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Topic: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass (Read 16662 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #25 –
[ Lt Simon Tovarek | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | USS Theurgy ]
  @Lex Dalton  @Arista @FollowTomorrow @lisavw

After helping the medical crew set up with the ORE, Tovarek helped around as much as he could. Even though he technically was a doctor he doubted he'd be of any use when it came to fleshy components. His eyes scanned the room they were in before he wondered what kind of prevention the Sickbay had in case they'd actually get boarded. His thoughts bounced around in his head as he helped with the vaccinations before something came to his mind. "Su-ka" he cursed under his breath as he looked at Parnak. The Borg audio crackled through the speakers and it was just crazy that the idea had struck into his mind just now.  "I'll be out for a moment. Need to install some pattern enhancers at the entry points of Sickbay. It could buy us time if the drones make it here." he informed the Cardassian before he rushed off out of the office of Zelosa Ejek.

He ran to a replicator to produce some of the enhancers and on his way to the main entrance of Sickbay he ran into nurse Jovela. She seemed to be checking the bio beds and offered some help when they had arrived the first time. He called out to her "Nurse Jovela, could you help me with setting up these pattern enhancers." he rushed towards towards the main entrance, hoping the nurse would follow in his wake as he began to set them up. Time was of the essence, yet Simon didn't think the Borg would made the trip down to Sick bay as there shouldn't be anything important here anyway.

It was a sour surprise when the green hue of light started to light up in the corridor a few meters away from him. The Russian swears and curses exponentially increasing as a Borg raiding party of four beamed into the corridor and got their bearings seemingly.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #26 –
[Dr. T’Panu & Annika Van den Berg  Hallway Outside Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USSTheurgy ]

T’Panu had just taken a walk to clear her head. ”Why did I leave that meeting? T’Panu asked herself. Just get yourself together, people need a doctor, not someone who cowers in fear.

Just then, Annika came out of main sickbay. She looked confused. Scared? Focused? T’Panu was unsure. She asked her what was going on and if everything was okay. Annika said something about needing to stretch her legs. The look on her face said otherwise, and T’Panu noted she was deflecting her question. Or was she just overthinking it because of how she felt? She was unsure; she was unsure of a lot of things lately. All she knew was she needed to get it together. The crew needs a doctor, not some laden up useless Vulcan..

Annika thought about how useless she was feeling at the time. Everyone had a job to do aboard this ship, however it seemed like she was the only one who was physically healthy but at the same time, couldn’t do her duty. The ship suddenly shuddered from what felt like weapons fire impacting the shields.

This Vulcan sure talks a lot Annika thought to herself as it felt like she had a second shadow in the form of a Vulcan doctor. Annika glanced back at the doctor just as she began to speak. 

“Shall we head back to Sickbay?” T’Panu asked Annika. She nodded, and they began walking back. That was when they heard it.


[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.]


Annika felt the colour drain from her face as she heard the ominous message relayed throughout the ship. She immediately felt the ship shudder from another impact while there was a simultaneous explosion around 5 metres down the corridor. It seemed, at least to Annika, that the EPS grid had overloaded and caused the explosion. She immediately looked back to T’Panu.

”C’mon, let’s go check that out!” she said as she started jogging down the hallway. It took only a matter of seconds for them to traverse the short distance to where the explosion had happened. Annika looked down and saw Borg bodies on the floor.

Looks like the Borg did us a favour she thought to herself. Annika looked back to T’Panu and in an effort to keep her safe, told her to stay on the sickbay side of the explosion as Annika would venture slightly beyond the new hole in the bulkhead. T’Panu had nodded in acknowledgement when Annika made her way through the smoke and debris to see if any Starfleet Officers needed assistance on the other side of the new hole.

That’s when she heard the mechanical and methodical movements of a Borg drone, she couldn’t see where the sound was coming from. She then turned around and saw the back of a drone, which was headed right towards T’Panu. Annika didn’t have any weapons so she did the next best thing, or at least that’s what she thought. She jumped on the back of the drone with both arms locked around the throat of the drone as she tried to at least bring down the drone to spare T’Panu.

T’Panu, in shock, stared at the sight. She couldn’t believe what she saw. Annika, little Annika, wrapped around the Borg like it was taking her for a piggyback ride. T’Panu ran through the debris to where the Borg bodies were piled. She grabbed the first thing she could reach and ran towards Annika.

”Take this, you stupid mechanical drone!” T’Panu was holding it by its hand as she hit it, square in the face, with its comrades arm. The Borg stumbled a bit from the shock of getting hit.

Annika was then attempting to rip out the tubules in his head, trying to cut power to his systems. One by one, she managed to grab a few of his tubes and pull them right out.

The Borg caught its bearings, and lifted its right arm and pointed it straight at T’Panu as the assimilation tubules extended from its hand just as Annika kept pulling tubes hoping to shut it down. Just as the drone reached T’Panu, the Borg powered down and fell to the floor, causing Annika to go tumbling to the floor as well. Annika scrambled for the nearest and sharpest piece of debris. She found a piece of bulkhead that was approximately 20 centimetres long with a sharp, jagged point on one end. She quickly and repeatedly sunk the piece of debris into the drone’s neck hoping to eliminate the biological part of the drone. She stabbed the drone more than 20 times before she stopped, while panting and looked up at T’Panu who was staring down at Annika in a sense of disbelief.

”They can’t live without their biological components. Hopefully this took care of him before he adapted” she said while leaving the piece of debris lodged in the drone. As she stood up she could see that there were more Borg seemingly down the corridor on the other side of sickbay. She grabbed T’Panu’s hand and started running for the relative safety of sickbay. 

Hopefully no more Borg piggyback rides, Annika thought to herself as she was running for sickbay.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #27 –
[ Lt. JG Jovela | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | USS Theurgy ]
Attn: @Nolan @Auctor Lucan @lisavw

[Show/Hide]

"Yes Lt!" She said and hurried over to him her uniform boots sounding on the deckplates. As she closed on him and went to help set up the pattern enhancers she followed his gaze into the hallway and saw the green light bathing the hallway and the four borg.
"Oh my, oh no, please no" She whispered and stood there looking at them, she felt that impuse to freeze in fear but remebered somthing and snapped out of it.

"What do we do? I don't have a phaser." She took a step backwards into the Sickbay and thought about her training, she could fight if she needed to but how effective would hand to hand combat be against the Borg? She ran through the drills in her head, weak points on the humanoid body. Where to apply pressure and break bones, but these where cybernetic life forms.

She looked over at the man as the hallway was swept by the red laser pointers of the borg, there could be no worse fate than being a drone. To loose everything you are and be a small whisper in a sea of screaming voices, that is how she imagined it. The thought of it filled her with a cold dread, she would rather be shot again. Would it hurt to be assimilated? Did you even know it was happening? Questions started filling her mind and she blinked twice to clear her thoughts.

"We can't let them in here, we have to do somthing." She said and took a step back towards the door her hands balled into fists.


Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #28 –
[ Lt. Kai Akoni | Security Centre | Deck 07 | USS Theurgy ] @Top Hat @Absinthe @Auctor Lucan  et al.

Kai had finished his briefing and asked if there were any questions. No one had offered any questions in the short time he had them there before Kingston had ordered everyone to move out. Kai thought about where would be the most vulnerable while also having the least amount of security personnel there.

Main Computer Core, Kai had thought to himself as he started to make his way to the computer core. He left behind the four security personnel guarding Nicander as he made his way into the corridor. He saw the security crewmen making their way to the same location. He jogged a little bit and caught up to them. There were two of them along with Kai. As he caught up with them, he had heard them talking to each other, but stopped talking as soon as they had noticed him.

[Akoni, Ducote. We have engaged the Borg. Prepare to receive guests-merda na minha..prepare quickly. Out} came the call from Commander Ducote. Kai nodded at the crewmen in front of him.

He waved his free hand and said ”Don’t stop talking on my account”. Kai had finished talking as the two crew members had started talking to each other again expressing their fear and apprehension of a successful outcome. Akoni was pleased that they were still dedicated to their duty. He noted that they were young, and that they had reminded him of himself at that age. Just as he finished that thought, his combadge came to life.

[Sel to Kai, I’ve shut down the central transporter system. I’ll hold here, for now, let me know when you need me to pull back]. Excellent thinking Kai thought to himself before tapping his combadge to reply.

”Acknowledged. I’ll let you know shortly once I get to the computer core” he finished saying as the ship kept shuddering both beneath his feet and all around him.

As the trio neared the turbolift, the corridor before them erupted in a brilliantly blinding light which was followed by the rush of air coming from behind Kai as his cloudy vision due to the bright light noticed there was no bulkhead in front of him anymore. All this while simultaneously grabbing on to a conveniently open jeffries tube hatch right next to him. He watched helplessly as the two crew members he was just talking with being vented out into the Azure Nebula. It took less than three seconds for the forcefields to kick in, causing Kai to slump down to the deck plating. His chest heaved as he attempted to catch his breath after that.

Akoni felt a twinge of sadness for the two crew members, but at the same time pushed the thought out of his head as he quickly realized that he need to get to the computer core.

He tapped his combadge, ”Akoni to Kingston, do we have anyone at the computer core? I just lost two crew members on the way there”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #29 –
[ Commander Carrigan Trent | Stellar Cartography | Deck 16 | USS Theurgy ] @patches

Trent having advised the Bridge of the status of Soup Sandwich and of his intention, he was left to wonder about the best way to get up to Deck 01.  He was half of the ship away, with an unknown number of Borg boarders along the way, and who-knew how many assimilated crewmembers to back them up.  And, for that matter, he was not in Security's loop either, so he could not know where they had set up barriers to slow them down along the way. 

And without a tricorder on hand, he would be wandering blind until he could find one.  Where was the nearest equipment locker he could rummage through?  And he needed a route, a fast one.  By then, odds are the shipboard transporters would be either compromised or locked down, a more than sensible precaution against the Borg. 

Or, there was another option...

That was when one form, then more, landed on the Stellar Cartography lab's lower deck and he instinctively raised his phaser... only to sharply bend his elbow to point it at the lights, two decks up, very clearly holding the regular hand-phaser with one finer about the grip to secure it to the ball of his thumb, and all other fingers, especially his thumb, pointing well away.  They were wearing exo-suits, and moving in relays of movement and cover.  Definitely no Borg, and the last thing he would need is someone with an itchy trigger finger to get over-excited. 

With no weapons pointed at him, he lowered his own, even as their leader, a woman, spoke to him.  So, that was their team leader.  "That is correct."

And, she did provide more information for him.  Turbolifts were down.  That definitely meant the most direct route up was down, which meant his brainstorm had just become the only viable way to get up there quickly.  "I don't know where you're headed, but I need to get to the hangar deck.  Are you in a position to divert, or are you headed to a hot-spot?  If you are, can your team spare a tricorder, I'll make my own way."

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #30 –
[ Lt. JG Adam Kingston | Corridor | Deck 04 | USS Theurgy ]
Attn: @trevorvw
[Show/Hide]
With his browridge lowered over his eyes, Adam Kingston raised his Accipiter rife towards the advancing Borg in the corridor. Squeezing the trigger, he fired it for the first time. The dry-firing concussion blast sent the four drones tumbling backwards - even tearing up the carpet. He couldn't quite help the lopsided smile that touched his stubbled cheek. If I can get this kind of armament from the future, I say fuck the temporal directive.

"Have at them girls!" he called in his hoarse voice, and the two female officers in Security exosuits that had taken cover in the corridor's intersection stepped out with their phaser rifles, dealing rapid fire bolts into the fallen tin-men. That was when the call from Akoni came.

[Akoni to Kingston, do we have anyone at the computer core? I just lost two crew members on the way there.]

Whatever mirth Adam had felt bled out of him before he tapped the side of his helmet and replied. "Kingston here, I'm sending two of my team up to the bridge and I'll rendezvous with you at the computer core. Turbolifts are down, had to climb out of it, but I'm on the right deck. Kingston out," he said, and once the four drones were dealt with, he gave the order. "You heard me, climb the Jefferies tubes to the Main Bridge. I will head up there once the A.I. core is secured. Go!"

Without further delay, Adam turned on his heel and ran down the opposite direction. It took him less than thirty seconds to get a visual on the core's entrance, and there were security guards on the floor, twitching. Assimilated. "Fuck," he said, and and halted his step. He did not want to step closer and see who they were. He didn't want their faces in his nightmares. So from a distance, he drew his hand phaser and vaporized the bodies, one by one. He holstered his sidearm before he entered the Theurgy's Main Computer Core.

Six drones in total, a couple already having accessed consoles. Kingston bared his teeth and toggled the firing mode of the Accipiter to the tungsten option, and started to mow them down with precision bursts.

[ Ens. Cir'Cie | Main Engineering | Deck 25 | USS Theurgy ]
Attn: @alphawiz @Doc M.
[Show/Hide]
The altercation with the conceited Human had come to an abrupt end when the third shield grid failed. Kaylon Jeen may not have stepped in on her behalf before then, but he did not hesitate to put Cir'Cie to work - showing far better judgement.

"Yes, Lieutenant," she said dispassionately and walked over to the MSD table, efficiently keying up the shield harmonic frequencies and the power stabilization controls. The frequencies were off to begin with. "Variation at 5 %" No more had she spoken than Jeen contacted the bridge about the third shield grid and told them what they were doing about the breach in the Theurgy's shields. She was asked to keep the power levels stable, and that she did, the task far from beyond her.

"Compensating now. Variation at 4%. 3%. 2,5%." she said as if she was listing species of flora. She got no further before the first Borg drones appeared, not far from the table. She raised her green eyes and looked in their direction, and then she looked back at Jeen. Behind the Trill's shoulder, she saw O'Connell striking some kind of pose outside his office, making her raise her eyebrow in his direction. "Chief O'Connell has acquired weapons. I would suggest we do the same."

She did not wish to leave her task, the import of keeping the power levels for the shield harmonics not lost on her. Still, the Borg drones were only a few yards away, two of them approaching her table. Any fear she had was dampened, neither found in her tone or her eyes when she turned her stare towards the Chief. "Instead of posturing, would you be so kind and open fire instead?"

Either way, whatever Lieutenant Jeen was doing, it seemed to be working.

[ Drauc T'Laus | Cargo Bay 04 | Deck 08 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]
By that time, Drauc T'Laus had taken out two drones that had attempted to access control panels in the corridors of Deck 08. He had lost track of the two security officers in his company quite soon, their pace slower than his, or they were unwilling to share his company. Drauc did not care. He was used to tread the battlefield alone.

He heard banging sounds ahead, and stepped towards it, the stock of his Type III rifle against his shoulder. He flexed his scarred hands around his grip, while his eyes sought the source. He saw two new security guards ahead of him, but they didn't see him. Instead of watching the corridor, they were looking through the transparent aluminum panel of the door they guarded. They were talking, more like shouting to each other, but Drauc did not need to listen to the audio of their voice. Their distress was like blaring klaxon inside his skull, and he knew the reason before he reached the door.

Inside the cargo bay were survivors of the Belleophon, and they were in a state of mass psychosis. They were not alone. Six drones were in there with them, and they couldn't escape, because the two security guards had not dared open the door to let them out - either afraid for their own lives or unable to jettison the threat out of the bay doors. Perhaps both. Their almost animal distress made it difficult to discern conscious thoughts. Even when they saw him approaching, they just shouted at him, almost raising their arms against him just to avoid making the decision about the incarcerated officers from the Bellerophon.

"Stand aside," he rasped, more loudly than he usually spoke, merely to override them. Something made them comply. Perhaps it was a vestigial element of authority in his words, lingering since his time in as an officer in their fleet. He didn't know, nor did he care. His eyes, hidden by the overhead light of the corridor and his hair, were solely upon the development beyond the door. With each step, the panic bled into him from those inside, assimilated or not. They were reduced to animal terror, and Drauc felt himself become saturated with it.

The security guards had hesitated for far too long. It was too late. Only three Bellerophon officers remained, right at the door. Bleeding knuckles had smeared the panel, but Drauc saw two of the drones advancing towards their backs. Their screaming faces were right in front of Drauc. The visual representation of the horror, supplementing that which Drauc felt through the door. Different screams, both silent - only their trashing limbs and attempts to breach the door heard.

Drauc reached for the control panel. Something which the two guards should have done to begin with. Now, there was no choice. The drones too close. Moreover, he had to silence their abject terror, as much for their sake as his own. His scarred fingers protracted from his frayed sleeve, and he pulled down the manual emergency override.

When the bay doors opened, the entire compartment was vacated in seconds, and there was quietude in Drauc's mind again.

He turned his dark eyes towards the two guards. He said nothing of his disdain towards them. He just stepped away, leaving them there.

The battle wasn't over yet.

[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Upper Shuttle Bay | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] 
[Show/Hide]
After Zyrao had left her, about thirty minutes ago, the interior of the Sabine had been a mess. Natana and she ad taken the opportunity to celebrate being alive, the party involving replicated food and drinks along with other spoils Zy had collected. It had been sweet as long as it lasted, before Zy had been asked by Dewitt to help in the battle. It left Sera alone, perhaps, but far from defenseless.

Having done her hair up in a loose bun, she had already donned her red Câroon exosuit. She lowered the helmet over her head, heard the seals hiss, and then reached for the hidden compartment in one of her small cargo holds. Sera didn't know what Zy had done to reclaim it when she got their supplies for their escape from the ship, but there it was, the Klingon disruptor that Security had confiscated after her short decoy mission. Perhaps she had stolen it before it reached the Sec Center? Either way, Sera picked it up, checked the power level, and stepped out of the Sabine's airlock.

Outside, chaos reigned. As far as she could tell, there were people from the Bellerophon in the shuttle bay, apparently let out of wherever they had been holed up. Twenty people, every man and woman for themselves, trying to get access to the available shuttles. And behind them, Borg drones, methodically assimilating or gunning them down. Some of the metal and flesh figures were busy accessing control panels. Sera, she had her disruptor raised, pointing it in the faces of two Starfleeters that tried to get aboard the Sabine.

"Burn you, this ship is mine. Stay away." The yellow-eyed glare she gave them kept them from advancing, but they began to plead to her. Beg for their lives. Imploring her to let them step on the Sabine. "I said stay away!"

She fired once into the deck, to show them she meant it, and they scrambled away towards some of the other shuttles, hoping it wasn't sealed like the rest, and attempting escape even though the Upper Shuttle Bay's massive doors were closed behind Sera's back. There was nowhere to fly, and even if the doors had been opened, the cube was surely out there. Sera saw more drones materializing. Closer to her.

"Blast off," she growled through the mic in her helmet and opened fire.

Only her Klingon weapon had no effect - the disruptor beam nullified against their personal force fields.

"Blood and bloody ashes," she murmured, backing away from their advance. Was this how she was going to die?

She fired again, in vain, since what else could she do?

Only this time... it worked! The drone staggered, a hole in it's chest, and a grin bloomed behind her visor. Whatever happened, she was going to make the most of it. She fired against the drones with every step towards the airlock of the Sabine, leaving them writhing on the deck. Once she was inside, she sat down in the cockpit and fired up her engines. Anti grav units underneath the damaged Sabine raised her from the deck, and with a measured motion, she turned the Sabine around so that she faced the crowded bay.

"Think you can haul my ashes?," she said, and used her tactical sensor suite to pinpoint the drones in the bay. Next, her pulse phaser turrets lowered from under her nose cone, and she opened fire. "Think again!"

[ Doctor Lucan cin Nicander | Security Center | Deck 07 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]
Closing his mismatched hands into fists, Lucan stepped back from the forcefield. Beyond it, he could see the four security guards being assimilated, one at the time. One of them laid in plain view, and Lucan could almost see his own fate in the woman's eyes.

The drone that had assimilated her paused above her twitching form, and it turned its red eye towards Lucan, who clenched his jaw. "Stay there... I am not important. Just another prisoner." But the drone didn't leave, even if the other three moved deeper into the security center. What did it see? What possible interest could...

There came a quiet laugh from the abyss inside.

Of course, thought Lucan, the truth of it plain to him. The Borg had never assimilated the Câroon species, and that drone had scanned him - determined that he held worth for the Collective. By the winds, why can't anything be easy for once?

He had no choice. He could not let the nameless darkness become a part of the Collective. He couldn't let this Cycle be ruined as well. The drone had already accessed the control panel, and he had no means to call for aid. He had no choice but to escape. Something he had been able to do all the time, but it had not been constructive for the mission, to have those who didn't trust him kill him simply because he couldn't be contained. "Darkness, descend!"

His voice command powered down the entire front of the Security Center, including the transporter inhibitors. It was the same means in which he had sealed his office, and covered up the murder of Garen Nelis, among countless other things. The subsystem of the Theurgy that only he had access to, installed when the ship was commissioned. Lucan could still see the outline of the drone in the emergency lighting, and its red eye following his movements. He gave it a small smile, before he accessed the transporter systems with his next command.

And vanished.

OOC: Thanks to Trent, the adaptive shield matrix of the Borg is momentarily down, so make the most of it! Please make the weapons of your characters turn ineffective against the drones, only to suddenly work again.

Here comes battle objectives for you all to use in your writing, and you have 7 days to post! Please check off one objective each, and you have full liberty in setting up details,NPCing the people mentioned, and arranging where the drones appear and what they do. Change or adapt these objectives as you wish too, thinking of it as a writing exercise, as long as the overall intent is still to repel the Borg. Have a look! [Show/Hide]

Please bear in mind that while this thread is available for all, you may all start up Supplemental threads too, if that would be your preference. The naming convention of such Supplemental threads would be CH05: S [D06|1110] Insert Title. Looking forward to read the development! 

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #31 –
[ Maya | Recovery Ward | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Nolan @TWilkins @Lex Dalton @lisavw @FollowTomorrow @Absinthe

Recovering from injuries was never a picnic.  Recovering from injuries aboard a rogue starship like the USS Theurgy was even more unsettling.  Recovering from injury aboard a starship in the middle of a battle was nerve-wracking.  For the patients in the Theurgy’s recovery ward in Main Sickbay, could it get any worse?

[ 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. ]

Yes.  Yes it could.

“Did you hear that?” a patient whispered.

“We’re fighting the Borg!” another one gasped.

“By the Powers, we’re all going to die!” a third exclaimed.

The door opened and Doctor Maya of Vulcan marched in with a stiff gait that was completely at odds with her the ethereal glide the normally described her movements.  Her normal blank catlike stare that usually conveyed mild curiosity was gone and had been replaced by tight lips and narrow eyes that seemed to convey irritation.

“What’s going on?” a patient whimpered.

“Have we been boarded?” another one demanded.

“I don’t want to be assimilated!” a third cried out.

The coffee colored Nurse Leticia Jones entered the room in time to hear the cadaverously pale Maya speak in a cold clinical voice. 

“Nurse, prepare sedatives for each of our patients resting here in the recovery ward.  When we get casualties we won’t have time to cater to their emotional stress.  Check with their patient charts to ensure that each of them gets the minimum dosage in order to ensure that they will not injure themselves in the meantime.”

Jones gulped.  Maya was speaking as if the patients were not there.  But Jones had worked with Maya enough to know that in times of stress the Vulcan became increasingly frigid and mechanical until she behaved more like an android than a living being. 

“Yes Doctor,” Nurse Jones reluctantly replied, “but what about the patients considered too delicate to sedate?”

In response Maya reached out and grasped the nearest patient in the trapezius nerve bundle between the neck and the shoulder.  The patient stiffened and fell unconscious.  “We will manage,” she retorted.  “When you are finished in here prepare for surgery.  I will be changing into my surgical scrubs.”

“Doctor, what about the Borg?” a patient whined.

“There is no need to concern yourself about the Borg,” Maya replied in total ignorance of the Borg drones out in the corridor just outside sickbay.  “Even if they board us there is no indication that they would be interested in the damaged specimens here.”


OOC:  I assume the drones are in the corridor just outside sickbay.  To be honest, I'm a little fuzzy on just where the Borg menacing Simon and Jovela are.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #32 –
OOC Notice: Since the question has come up, I feel I have to clarify time passing here in Storm Glass as opposed to Chapter 05: BotA. They are not concurrent, because in BotA, not only is Soup Sandwich in effect (Borg shield matrix down). In BotA, the Queen has adapted to Soup Sandwhich, destroyed many Klingon ships, fired upon the Theurgy and then, the Versant arrived. Storm Glass is only when Soup Sandwich is in effect, the rest coming in later. After I post next here in Storm Glass, the rest of the development will be covered, with new Objectives etc. :)

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #33 –
[ Petty Officer Eliska Bremmer | Security Centre Lobby | Deck 22 | USS Theurgy ]

Something Eliska Bremmer had come to learn during the Dominion War, the push after one's attack had been initially repulsed by a counterattack was always more savage than the initial assault.  There was always this element of trying to redeem a past failure to take an objective, and this was no different. 

The Borg had rocked her team onto its heels, and she had barely been able to keep their retreat under contact from turning into an outright rout, especially when she was also busy shepherding people who'd been fleeing the boarders without any kind of plan or organization. That was something that had been a strain on her ability to keep control on her small slice of the battlefield, with personnel desperately trying to flee, and her own people desperate to hold the line now that their initial attack had failed. 

But discovering their weapons were of use again, that the Borg were vulnerable?  The retreat stopped, and overwhelming fire ended the Borg's counteroffensive.  And Bremmer led her team forward again.  As it turned out, the node the Borg had tried to set up was in a small lab space adjoining the Arboretum and they'd barely gotten started.  At least, not so much that there hadn't been much to do to cut off the room from the ship's computer networks.  Well, nothing a few well-placed phaser blasts couldn't solve.  The engineers could fix it later.  And it was with a sigh of relief that Bremmer made the call.  "Security Ops, Bremmer.  Deck 22 is secure, no further sign of Borg here.  Ready for fur..."

That was when the ship lurched more violently than she had before from enemy fire. The lights across the deck flickered, and many did not come back up.  And those that did come up did not last long, and the entirety of Deck 22 was pitched into darkness that was only relieved by red emergency lighting.  And it would seem ventilation also took a hit, for acrid smoke started to fill the corridors, and alarms started to sound.  There was the one advising there were indeed out of control fires across the deck, and that the smoke was indeed quite toxic.  Instinctively, she brought up her own sensor suite to get an idea of how her battlespace had shifted, and she saw a number of obstructions, some fires... and personnel trapped between piles of debris and the inferno of out of control plasma fires. 

"Security Ops, Bremmer.  Going into damage control mode here.  I have plasma fires and trapped personnel on Deck 22.  Request damage control parties and... oh hell... I've got an alarm saying some of the deuterium feed lines are really close to those fires.  We're heading to start digging our ways to isolate them before they blow, and try to get our people out." 

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #34 –
[PO3 Kino Taer | Deck 16 | Stellar Cartography > Hallway outside Flight Assault Bay ] @CanadianVet

“You’re heading to the flight deck? You’re in luck, Commander, as that’s where we are headed. If you’ll stay behind us, we’ll get you there.”

“By all means, lead the way.”

Kino nodded and gestured to a tall Bolian near the rear, indicating that Trent stick with him. She wasn’t sure how well-trained this officer was in shipboard combat and she hoped they wouldn’t have to test it. It was part of everyone’s standard training with regular refreshers, of course, but experience taught her that there was often enough a vast gulf between standardized training and the real thing. Besides that, their enemy was the Borg Collective. Trent didn’t have armor that could potentially foil attempts to assimilate or kill him – her team did.

The Stellar Cartography lab was one of the more spacious labs on the ship, a side effect from the impressively large and detailed star map projective that often illuminated the room. The Federation spared little expense in building its newest warship as it incorporated state-of-the-art equipment, some even still considered experimental, into both its military and science facilities. Unfortunately for the Security team on the go, that meant that properly clearing this particular lab took time that Taer and her team did not have. So she compromised. She trusted her exosuit’s sensors, verified the results with the rest, and marked it clear as they jogged to the door.
The five of them, Trent included, took up positions around the door as the ship’s power grid was apparently temporarily overloaded by something. The lights dimmed, quite a few just outright turning off, and Kino could swear that there was a subtle shift in the ship’s operation. There was no hesitation as she triggered the door’s manual override and they all piled out into the hallway. The blackout didn’t last long enough to get them all out during it, but as the lights came back on, the Trill realized there wasn’t going to be a need for them to be immediately on guard.

“Taer, dead bodies on the left.”

“Here on the left too. We’ve got both Borg and our own laying out here.”

“Hey, look at this one.”

Kino looked over at the slightly built human that was calling her over and walked over. At their feet lay this particular Security team’s leader. She knew some decks were overrun during the first boarding attempts, but something seemed off about this body.

“Aren’t those phaser wounds, Hubert?”

“I’d say so. Kino, a third of this deck are quarters are, most of them just down the hall. I was part of the team that locked down quite a few Devoted down here.”

“Devoted?”

“Fanatics. Think this one guy in the Science department, Morali or something, is going to save us all using some secret knowledge from the future.”

“Huh. You think they got out?”

“Maybe. I don’t see any of our phasers on the ground here. You hearing that?”

“Weapons fire. That’s in the direction of the fighter bay. Let’s get moving.”

With rifles raised, Taer led her team down the hall cautiously. The weapons she was hearing and that her suit was registering increased in tempo as they got closer, ceasing only when she and the other team member leading the group got a visual on the battle. It was a surprisingly diverse group that met the incoming Security team with raised weapons, surrounded by the bodies of Borg drones and Starfleet crew. Evidently, a pitched battle had just concluded there with both Borg and this lot attempting access to the fighter bay and nearby access points for both turbo lifts and major Jeffries tube arteries. Few of them wore communicators, but Taer’s suit managed to identify a few anyway. If she had checked her PADD, it would have displayed their records, all of which were tagged as “DEVOTED. CONFINED TO QUARTERS PENDING INVESTIGATION.”

“Taer…”

“If you’re about to tell me these are the Devoted you were talking about, I kinda guessed. Alright, you lot. All of you put down your weapons and return to your quarters.”

One of the taller petty officers stepped forward, his body showing clear signs of favoring heavy weights at the gym.

“No. Morali is alive and on that alien ship! We should be saving him and our friends there, not sacrificing ourselves in a pointless attack on the Borg!” He lowered his stolen phaser and gestured in the direction of the fighter bay. “We’re going to fix this. You should join us. You’ve missed so much, Taer.”

“Aw, let’s just kill them and move on, Jim.”

“No! Not yet! She was asleep. She doesn’t know her choices yet.”

“What choice, McPherson? We’re in the middle of a battle, for fuck’s sake! Can’t this wait?”

“Wenn Cinn didn’t wait before committing us to our deaths. Neither will we wait while he condemns those on the Versant to theirs. Are you with us or against us, Taer?”

Kino sighed in frustration. Standard operating procedures were clear on what to do during an insurrection on a Starfleet ship, but her team was ill equipped to enforce it and still be ready to tackle another Borg boarding attempt at the same time. She switched her rifle to stun, her team following suit once they noticed. She directed her team and Trent to find some cover.

“Commander, you have any ideas on this that don’t involve me wasting my ammunition on mutineers?”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #35 –
Lt Kaylon Jeen|Main Engineering | Deck 25 | USS Theurgy |Attn : @Doc M. @Auctor Lucan

"Compensating now. Variation at 4%. 3%. 2.5%."   Cir'Cie counted down as the variance dropped.  Excellent!  This was going to work.  Just a little more, he thought and the shields he was manipulating would merge together...and hopefully hold.  The variance dropped to 1.3% and the geometry of the shields from the two emitters merged.  The Theurgy was once again fully covered.  For the moment at least.

He continued tweaking the shield geometry when he heard Cir'Cie say "Chief O'Connell has acquired weapons. I would suggest we do the same."    It was then that he noticed the drones.  Damn! They must have gotten in thru the hole in the shields before he could get them closed.  Kaylon quickly turned to the left and hurried to the weapons locker in the nearby engineering lab, grabbed two phasers and rushing back over to the table, tossed one to Ens. Cir'Cie as he took cover behind the MSD.  He tuned the phaser to an alternating frequency and took careful aim...



Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #36 –
[ William Robert O’Connell | Main Engineering | Deck 25 | USS Theurgy ]  Attn: @Auctor Lucan  @Absinthe @fiendfall @alphawiz]

In the meantime, on the other side of Main Engineering, away from drama taking place at the master systems display table, the warp core thrummed along without a care in the world until the deck shook and gravity seemed to tilt almost twenty degrees before leveling out again.

“Jesus Joseph an’ Mary!” O’Connell cried out as he tumbled ass over teakettle across the deck stopping himself at the power transfer conduits that blocked his progress towards the warp core.  “Damage report!” he thundered as he picked himself up and nearly tripped on his phaser rifle that had carelessly been discarded on the deck.

“Master Chief!” Petty Officer Zil Arex of Bolius IX cried out. 

An eerie green light coalesced into a sinister dark figure who appeared out of nowhere.  A sickly blueish white face half covered by a gunmetal black shell peered unblinkingly out at the room with one eye.  Its other eye socket shot a crimson beam before it that narrowed and dilated to create a glowing grid on whatever surface it hit.  A motley collection of dull black metal cover its body, tubes and hoses giving it an asymmetrical, cobbled together appearance.  The creature was right-handed, an inference suggested by the fact that its left was replaced by some kind of apparatus that ended in a short silvery tube or nozzle of some sort.  This was no holographic simulation.  This was a Borg drone.

“Stand back!” Master Chief O’Connell barked in his ‘chief’ voice as engineers and technicians abandoned their posts to put as much distance between them and the intruder as possible.  “Everybody stand back!  Don’t know whut its fixin’ tuh dew but yew kin bet it’s nothin’ friendly!  Contact security!  But in th’ meantime…”  He drew the pistol shaped Klingon disrupter and fiddled with its settings.  “It’s calm now but Ah don’t know whut it’ll dew when Ah dew this!”  With those words, he fired a green beam of energy at the intruder and it did…

…nothing.  A shimmering translucent barrier appeared magically before it and seemed to move in order to effectively block Billy Bob’s beam.  The creature didn’t even bother to acknowledge being shot at.  It didn’t even glance O’Connell’s way.  Instead it pivoted and examined its surroundings as if it had all the time in the world.

“Horsefeathers!  Ah reckon th’ Klingons have done shot at plenty uh these fellers,” O’Connell grunted as he holstered his useless weapon.  Apparently the Borg Collective had adapted its force fields to Klingon disrupters long ago.  For all Billy Bob knew, entire ships in Martok’s fleet could be assimilated by now.

The drone seemed to have found something it was interested in.  It started walking in the direction of the ODN relay junctions and the power regulators.  Not the consoles that controlled them, it was heading to the physical hardware.

“Hey!  Ah said hey!” O’Connell shouted as he retrieved his phaser rifle from the deck and took aim through the sight.  “Git away from those power regulators!” 

Firing at a random setting, Billy Bob was gratified to see a white beam of light strike the Borg drone and send it tumbling to the deck.  A protest of electronic gibberish was briefly heard as it flailed and twitched before finally becoming both still and silent.

O’Connell let out a sigh of relief.  “Okay, then.  Job well done,” he muttered before gawking as a second Borg drone appeared about a meter away from the first one.  It knelt and retrieved some components off the first one before rising and turning its back on the master chief to face the power regulators.  The drone that O’Connell had shot then disintegrated with a sickly green glow and was no more.

Billy Bob fired his phaser rifle at the second one but a floating rectangle of a force field appeared to block his beam.  He changed the settings on his rifle and shot again.  Paydirt.  The second drone fell like the sack of manure it was.  Then two more appeared.  One focused its attention on the power regulators and the second one lumbered straight toward Billy Bob. 

The master chief hit a stud on his SAFTI gear as he backed up.  He changed the setting on his rifle and fired again.  Nothing.  He jogged back to give himself some distance. “Dagnabbit, this critter is harder tuh git rid of than Rigellian herpes!”  He could have sworn that the phaser rifle was good for at least two more shots before the Borg would be able to adapt their shields to compensate.  Then realized that there must be other Borg drones aboard the Theurgy.  Someone else used up his shots.  Terrific.

Dropping the phaser rifle, he pulled out his pistol shaped pulse phaser.  The chance of nobody using one of these against a Borg drone was zero, but he had to try it anyway.  Sure enough it had no effect.  From behind the floating rectangle of a force field that appeared with each shot, the drone kept coming and coming. 

The drone came forward and threw a punch.  Billy Bob ducked, but from out of its wrist two barbs attached to black cords snaked out and went for his jugular and…

…hit the portable force field surrounding the master chief provided by his SAFTI gear.  O’Connell dodged to the right by rolling on the deck and coming up on one knee. 

“Ha!  It’s not so funny when Ah do it, now is it?” he crowed as he used his left hand to deactivate his SAFTI gear and used his right to draw his genuine imitation .45 single action Colt Peacemaker from his rear holster and fire a round into the drone’s eyepiece.  It staggered around and didn’t want to fall down so O’Connell rose to his feet cocked the hammer back and shot a second round into its skull.  It let out an electronic gurlgle and trembled like a Chihuahua with Parkinson’s but it still didn’t seem to know if it wanted to die or not so Billy Bob fired a third round to help it make up its mind.

That left the unattended one at the power regulators.  With mechanical precision, Billy Bob thumbed the hammer back on his revolver and emptied the last three bullets he had in the cylinder.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #37 –
Lt Kaylon Jeen | Main Engineering | Deck 25 | USS Theurgy | Attn @Doc M. @Auctor Lucan

[continuing from previous post - He tuned the phaser to an alternating frequency and took careful aim...]

... at the drone that was standing over by the power regulators.  As he fired, the drone jerked a couple of times as O'Connell fired what looked like an antique kinetic projectile weapon.  Whatever it was, it seemed to have an effect.  Apparently the Borg weren't expecting to be assaulted with weapons from so long ago.  That gave Kaylon an idea.  he did a quick recalibration on the phaser.  The frequency still rotated, but the focus of the beam was also changed.  This would be something else that the Borg would have to adapt to.

As the drone turned toward the new (or very old) threat,  its attention diverted from the regulators, and away from him, Kaylon fired his phaser on tight beam.  The beam struck the drone in the side of the head and the drone's skull was sliced in two.  It toppled forward, Kaylon could see the tip its cortical node flashing erratically as it tried to send commands to parts of the drone's brain that were now laying beside it.  The drone's leg kicked in a final spasm then stilled.

The results had been gruesome, but effective.  For the moment, Engineering looked clear.  The shields were stable.   "Somebody do me a favor and grab a mop!" he said, shuddering.  Yeech!


Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #38 –
[ Lieutenant Junior Grade Zark | Security Center | Deck 07 | Vector: Combined | USS Theurgy ]
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Zark had been present at the security briefing. Listening from some were off to the side. She had been helping out in sickbay until they were nearly on station then reported to the Security center. Upon filling in those present on whom she was, where she was from and what she could do, she’d been rolled into the active security group.

As the information and orders were passed out she’d adjusted the fittings on the shiny new EXO Suit. She had not taken it into battle and the fittings were still being adjusted as others spoke. The fancy rifles were handed out to some other security members, but she was not one of them. That didn’t surprise her.

Her suit had the standard gear that the others had. The Type II Pulse pistol was holstered on her left thigh. She had double checked the pouches. Her suit had more than the standard. As she carried not only combat gear, and a full issue of it, but medical gear as well. A back pack rested between her shoulders with additional medical supplies. Yes, medic’s had to carry more gear and it was a bitch, but that’s why they got all the best mates.

As orders were given she picked up the unique helmet for her ExoSuit and slid it on. Her Antennae sliding into the advanced triple layered sleeves protruding from the top. Glancing up she gave an experimental wiggle of her antennae, to ensure a good fit. This wasn’t the best option in all the worlds but it was better than not having a helmet or having one and having antennae sheered off. With the helm on the suit's internal workings adjusted the temp to much lower than ambient room temp for Federation starships. Zark was Andorian and she liked it cold.

Her helm and suit also projected an encrypted IFF (Identifying Friend or Foe) Designation as Medic. This couldn’t be seen by foes and only by friendlies, but would tell other security officers and crew who to call out for, for medical assistance.

When the squads started heading out she’d lifted her Type III rifle, checked the magazine and nodded. Time to hit the ice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That had been some time ago. Things had not expressly gotten better aboard Theurgy. Hits had been taken and the shield grid had given up enough of a hole for beam through from the Cube.

The Borg, where among them.

Zark had been given three crewmen under her as a roving squad to assist as needed and provide medical aid when possible. They had been moving fast, clearing corridors and patrolling. Clearing a corner in a ‘pie’ maneuver she swept the corridor into view and crouched down to a knee. There were Borg there and they looked to be entering the security center. Her antennae flattened back against her helmet, and she spoke lowly to the crewmen with her.

“Borg are taking the security center. We’re coming up behind. On my mark, let um have it. We need to overwhelm them before they adapt.”

The security crewmen nodded to her, looking scared. In truth she was scared too. This was nothing like patrolling the Cardassian border. Sure she’d seen action there but this was all together different.

Pulling her Type III up she gave hand signals and two of the crewmen crossed the hall. Then she and the other moved forward. Leap frogging two by two till they were out side the security center. Then a count down.

Three.

Two.

One.

She gave the signal and was first through the door. Just as the lights went off in the security center and darkness descended. Behind the security force-field, there was a shimmer. THAT… was not supposed to happen. Borg inside, their red electronic optics sweeping. Zark’s Antennae flicked and she brought up her rifle. The HUD of the suit lit up lowlight and thermo overlays as well as Life sign tracking. This would keep her from hitting friendlies… that’s the hope anyway.

Phaser bolts flew forth from all 4 members of the squad. Lighting up the security center’s darkness. Zark had indicated one drone and all four security members lit it up, blowing it away quite quickly. Then switching to a second. It too fell but then the third took a few hits staggering back before slowly falling. The fourth’s shields pinged off the phaser bolts.

“Adaptation! Modulate! Spread out, make it choose a target!”   She dove and commando rolled behind a console. Letting the rifle swing down and back on it’s strap she drew the Type II Pulse pistol from it’s holster and popped up from behind the console a trilling laugh escaping her. Her own nervous tick displaying itself at all the wrong times as usual.  Zark tracked for a target and yelped as it flung something at her. She ducked back down behind the console as it rang with the impact. WHANG.

“SHELAT!”

Touching the side of her helmet. “Lieutenant Zark, to Security Forces. Security Center breached! Drones present. High Priority Prisoner just poofed. Repeat: High priority prisoner is in the wind! Requesting assistance!” 

Across the way one of the crewmen fired around the bottom of a console and cut the legs off a drone.

“LT! Their shields are down??”

Zark didn’t have to be told twice. “MOW UM DOWN!!!”

She popped up from behind the console and gripped her Type II Pulse pistol on both hands. Antennae laid back against her helmet and she started peppering the drones hard and fast. Pew pew pew! Pew pew pew! Pew pew pew!!

The young Andorian didn’t know how long the shields would be down but every second meant more fire could be poured into the Borg and that couldn’t hurt. She hoped someone up the chain heard her. That prisoner had 4 guards on him when this all started and now he was gone.
Lieutenant Vanya - Science Officer - Zoology/XenoZoology
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Lieutenant Junior Grade Zark – Security Officer – Combat Medic
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Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #39 –
[ Dr. Silim Parnak & Lt. Zelosa Ejek | Counsellor's Office | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Joint post with @FollowTomorrow
[Show/Hide]

Space battles were sort of like thunderstorms at this point. In a normal space battle, Ejek had a set of routines to follow. Assist medical, take charge of interrogations, if there are any, and fill in for leadership positions. Despite the normalcy of it, Ejek never could quite adjust to the terror of coming so close to death. This wasn’t a normal situation though; out of everything they came across in Hell sector, they hadn’t crossed the borg. The terror was far more acute. Death breathed down her neck. She felt it like a cold sweat. But she had something that she did not have before. On the Resolve, she did not have Parnak.

Despite the universal borg greeting, designed specifically to strike a cold fear in the hearts of Starfleet officers and civilians alike, she walked with confidence. Her control over herself was the only thing that did not waver in these chaotic times. She opened her office door, gesturing Parnak inside. It was a standard-issue counseling room--a desk with a chair behind it, two chairs side-by-side, minimal decoration, that weird-looking plant present in nearly every room aboard a Federation starship. She did not pardon her decor--there was nothing to pardon here. It was pretty much naked. She reprogrammed her door to be unlocked, free for anyone to enter.

Though bland, there were many things inside the room that surprising to Parnak. After he had handed off the innoculations for medical staff to distribute, he pulled the equipment into the office space and appraised. There were no homely touches, nothing to indicate that the office was indeed used regularly and for that Silim found himself a little disappointed. He had seen Ejek in action with what had happened with Nicander in the brig, yet here she was sterile.

He stopped the hover-dolly into the open space and began to push a chair towards the wall. Wasn’t counsellor's offices supposed to have a chaise lounge? How was a patient supposed to be comfortable sharing intricate details of their lives forced bolt upright? Thought it was a crisis, an emergency in every sense of the word, Parnak had looked forward to a quick lay down between blasting crewmembers with radiation.

“I do not know how long we have just for us.” He called across to his companion. “But at least the equipment won’t take long to set up.”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #40 –
[ Ryuan Sel | Security Centre Lobby | Deck 07 | USS Theurgy ] attn: Sec teams
[Show/Hide]

"Lieutenant Zark, to Security Forces. Security Center breached! Drones present. High Priority Prisoner just poofed. Repeat: High priority prisoner is in the wind! Requesting assistance!"

Well fuck. There was only one prisoner that could be. If it were one of the shit-head devoted that would be no big deal. They could just be shot at this point, but Dr. Nicander was different. He was not only harder to take down, but he was also... Sel shook her head. She was getting herself worked up. She needed to stay focused. She had only just locked out the transporter control system. Now she had to guard the relays so the borg didn't come back.

She heard the whoosh of the door and turned to aim her massive Accipter rifle in that direction. When a drone appeared she gave it no time to act, opening fire and letting loose almost 3 seconds of autofire of the tungsten carbide bullets. The bullets slammed into the borg and tore through it before it could adapt. She wondered how many more she'd be able to take out like that. They'd adapt soon enough, for now, she was simply overwhelming their shields and armor with superior firepower, but these were Borg, eventually, that would do no good and she'd be reduced to using concussion blasts. She figured the spatial warping effect would be impossible to adapt to, but it was hard to say for sure. And she didn't like uncertainty.

"Sel to security forces, lock down the main armories on each Vector, we cannot allow the prisoner to get his hands on anything stronger than a hand phaser if we can help it," she barked into her combadge as once more the door slid open and the visage of a Borg appeared. She squeezed the trigger and let the bullets fly, frowning as it took longer to overwhelm the Borg this time. Soon enough they'd adapt and then she'd be fucked if they came in any sort of large numbers.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #41 –
[ Maya | Primary Surgical Bay | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan  @TWilkins @lisavw @FollowTomorrow @Absinthe

In the meantime, on Deck Eleven in the primary surgical bay connected to the chief medical officer’s office in main sickbay, the casualties were being beamed in and either moved to the intensive care unit or one of the other surgical suites or treated on the biobed in the center of the circular chamber.

Doctor Maya of Vulcan, whose bedside manner was subpar but whose judgement during triage was unimpeded by sentiment or anxiety was overseeing the new arrivals and dispatching them to the appropriate specialists as needed.  Her task was complicated by the fact that so many medical personnel were absent.  Their chief medical officer who doubled as their chief surgeon was in the brig.  Doctor Saugn and both Nurse Vojonas had been abducted by the Savi and now Nurse Jovela had left sickbay.  Doctor Kobol  and Doctor T’Panu was supposed to be taking up the slack but they had left sickbay as well.  That meant that more patients were being treated in the primary surgical bay than intended.

"Beam Chief Petty Officer Abraham Savali to Surgical Suite Two,” Maya ordered.  "Inform the Emergency Medical Hologram attending that Chief Savali has a broken ulna and severe burns on his left hand and forearm.”

“Yes Doctor,” Nurse Jones replied as she made some entries on her PADD.  The balding human male with the grey streaked beard vanished from the biobed in a shower of sparks, taking his injured arm and his singed gold collared uniform with him.  In his place appeared a burly male Denobulan wearing a crimson collared uniform with a master chief’s rank pin.

In normal circumstances Master Chief Petty Officer Klex Sonden appeared to be only half his age, but currently his normally pink and healthy features had acquired a pale and sickly cast.  The left side of his neck was streaked with black, mottled lines that were spreading from two angry puncture marks where the jugular vein on a Terran human would have been.  Even worse, the patch on his neck was spreading to the left side of his face; a second smaller patch was forming on his forehead while a third was forming on his left hand that was trembling as if he had to fight to control it.

“You are very fortunate Master Chief,” Maya announced with clinical coolness as her large hazel eyes narrowed at his injured countenance.  “Your Denobulan immune system seems to be baffling the nanoprobes, but they are persistent and will adapt and keep multiplying.  This gives us a window before you succumb to assimilation.”

“That’s just dandy Doctor,” the Denobulan retorted through clenched teeth.  “Do you have a treatment in mind before I join the enemy?”

“Beam him to radiation therapy and have him subjected to a high level of omicron particles,” the little Vulcan instructed.  “Inform them that they need to expose him to at least one hundred strontium units; we cannot risk the survival of even a single nanoprobe.”

“Yes Doctor,” Nurse Jones replied as she entered Maya’s instructions in her PADD and transferred them to Transporter Room Four and Radiology. 

Maya actually looked the master chief in the eye and allowed the slightest hint of sympathy to show.  “I regret that the procedure will be extremely painful.”

“I believe the expression is ‘no pain no gain,’” Klex Sonden grunted as the familiar hum of the transporter was heard and he disappeared in a shower of silver sparks. 

In his place a comatose Terran male in a charred Starfleet uniform appeared on the biobed.  Leticia Jones gagged at the smell of burnt flesh.

“Crewman Eklund has suffered second and third degree burns over sixty four percent of his body,” Maya announced dispassionately as she picked up a hypospray and injected a liberal amount of medication into his body.  “Prepare him for cryostasis while I stabilize him; we shall attend to his injuries when we have the time.”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #42 –
[ Dr T'Panu | Hallway Outside Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] @trevorvw @Lex Dalton

T'Panu looked at Annika, not quite believing her eyes. Had this just happened?? She looked down at the Borg, who had definitely seen better days. His circuitry was sparking, his tubes pulled out, and his face blank. He was quite obviously disconnected, and Annika had made quick work of it, too. T'Panu couldn't believe the force and anger Annika had. She didn't know where such a small thing found so much strength, but she was grateful for it.

"We make a great team, Annika. Thanks for saving me back there! I definitely prefer living to being adapted to the Borg technology. I've grown quite accustomed to having my own mind!”

T’Panu still felt the adrenaline rush racing through her veins. It was like she just finished a marathon, the burn of the fight was still fresh in her blood.

T’Panu thought back to the last time they had encountered the Borg. She thought about how ill equipped they had been for the battle. How the Borg had come and torn through all of their defences, the defences they had used time and time again to defeat all other enemies. They had come through for them every time before.

But this time, they were ready. They had spent much time together planning every defence possible. And if Annika and T’Panu could defeat a Borg drone, she knew the rest of the crew would have no trouble at all.

“Hey Annika, how about later we get a celebratory drink?” T’Panu said cheerfully. She was feeling a little more hopeful, and a little less stuck in her own mind. The camaraderie she felt between her and Annika was growing, and helping her to open up to the rest of the crew.

T’Panu and Annika rounded the corner when they saw it. Lt JG Jovela standing, fists balled, staring with a focused look at the 4 Borg drones. “What do we do??” T’Panu wondered aloud.

No one had any phasers, or weapons of any kind to help them with the fight. But that didn’t stop them with their last battle.

They needed a distraction as they made a game plan. 3 against 4? The odds weren’t in their favour.

T’Panu reacted before she had time to think. She lifted her right arm to grab the nearest object her hand felt. She felt powerful under her own strength, ready to take down these Borg drones and guide them all to safety!

She felt her arm swing through its curved motion towards the Borg drone that was standing second from the right. The object left her hand at a decent speed.

“Take this, you Borg bastard!” T’Panu yelled, as the object went hurtling towards the Borg.

T’Panu imagined the Borg drone severely injured. What she saw instead, however, was a little less heroic.

The object hit the back of his head and shattered. Then she realized what she did. To her right wasn’t a heavy, hard hitting object. It was even a PADD. What she threw instead, was a beaker. A simple, glass, beaker.

The Borg drone stopped. For a second, T’Panu actually thought she did something useful. Then the Borg slowly turned to face her.

“We’re screwed,” T’Panu thought.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #43 –
[ Commander Carrigan Trent | Stellar Cartography | Deck 16 | USS Theurgy[/b] ] @patches

With the ship in battle and Trent painfully unaware of the tactical situation, he had very little choice as to what he could do.  In effect, he was currently cut off from any position in the chain of command, and he was answering directly to Wenn Cinn.  For all intent and purposes, he was a passenger.  He had given orders, but all he had to back himself up was the fact he was a senior officer, and that hopefully enough people still trusted in his judgement. 

He had sent a team to go and hold off the Borg while he finalized his work on Soup Sandwich... work that frankly was sloppy and relied on a brute force approach rather than the scalpel he knew he could craft, given enough time.  But, then again, he did not have twelve hours and all the computer resources he could ever want; he'd had closer to twenty minutes, if that, and then it would be up to the program to do its thing. 

And now, he had effectively hijacked a security team that had already been deployed, though thankfully in the direction he was headed, and when a bodyguard was assigned to him he simply nodded and placed himself behind the man's shoulder.  He knew plenty of his fellow tactical officers who'd resent that, and would even demand to take command of the team.  But he knew where his strengths lay: he was a man whose expertise was wielding a starship as a weapon, and while he was technically qualified to lead a team in close combat, he knew where the experts in that field really lay.  And as such, he was content being directed and shepherded, following the lead of his burly, armoured minder. 

And before long, they ran into trouble.  Devoted.

There had been plenty of reason to intern them in the same area.  One of them was that it would be easy to cut them off from the rest of the ship.  As to why to put them on Deck 16?  The hangar was already a secured area, and between the pilots and the ground crews, each which had received training that was superior to most in Starfleet with regards to securing an area and surviving a firefight, seemed like a good idea.  But now, at least some of them were loose. 

From where he was kept put, Trent listened to the conversation around the corner, and when the team's leader, a Petty Officer Taer, came back, he nodded. "I'm not a negotiator, but I'll see what I can do.  Have your teams switch to sidearms, set to stun.  Keep your rifles ready to deal with the Borg.  Make sure they don't come up behind.  I'm going to have a word with this McPherson fellow."  As he spoke, the Commander reached for the holster for his phaser and detached it from his uniform and handed it to his minder, before tucking his own weapon into his trousers just behind his right hip, concealed by his jacket.  

"Hold your fire, I'm coming to talk." 

The erstwhile XO came around the corner, his hands well in evidence.  Basic Starfleet Intelligence training did include some more advanced close combat, but he knew he was not to the level of Security, and what he mostly had were dirty tricks; actual spies would receive yet more, and be true forces to be reckoned with.  But he was an analyst and a tactician, not a covert operative.  "Petty Officer McPherson, riddle me this: you storm the bridge, who will fly the ship?  Operate its weapons?  Its systems?  Take command?  I know there are a few Devoted who are Bridge-qualified, but I can tell you their access to all systems was rescinded; they would be standing in front of inert consoles.  And if you compromise the command of this ship right now, we would all be fortunate if all that happened was our deaths." 

He felt the yes on him.  They knew the ship was fighting with the Borg, so it was very likely they had known he had been the victim of a mutiny of his own.  That was something that would need addressing at some point, but now was not the time.  "I was removed from command by Dewitt because I meant to mount a rescue if we had the capability.  And yes, Commander Wenn did not see it fit to reinstate me to command, and I have no intention of allowing a mutiny to start.  His judgement was he needed to address the Borg threat first.  I am not convinced it is the right course of action, but I have his word that once this is dealt with, we will go after our people."

He took a deep breath.  So far, his words had not been interrupted, and he had yet to be shot.  So far, so good.  But then again, someone falling from the top of a skyscraper would have the time to say that a few times before hitting the ground. "You were Security, Mister McPherson.  As was your friend.  Have either of you ever known Wenn Cinn, who himself returned from the dead, to lie?"

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #44 –
[ Lt. Kai Akoni | Nearing the Main Computer Core | USS Theurgy ] @Absinthe @Auctor Lucan

The large Acting Chief of Security had just climbed up a number of decks via the Jeffries tube. He had been impressed that he made it so quickly up there; he was thankful for his physical conditioning, not to mention the fact he had large amounts of epinephrine coursing through his body all thanks to his sympathetic nervous system kicking into high gear. He exited the Jeffries Tube and started sprinting down the corridor to the entrance of the computer core. He could hear the distinct sound of Starfleet phaser fire from up ahead.

Kai rounded the bend in the corridor and saw that Kingston had just stepped forward into the computer core. Akoni brought his Accipiter to the ready as he neared the entrance to the core and stepped through the door ready to fire on whatever Borg were in there. Kingston had already dispatched four drones by the time Kai got into the room. Kai then aimed at the nearest drone and fired. The tungsten carbide bullets left the Accipiter and drove themselves into the drone in a fraction of a second before exiting the drone and impacting the bulkhead behind it, albeit at a slower speed. The drone seemed to spark and convulse from the impacts before collapsing to the deck plating in a heap. Kai turned his sights to the next drone just in time to see the bullets from Kingston’s Accipiter slam into the drone in a similar fashion.

Kai’s breathing was heavy as he scanned the rest of the room with the rifle at the ready. He didn’t see any more drones.

”Clear!” Kai said as he nodded towards Kingston who had nodded back at him. ”Let’s see what these assholes were trying to do” he said as he made his way to the nearest console to see what the Borg were trying to do. As his fingers flew over the smooth panel touching the buttons at a lighting rate, the information he was looking for appeared before his eyes. His heart dropped a bit as if he were in a zero-g environment. He realized that not only were the Borg looking for Nicander, but they were also attempting to access the self destruct sequence. Before he could voice this to Kingston, his combadge came alive.

[Sel to security forces, lock down the main armoires on each Vector, we cannot allow the prisoner to get his hands on anything stronger than a hand phaser if we can help it.]

Kai sighed, and tapped his combadge ”Akoni to all security, the Borg are looking for Nicander. We need to find him before they do.”. As he finished speaking, two more security officers came to the computer core to secure it, allowing both Kingston and Akoni to move along to the next place they were needed.

Kai turned to Kingston and asked ”Not only do we have to get rid of the Borg, we have to find Nicander before they do. Any suggestions?”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #45 –
[Lt. Rhys Williams| Corridor| Deck 11| USS Theurgy] attn: anyone who wants to get involved.

Rhys was tired, more tired than he had felt in a long time. He had spent what felt like years helping out the medical personnel in sickbay. Granted the company had been pleasant, Doctor Kobol  was certainly a handsome guy but he had not be able to try his own unique brand of shy awkward flirting on the man.

Rhys had mostly tried to calm people down and where possible used his basic first aid skills. He had even got to help the good doctor with an operation, which had been horrifying and brought up a lot of unpleasant memories. However he now had even more respect for medical personnel than he had done before.

After more than two hours, he had needed to escape for a moment. It was a benefit that he was not part of the Theurgy’s command structure that he could kind of get away with that. It was probably a shitty thing to do and doubtless he would feel guilty later but right now he needed coffee and a moment to himself.

Life and the universe however were about to conspire against him. He walked down a corridor on deck eleven, coming the other way was a boyish faced crewman who looked like he was part of the engineering team. Rhys gave him a polite smile as they were about to cross paths. When the ship rocked, violently. A conduit nearby erupted from one of bulkheads showering the corridor in  bright sparks. Rhys felt wreckage club him on the back and send him sprawling to the ground. He heard a scream. Coughing and spluttering Rhys looked up. Pinned beneath the part of a bulkhead, screaming and lashing out was the young crewman. Rhys gingerly pulled himself up, he had been hit to but what ever the mangled mess was that had hit him it was too light to pin him down.

Dusty and bloodied, Rhys limped towards the twisted mess on the floor. “HELP HELP!” screamed the boy in desperation. “Calm,” said Rhys dropping to a knee by the young man’s side. “I am here, there is nothing to be worried about.”

[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.]

Rhys heard those words in his nightmares and they sent a chill down his spine. “Okay… maybe there is something to worry about.” He almost wished he was down their screaming with the crewman.

“No the Borg… NO NO!”

“Its ok shhh.. calm they won’t get you.” He had no idea if this was true or not, but he knew this fellow was going to be a sitting duck if they got boarded.”Right how am I going to get you out?”  The young man was pinned a large lump of twisted bulkhead laying across his leg. He was terrified, but he knew he had to be the picture of calm here. He was the officer after all. “What’s your name?”

“Tom.”

“Ok Tom, well I am going to try to get you out of here. Stay still ok?” Rhys braced his shoulder against the metal attempting to lift it or move it, but it was stuck solid. There seemed to be no way to slide Tom out either. Hitting his combadge, he spoke with a slight hint of desperation. “Damage control team? Medical team? Anyone this is Lieutenant Williams, I have a man trapped in wreckage down here.”

There was a pause and then an irritable voice sounded on the other side. “We have people trapped all over the ship we will get to you when we can. Damage control team out.”

“Well looks like its just you and me.” He looked down the corridor in the direction of sickbay and found that It was collapsed and impassible to. Rhys sat down next to Tom, and opened the emergency medical kit he had been carrying and proceeded to scan him with the tricorder. “You won’t leave me will you?” Said Tom his voice pregnant with fear.  Rhys winked. “Not a chance… not a chance.”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #46 –
[ Lieutenant Elro Kobol | Corridors | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]

Elro found himself feeling irrepressibly anxious. It was a sharply nauseating feeling. It was a reminder of being back on the Endeavour with his sickbay flooded with casualties, crewmen strewn down the corridors getting trampled in the desperate attempt to escape. It was similar, but it didn’t feel quite the same… Somehow it felt calmer, quieter… He imagined that it might have been because, from what he knew, the Theurgy wasn’t alone this time. They had fighters, Klingons, distractions… Still, Elro felt that the quiet was worse. It was an engulfing maelstrom of oppressive silence. At least with the noise, he couldn’t hear the sound of his own heart trying to hammer its way out of his chest, nor his slightly raged stridor…

Whilst he usually appreciated silence, or quiet at least, this particular silence was the harbinger of fear.

He drew his dark eyes around the Sickbay, scanning the four walls brimming with patients in various states of recovery. Most were the wounded from either Vector One or the Bellerophon, those who weren’t injured badly enough to require the facilities of main sickbay. A few stragglers had arrived, those injured by the impacts to the shield, falling debris, minor burns, concussions, nothing that a nurse couldn’t have handled.

He felt a little wasted.

If he wasn’t flooded with casualties, where were the casualties? The Borg weren’t a friendly group, which meant that assimilations and injuries were happening elsewhere on the ship. He wondered whether main sickbay needed him, whether they would need his assistance down on deck eleven where all of the casualties were…

No.

If they needed him, they would call. Elro could only assume that the main bulk of the injuries weren’t ones that landed someone in sickbay. He guessed that anyone the Borg didn’t assimilate, they killed. Despite that knowledge, Elro still felt useless. What sort of Doctor lingered in a stagnant Sickbay, whilst the rest of the ship were fighting to save themselves? He’d be more use in the field, where the injuries were.

Nobody was getting to his doors.

[D-ma-g con-l te-? Me-ic-al t-m? An-ne th- Lieu-nt Wi-ms, h-ve tr-ped in wr-eck d-n h-re.]

The comm system choked out half of a transmission, possibly caused by interference or Borg bastardising the computer systems… Elro couldn’t make out much, not enough to put together any sort of response to the message without knowing more information.

“Computer please identify source of this transmission.” Elro barked into the air, feeling his hands shuddering a little at the rush of adrenaline he was feeling.

[Deck Eleven.]

Deck Eleven? Main Sickbay? They must have been requesting support. Elro bit his lip. Wasn’t he just telling himself that he needed to get out of the Sickbay? To go and support the rest of the ship? Now that the idea was presenting itself to him, it didn’t seem quite so appealing. Main sickbay was three decks down… A lot of Borg could get in the way of three decks…

And if they were requesting support in the first place, what did that mean? Borg attacking? Injuries drowning the Sickbay that had been mostly full before he'd left it? Perhaps the medical staff had taken a loss?

He felt his hands shaking again, his sweat cold, his eyes threatening to tear up. He knew that his duty was to leave and go to support the rest of the team, but his legs wouldn’t respond to him. He was stuck, frozen in place by his own fear. He was seeing flashes of Borg in his mind’s eye, images of that poor assimilated boy whom he’d euthanised back on the Endeavour, visions of others sharing the same fate. Ducote, Kai, Vael, Rez, Trent, Rhys… Derik. He didn’t know many people aboard the Theurgy, but somehow Elro was easily finding himself distraught at the concept of losing even a single more soul.

The Borg were a festering plague. But one that no amount of medical expertis would ever erradicate. Like cockroaches or bacteria, only one needed to survive and they would have an entire race once again. He was terrified, but also angry. Furious of everything. Parasites, Borg, Klingons... The entire galaxy had shifted in his perspective in just a week. He'd felt safe. Now he felt that danger was lurking around every corner...

It was atypical of Elro. Anger, fear, paranoia. They weren't emotions he was accustomed to dealing with. It was unpleasant and new and it distracted him from his focus enough that he felt his control teeter on the edge for a heartbeat of chest-stilling silence. Then it slipped, his paracortex widening open to a cacophony of emotions that buffeted him like a typhoon, making him lean back onto a biobed with his hands clutching at his head. Fear, so much sheer terror, it drowned out the bright lights of determination, steely grit, even a sick enjoyment at being in a battle. It myred all of the possible positive emotions with a cloying stench that gripped everything like the web of a colossal spider.

He swore that somewhere, he heard the toxic whispers of the Borg in the back of his mind. He knew that he couldn’t have, the Borg sharing a synthetic hive mind that he wouldn’t be able to reach with his abilities…

Elro took a deep, cleansing breath that echoed down into his core. Losing control so briefly was enough to remind him of life when he was young, when he constantly battled with hearing overwhelming orchestras of thoughts and emotions just by walking down the street. The Borg… They were affecting him a lot more than he had anticipated… Was he even fit for duty if he couldn't keep himself under control?

It hardly mattered. He had a duty and he refused to let the Borg ruin anything else for him. Perhaps a splash of the combined fear of half of the crew put enough into perspective for him... He had more to worry about than just himself. He grit his teeth and straightened himself, clutching a medical kit up from a nearby station and making a move towards the doors to the Sickbay.

“I’m heading out to Deck Eleven, it sounds like the comms are down so…” He began, tapping on the panel next to the door to open it, only for the doors to open directly into the shoulder of a cluster Borg drones who had been working to assimilate one of the consoles in the corridor. The closest drone stopped its work, turning its head grotesquely as it fixed its eye and optical array on the Betazoid before him. Then it turned its body, and took a step forwards.

“Computer activate emergency seal on the doors to sickbay now!” Elro shouted, perhaps screamed would have been a better term, launching himself backwards with a leap that wouldn’t have been out of place in Don Quixote. The doors shut, but not before an arm plunged its way into the door’s path, getting severed cleanly and falling to the floor like a limp fish. “Everyone into the Jefferies tubes now!” Elro shouted again, moving over to a medical console immediately, his mind working like wildfire as he realised that the combined lot of patients, staff and security currently in the Sickbay would not make it far into the Jefferies tubes with a quad of Borg hot on their tail.

He had a duty of care to keep them safe. And he had just about muddled together a way to do just that.

He always had believed that necessity was the mother of invention...

“Computer create a forcefield with a radius of two metres extending in from the sickbay doors and seal.” He turned his head quickly to watch over his shoulder as a dome materialised around the doorway with the typical shimmer of a Federation forcefield. “Fill the dome with gas combination Axanar Beta Three.” He turned, the only indication of the gas being released being the computer’s indication display on the monitor.

“Doctor, they’ll just walk through, we’ve got to go!” A security officer called into his ear, but Elro dismissed them, hunched over his console in concentration, adjusting the forcefield configuration to permit nadion particles to pass through the barrier.

“If they get that far…” He muttered, getting out his trusty exoscalpel and pointing it at the other side of the force field, getting close to it and activating. A scratch appeared on the section of the wall he was pointing it at. Good. “Axanar prefer a nitrogen-methane atmosphere, and this particular configuration goes heavy on the methane…” Elro spun around and pointed to his side of the force field, using his exoscalpel on the carpet and nodding as it singed ever so slightly.

He didn’t quite understand… He didn't feel brave or heroic. He was still scared, perhaps now more than he had been before. He wasn't some adrenalline junkie Security guard... He was barely even confident, that his drafted scientific defence would be sufficient. He hoped it was enough, at least to delay them. The theory was there, and it had no reason not to work when they walked through the door. Perhaps the nausiatingly exhilerating feeling of danger whipping through his body was the reason some people took up roles in security… The feeling of dancing on a knife edge with death only one wrong step away...

Elro couldn’t truthfully say that he enjoyed the feeling…
Currently:
Ensign Sylvain Llewellyn-Kth - Chief CONN Officer - USS Theurgy - [Show/Hide]
Formerly:
Otheusz - Grey Scars Pirate - USS Theurgy - [Show/Hide]
Y'Lev - Syndicate Dominus - USS Theurgy - [Show/Hide]

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #47 –
[ Dyan Cardamone/Sar-unga Neleo | Corridors | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] @TWilkins
Ah, but yes, it was a flash of green. More than that, it was a flash of fleshy green, not cybernetic green. Dyan grinned, her teeth bared in a way that suggested she was hungry for something. Her objective could wait. There was a snake about. A snake with no ranged weaponry that she knew of. A snake who would die in seconds against a borg, maybe a few more seconds versus herself. So she followed the green flash, knowing exactly who this flash was, knowing what kind of trouble she’d be getting up to.

For a moment she wasn’t sure where he was headed. Maybe he didn’t know where he was headed either, because he fell over a suffering, writhing, poor soul. Truly a sight that would incur pity and sorrow in lesser warriors. Before the little spy could do anything worthwhile besides gawk, he was knocked forward, into a bulkhead. She’d giggle, if she could, but the moment was moving too quick. A new drone, formerly klingon, and Y’lev had weapons after all--his rings. She grinned wickedly to herself as she noticed her blade was bigger.

He went after the drone, and bounced off the forcefield. Ah, so her own blade wouldn’t work. She readied her graviton weapon, walked out from around the corner, aimed at the drone. She was behind the drone, she could see Y’lev’s eyes from the end of the corridor.
“Out the way, spy!” She called out, laughing as she squeezed the trigger. A bright bolt of light from her gun cut through the drone’s body. It was as if an invisible knife had been shot through the air, making a clean cut through the drone’s torso. If Y’lev were still in the way, he’d find himself marked with a similar clean cut, and likely dead to boot.

The legs, standing upright as they were, continued to stand, but the upper half of the torso began sliding off, hitting the ground in a theatrical way. Dyan approached, and kicked down the legs before they fell on their own. She was keen to make an entrance, it seemed.
“All alone during a borg attack. Who will end your life when you can no longer run or fight, huh?” She swaggered closer, stepping over the body. She walked as if she were bigger than she really was. Like a predator towards prey. She moved to ball her fist in his hair to bring him close, making him listen.
“After all, can’t let that precious intel in your head become assimilated, huh?”



[ Zelosa Ejek | Counsellor's Office | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] @Arista

There was some darkness in the corners of this room. It was not lit up so harshly like the rest of the ship. In her moment’s pause, she thought she saw the shadows move. It wasn’t the shadows moving though, just her fears. She turned away from them and towards the other Cardassian in the room. He wasn’t quite bathed in light, but she thought she saw the scales on his neck glisten. Sweat, maybe? Or just her imagination providing some visual metaphors for her subconscious thought processes?

He was working. She admired that he could keep his composure in times like this. Not that she expected otherwise--just that so few people were able to do so anymore. He was glancing over her domain, barely even hers for a full week when this happened, and he was working. As if it were all nothing.

Although it would be foolish of her to pick up the habit of being free and loose with her words, she could admit to herself that she wished she had the skill here. The ability to say what must be said before one or both of them meet their demise, the ability to do what she wants to do before she lives the rest of her life regretting her inaction...As she watched him work, she felt her heart ache, and ache so sharply it almost made her cry.

She couldn’t keep holding back the way she was. She held back while sharing dinner and breakfast with Parnak and what good did it do her? How did she feel about it now? And how would she feel if she were robbed the chance of ever making it right again? She steeled herself, approaching the other, and when she spoke her voice was decidedly un-steeled. Her metaphorical shields lowered.
“Parnak…” She turned to meet his eyes, but...what words did she have? What could she say? ‘Don’t die?’ That was stupid. It’s not like he had any choice over that. ‘Be safe?’ Of course he would try to be safe, he wasn’t an idiot. What could she say? What could she say??

Instead, she found her hand reaching out towards his, with the sort of timidity and maybe even shame one would expect of a girl rather than the woman she was. Her fingers found the palm of his hand, and she paused, wondering if she was out of line. She should run, hide, find a nice container about her size…

But she didn’t. She pressed onward, taking his hand in her own, holding it tight and feeling his relative warmth under her soft, well-cared-for hands. Her eyes met his, and she did not know what her face looked like. She was not putting up her facade. Perhaps in that moment, she looked scared, she looked worried, and maybe even thankful for the joy he offered her in that short time. And she held him, and was still among the chaos undoubtedly spawning on the ship. It felt like a lifetime. It was only a minute.

“...Thank you.” She hesitated, again forcibly stopped by her own fears of what would happen. She continued, because the fear of regret was greater. “...Thank you for offering me your company and time.”
She offered him these words, a few seconds more of precious, comforting touch, before someone outside called out ‘boarders!’. She let him go, her eyes left his, and she moved away to begin what could be her next job, or her last.

She realized, as she walked out that room, that she had so many people she wished she could share a precious moment like that with. Despite her mask of professionalism, she inwardly wanted to weep bitterly. She was about to lose it all, all over again, wasn’t she?

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #48 –
[ Y'Lev | Corridors | Deck 7 | USS Theurgy ] @FollowTomorrow

Y’Lev couldn’t help but grimace as the formerly Klingon automaton clacked against the bulkhead, severed cleanly in half by a beam of energy the shade of the Naloven sea. The torso slid grotesquely across the severed waist in a manner not dissimilar to a fish slipping off of a freshly waxed deck and back into the ocean. Of course, the spray of salty air would have been greatly prefered over the splattering of tepid blood…

Regardless, he couldn’t help but appreciate the artistry of such a kill. Especially when inflicted upon such an artless automaton that provided no beauty to the universe in life. At least it had the fortune of suffering a somewhat artistic death. Whilst perhaps not ‘beautiful’ as such, it was at least demonstrative of a degree of artistry that any Orion would have appreciated for its aesthetic value.

Of course, the tantalisingly slow descent of the torso was ruined swiftly; he didn’t need to glance up when the goat pranced along the corridor and kicked over the still-stable legs, knocking them to the bulkhead with a resonating clang. If she thought she was being impressive, she wasn’t. She was being ludicrous and barbaric. Then, that was hardly a surprise.

“All alone during a Borg attack. Who will end your life when you can no longer run or fight, huh?" The goat-woman taunted, moving over the body of the bisected automaton with a distasteful swagger that was more akin to the movements of someone who hadn’t quite reached the bathroom in time… It was as though the horned harridan thought she were so much more than what she was. Had Y’Lev been in the mood, he possessed a pair of dancerdaggers that he imagined would have looked delightful sticking out of her eyeballs… 

The harriden’s next move was her decision to put one of her grubby, clammy hands into Y’Lev’s hair, balling her fist and dragging at his delightfully soft hair like a dopey cow chewing on a mouthful of grass. Touching his hair? Enough of an offence that Y’Lev had half a mind to hamstring the woman and leave her writhing on the deck to the mercy of the next shambling automaton that decided to blunder past. However… She had saved his life, even shouted out like a gangling oaf for him to move out of the way of her shot. He guessed that it wouldn’t be particularly cordial to disassemble her lower legs…

Not that he wouldn’t have found his way out of the fight with the shambling cyborg… But she’d certainly saved him from having to expend too much effort. He’d not broken so much as a sweat. A shame. His pheromonal suppressant was definitely due a new dose soon; sweating would only clear it from his system faster.

"After all, can't let that precious intel in your head become assimilated, huh?" Her repugnant breath tickled, or perhaps scolded, the shell of his ear as she pulled him in close.

She was an interesting character to encounter… She had apparently quite aptly worked out that he was more than he appeared, despite the obviousness that it was a lucky blunder in the dark rather than an informed choice based on any solid information… Still, she had also elected to save him, based on said choice, rather than kill him. Execution was hardly the Starfleet way… But then again, neither was gauging someone’s chest. He couldn’t quite place her intentions.

If he were to deny being a spy, she would most likely not believe him; she had now seen his daggers and that was a clear cut way of rooting someone out of a typical yellow-chest. If he were to confirm that he was a spy, she might change her tune just to spite him, or she might go to her superiors and get Y’Lev confined to the brig. Either way his options landed himself in no more favorable ground than the position he was stuck in; sprawled on the deck with a fist in his hair… Until he achieved his mission, he wasn’t planning to risk any compromise to his position…

So he decided that her best response would be the response most typical of any Orion in his situation. To talk about something entirely different.

“This ship has to be the most violent in the fleet…” Y’Lev attempted to sound flippant, but the tight grip of the hand in his hair made his voice hiss somewhat. “That’s the Bellerophon and now the Borg, in a space of what, an hour?” He continued his breezy speech, hissing out when a strand of hair got pulled especially hard from the motions. “That’s the work of a crew who have something particularly important to live for.”

Y’Lev gestured up with his dancerdagger and tapped the wrist of his aggressor, the flat of the blade coldly pressing against her skin with a solid thump. Not hard enough to hurt her, but hopefully enough to encourage her to let go. If she elected not too of course, he had his other dagger ready to plunge into her thigh at the first opportunity. He was also torn between keeping his eyes on the scheming goat, and making sure to monitor the partially assimilated man on the deck with them. Something about his still form didn’t quite add up.

“So how about you let me go…” He silkily asked her, tapping his dagger against her wrist a second time to offer a dash more encouragement, the blade poised against her wrist so that should she get a little more belligerent than necessary, he could stab through her and move her arm like a marionette. Y’Lev couldn’t help but discover a small smile a the mental image of that particular dance… “And share with me exactly what it is that you and your ship are so very eager to die for…”
Currently:
Ensign Sylvain Llewellyn-Kth - Chief CONN Officer - USS Theurgy - [Show/Hide]
Formerly:
Otheusz - Grey Scars Pirate - USS Theurgy - [Show/Hide]
Y'Lev - Syndicate Dominus - USS Theurgy - [Show/Hide]

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Storm Glass

Reply #49 –
[ Lt. Cmdr Hathev | Upper Shuttle Bay | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Hathev had received only the most cursory of briefings on the USS Theurgy when she was brought aboard the Bellerophon mere days ago, but the information had been more than adequate for her to make her judgement. A dissident ship crewed by rebels, mutineers, traitors, and deserters; the last ship in the galaxy she had ever wanted to set foot on, and a ship she absolutely refused to die on.

And so when the forcefield containing the survivors of the Bellerophon in the cargo bay died along with the rest of the power, she decided escape, however unlikely, was far preferable to waiting to be assimilated. Her chances were slim to none, but if she could make it to the shuttle bay and commandeer a vessel, at least she would not have to join the Collective alongside the likes of the Theurgy’s crew.

The few minutes it took for Hathev to make it to the shuttle bay were the most horrifying of her life. All it took was for her to round a single corner and there it was, a figure slumped against the wall. It turned to look at her as she approached, and she felt the air leave her lungs. Its eyes were red and glowing, its skin stretched and gaunt, half its face absorbed by cruel metal plating. Horror froze her in place as it lurched towards her, breath whistling and whirring, tubes slithering out of its arms as they reached for her. Whatever this creature had once been — an officer, she saw, the gold pips nearly obscured by the writhing mass of synthetics spewing from what flesh remained — whatever it once was, it was now part of the Collective, assimilated into a being of inexorable purpose and cold calculation.

She would not join it. She would not let it have her.

She turned and fled, and made the rest of the journey to the shuttle bay with unfaltering steps even as her heart beat faster with each distant spate of phaser fire, with each corner a drone could be hiding behind, with each lurch of the ship. She saw no more of the Borg, but the traces they left behind were everywhere, mangled bodies and green-tinged consoles strewn in their wake. Why were the Borg even here? There had been no mention of the Borg in her briefing, and one might think they would have been a pertinent detail to bring up, considering she now found herself faced with them with no prior warning or consultation. (To say nothing of the fact that she was on this ship with similarly little warning or choice; to some extent the same had been true of even the Bellerophon. She had never intended her return to active duty to be so, well, active.)

But this was something for later. Now was time to focus.

The shuttle bay, when she made it there, was already teeming with survivors from the Bellerophon; apparently they'd all had the same idea. There would be plenty of shuttles for them all, and it looked like one of the officers was organising them into groups. Hathev entered, the doors hissing closed behind her, and approached the officer with the intention of offering her services. She had barely made it ten paces when the screaming started.

One of the survivors, a young human woman, convulsed and fell to her knees; when next she looked up, her eyes were red and angry, her skin mottling to silver, tubes snaking out of her to sink their fangs into the petty that came to help.

Not one among the survivors was armed. And as the doors hissed behind her, Hathev turned to see two more Borg drones lurch into the bay.

Fear took over. All it took was one person breaking ranks, pushing towards a shuttle in desperation, and then there was a stampede as any semblance of order was effectively spaced. People fought, trampled those that fell to the ground, pulled others out of the shuttles; some ran to the bay's doors, trying to find a way out there; others grabbed whatever detritus they could find and tried to fight the drones, only to join the enemy's ranks. And all the while, the Borg advanced, and fired, and assimilated, and advanced.

And then the sound of an engine powering up filled the bay, and Hathev saw another ship, further away than the shuttles, begin to rise off the ground and turn towards the Borg, slow and deliberate. Its armaments whirred, gathering energy... and then it unloaded into the Borg.

Hathev threw herself behind the nearest cover as phaser bolts lanced over her head, listening to the unholy sounds of the drones being destroyed, to the screech of metal and clatter of tubing as they fell. The acrid stench of burnt flesh caught in the back of her throat; she dug her nails into her palms, and waited for the horror to end.
Lt Cmdr Hathev - Counselling - Chief Counsellor
"Logic without ethics is no logic at all." [Show/Hide]
Ensign Inej 'Avi' Avirim - Security - Investigations Officer
"Live fast, die stupid." [Show/Hide]
Xelia - Civillian - Holoprogram Designer
"Envy isn't your colour, babe." [Show/Hide]
 
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