitate to execute me if my assimilation increases in pace.”

He could tell his words had a galvanising effect on the team, each of them tightening their grips on their phasers; one even taking an involuntary step back.

- FIN
 
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