Re: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410]
Reply #40 –
[ Lieutenant Junior Grade Rem Kile | Secondary Computer Core Level 1 | Deck 06 | “The Sword” Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn:
Rem Kile crouched at the corner of the T-junction leading to the secondary computer core, his pulse phaser rifle raised and ready to fire. He had not expected to be in this situation four days ago but here he was, and he intended to do his duty, to keep Theurgy and her crew alive. Five more security personnel crouched in the corridor, knelt at either corner of the T-section, a prime choke point from which to defend against Klingon boarding parties.
Seventeen hours had passed since the Betazoid intel officer beamed aboard from IKS Kajunpak’t to greet his new captain. Seventeen hours ago the Klingons were his ally. They still were but like anything Klingon, things were complicated.
Chancellor Martok’s warriors bolstered their numbers, prepared to engage in close-quarters combat while their Starfleet cohorts provided fire support. The complication: other Klingons opposed to Martok’s rule stood to beam aboard at any time. Rem expected them to come ready to inflict maximum damage, maximum carnage. Their mission, to keep Theurgy from reaching their homeworld, Qo’noS at any cost. Rem steadied his footing as Vector 02, called “The Sword” rocked violently against a barrage of hostile weapons fire. The Betazoid heard an electrical hum followed immediately by a sizzling sound as 50cm of ablative armor boiled away. Internal lighting flickered, indicating a momentary lapse in power, which in turn left a momentary gap in the ship’s defensive shields.
[Intruder alert, deck six, section–!] the voice over the comm crackled as explosions rocked the deck in the distance. Phaser fire screamed incessantly as the team defending Engineering repelled hostile boarding parties.
[This is Engineer–!] Rem’s combadge chirped to life with a piercing screech of feedback as the sound of disruptor fire carried to the Betazoid’s ears as well as the comm channel. He gritted his teeth as he listened to the panicky male voice shout over the din.
[We need imm– backup! They’re– cut– us– pieces down here! Repeat–!] He did not repeat.
“Hold your positions,” Rem waved his team back when they climbed to their feet to help.
“If we lose engineering, it won’t matter what happens to the computer core–sir!” A young crewman hissed in helpless frustration.
Rem did not have to respond but doing so kept his subordinate occupied and in place. “The most likely scenario for intruders is to catch anyone rushing to defend engineering in a crossfire while a secondary team closes on the computer core. Ridge?”
The human OPS specialist shook his head. “They’re using proximity jammers, sir. I can’t read anything with internal sensors or my tricorder. Attempting to compensate.”
“We must advance and draw their fire away from Engineering!” one of Martok’s Klingons gripped his weapon impatiently. “Cover us!”
“Wait!” Rem hissed after them but the Klingons vanished around the corner, on the hunt for glory. A short time later the distinctive hiss of disruptor discharge drowned out the howls of the enraged and the dying. The air grew thick with acrid smoke and the sickeningly sweet smell of charred flesh, causing Rem’s eyes to water. He considered reaching out with his telepathic senses for a moment but decided quickly against it.
Too much pain, too much fear, too much chaos, he gritted his teeth and thought about the attackers. I know you’re coming but from where? He peeked around the corner and caught movement from out of the corner of one eye. One of his subordinates had crept forward to look in the other direction. He sought to be helpful but only succeeded in exposing himself to danger. Rem yanked the crewman back in time to see an intruder take aim.
“Sir, I’m getting something on the motion sensor–” Ridge looked up in time to see a pistol barrel leveled at him. His skull above his mandible vaporized in a brilliant green glow. The strike cauterized most of his exposed blood vessels save for the carotid artery, which burst with the force of a geyser, spraying the ceiling with blood before his corpse toppled over in a twitching heap.
The scene erupted instantly into chaos with shrieking weapons fire, a vomiting junior officer, shouts of determination, and Klingon curses. Rem heard a telltale clatter of metal against the bulkhead, looked back, and shouted, “Grenade!”
Those able sprang through the door into the computer core. Rem, along with others defending the corners launched into the corridor just as the grenade detonated. Fire engulfed everything for a terrifying instant. Rem blinked to his senses to find he lay on his back. His vision drew into focus in time to reveal a grinning Klingon looming overhead, batlh’etlh sword reared back for the killing blow.
The Betazoid acted without thinking. He swept up with his rifle in one hand, butted the emitter crystal against his opponent’s belly, and pulled the trigger. Academy instructors warned against using the heavy stun setting at point-blank range. They never said anything about skin contact. The energy discharge left a six-centimeter hole in the Mo’kai’s armor. The subsequent flash charbroiled his groin, his bladder, and his lower intestines but he did not have time to notice. The burst slammed him into the ceiling with enough force to snap his neck. Simultaneously, the rifle recoil struck a glancing blow against Rem’s ribcage and threatened to wrench his shoulder out of its socket. The Betazoid felt something crack inside. He gritted in pain, but he could not indulge in a moment to check his injury. Other intruders pushed into the junction spoiling for blood and revenge.
The dead Mo’kai warrior fell on top of Rem, incidentally providing cover against an incoming flurry of disruptor bolts. Once again Rem yanked his phaser rifle up and fired. His aim might never have won a trophy but at this range, it sufficed. The Betazoid pulled the trigger until he saw no one standing. All fell silent save for the blaring of the red alert klaxon and reports from distant weapons fire.
“Get up,” Rem spat at himself past trembling lips. “Get up, get up, now!”
He scrambled back into the T-section as more Mo’kai surged into the passage. He rolled away with disruptor bolts scorching the deck at his back. Rem scrambled into the small office, locked the door, and to make sure it stayed shut, he slagged the manual override.
“Computer–Thea–raise the security force field on this door.” He received a warning chirp indicating a comm failure. He rapped his badge directly. “Computer, raise a security force field at the entrance to the secondary computer core, Deck Six.” He bit his lip as he received another warning chirp.
“Damn jamming field.” He looked over the office used for direct access to the core and considered his options.
The office consisted of a long, narrow walkway leading directly to a set of three workstations that accessed the computer core. A space to the right led approximately four meters to a curved convex bulkhead about ten meters across. A door set in the center of the curve entered the Deck Six stack of computer storage and processing.
Between the curved wall of the computer core and the hallway stood four columns, rectangular in shape, with dark glassine partitions between them. The columns housed security checkpoint sensors while the partitions contained the equipment necessary to drop forcefields. This was the final line of defense in the event unauthorized personnel sought access to the brains of the ship. Rem took note of defensive choke points as he approached the workstations.
“Sorry, Thea,” he shot out the workstation panels, filling the air with smoke and sparks. He turned to the two surviving members of his team, a young human male and a Benzite female. They appeared calm but gripped their rifles tightly.
“There is no security force field. The Klingons will cut through that door shortly. We have to hold this position. Klein,” he directed the human. “Take the lift in the core to Deck Nine. Once you’re outside of jamming range, update them about our situation. Bring help, we can’t let them take the core!”
“Yes, sir!” Klein vanished into the core while Rem faced the final crewman. “Detos, take position inside the core. I want you to shoot any Klingons who come through that door. Don’t hesitate even if they use living shields or take hostages.”
“Sir?” The blue-skinned alien breathed mist in shock.
“Crewman,” Rem gave her a look of grim purpose. “If the Klingons reach the core, they will destroy it. That will cripple the ship and allow a hostile power to seize control of the Klingon Empire. After that, if we survive, there will likely be war between the Empire and the Federation. Do you want to live in that world, crewman?”
“No, sir,” She hissed mist from her rebreather past clenched teeth. “I’ll do my best, sir.”
“I know you will, so take position.” He patted her on the shoulder as she departed as already, the Klingons were cutting through the outer door.
The Betazoid clenched his rifle at the enormity of the challenge facing him. Rem entered the central core and studied his environment. The inner core was a stacked cylinder four decks tall with walls of storage and processing banks. He saw a two-meter shaft in the center of the deck that plunged a full three decks before hitting bottom. A thin metal guardrail offered protection against falling in while a lift to the left of the entrance looked like it might fit four humans if they stood shoulder-to-shoulder. A two-meter walkway surrounded the central shaft, enabling access to the maintenance panels of the various computer stacks. Detos lay on her belly opposite from the entrance, her phaser rifle trained on the door. The guardrail offered no cover and there was nothing in the core to hide behind.
They didn’t build these things with firefights in mind. Rem sighed in resignation.
He panned his gaze across the luminous data stacks that encompassed the totality of Federation knowledge. They glowed in beautiful washes of blue light, pulsing with the demand for knowledge, eager to share. Rem took it in and it struck him how much like a living thing this wonder of technology was. Thea’s heart thrummed with strength and boundless compassion but the very light of her soul robbed her defenders of any shadows from which to protect her. That thought led him to brace suddenly.
“Detos, I recall that you work in OPS.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Can you bypass the jamming field from here and get a message out to the rest of the ship?”
She brightened, “I’ve never done it manually but it’s possible. I’d just need to–”
He cut her off with a wave. “Do it, and while you’re at it, see what you can do about dousing all of the lights in this section of the ship.”
“Sir–?” She saw his look and coughed, “yes, sir.”
“Work quickly, they’re almost through!”
______________________________________
A short while later, the outer door to the core exploded inward with devastating force. Disruptor bolts pierced the smoke immediately after, scarring the far wall of the office.
An imposing figure mantled in leather, armed and armored for war pushed inside with his pistol drawn. A mane of tightly beaded braids clacked about his shoulders. His dark, weathered face hinted at casual cruelty as he searched the vicinity for resistance. Satisfied for the moment, Skrel, son of Tavrad of House Mo’kai gestured to his warriors to enter, “place the second spatial charge directly inside the core. Let us see how well this Federation tug flies without a computer!”
“The core is beyond that door, joHwI’,” A warrior pointed.
“Where are the miserable toppa’pu’ defending this place!” Skrell demanded and the scanner officer shook his head.
“Their countermeasures are good. I’m not getting anything. Wait, something on the motion scanner–there!” He spun about and pointed in time for Rem to down him with a phaser bolt. The Klingon's scanning device clattered under the desk with another warrior scrambling to retrieve it. Skrel and two warriors rushed through the partitions to get a clear shot at Rem and triggered force fields, trapping them.
One down, four occupied, Rem counted as the remaining Klingons opened fire on his position. He ducked behind a partition and gritted his teeth as the lights were still on. “Detos!”
The ship lurched violently and without warning against pounding weapons fire, disrupting power and throwing everyone off their feet. They fell against the long bulkhead leading to the workstations with Rem now within line of sight of his opponents. “Shit!”
Gravity surged unexpectedly and Rem suddenly felt twice his weight. Klingons taking aim at him with their pistols shot the deck with muttered curses of surprise. Gravity failed completely after that but only for a second. Rem used that second to spring from his position back behind the safety of the partitions. He rolled into a crouch as the lighting blinked once, twice, and finally failed altogether, plunging their surroundings into pitch darkness.
Good girl, Detos!
Elsaria was a rogue planet devoid of a star. The only light natives knew came from molten lava at the bottom of planetary rifts. Though biologically Betazoid, Rem grew up on Elsaria from the time he was a year old. Darkness was his natural state and he put it to use against his opponents. He avoided blind shots fired by the Klingons and began picking them off with ease.
“<SCANNER! GET A FIX ON THAT DAMN FLEETER!!!>” Skrel howled in frustration. He did not know that the scanner lay in a corner under the body of an unconscious subordinate.
The battle ended in short order with only one intruder remaining, Skrel. Rem leveled his rifle to fire when lights snapped back on. Back in the core, Detos muttered a misty curse and jumped to the exposed panel where she had shorted them out earlier. “No, no, no!”
“<There you are, little glob fly!>” Skrel slapped the rifle from Rem’s hands, then bull-rushed the Betzoid back through the door into the central core. Detos sprang for her rifle only to watch in helpless horror as both men tipped over the guardrail and fell down the shaft.
“NO!” She lept to the guardrail and peered down, expecting the worst. She spied the Betazoid clinging to the stack two decks down. His foe lay broken and unmoving at the bottom. Reinforcements ascending on the lift stopped to help the Betazoid.
The battle in space continued to rage. In the meantime, Rem sat in one of the chairs at the workstation while a medic held a small, blinking tool pinched between her fingers. She waved the tool over Rem’s ribs as he offered a report to the officer in charge of the defense. After that crewmen, Detos and Klein stepped up with smiles of relief.
“You gave us quite a scare back there, sir. How did you do hang on to the wall like that?” Klein asked.
Rem lowered his arm and tested the pain in his rib, taking a moment to think about an answer. “I’m from Elsaria, climbing is natural for us. I’m good as long as there is something to hold.”
“I guess they don’t do much spelunking on Qo’noS.” Klein enjoyed a smile of cold satisfaction as he remembered the intruder that had fallen.
“I’m surprised he didn’t get back up.” Detos shuddered. “Klingons are resilient.”
“It’s enough that he survived.” Rem thanked the medic before turning back. “You both did well.”
“Until someone in OPS decided to turn the lights back on.” Detos huffed a misty breath in exasperation.
“It all worked out and now we have to get back to our positions.” The Klingons won’t give up and neither can we.”
“Sorry, but you’re going to sickbay.” The medic interrupted, giving Rem a stern look. “I patched that broken rib but it’s only temporary. You need better attention from a doctor.”
“But–”
“No, ‘buts’, Lieutenant.” the medic pointed. “Sickbay, now.”
The Betazoid climbed to his feet with a grumble of protest when Klein spoke up. “Sir, you shouldn’t go alone. There are still boarding parties on the loose.”
Rem’s lips drew to a thin line but the officer in charge overruled him before he uttered a word. “This point is secure. You two see the lieutenant to sickbay and double-time it back.”
“Yes, sir!” Detos and Klein fell in beside Rem.
“Once more into the breach, it seems.” The Benzite huffed with jaunty enthusiasm.
“So it seems,” Rem turned his gaze ahead, wondering what surprises the future might spring next.
Topic: CH06 Battle Log: Whomever Remains [D03|1410] (Read 11863 times)
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