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Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum AKA Stealing Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

[ Lt. Commander Alana Pierce | Unknown location | Center Square | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker @P.C. Haring @rae [Show/Hide]

Pierce spent the better part of the day on recreation, and it seemed to continue that direction until she received a very clandestine and unique communique from Captain Ives. Her time at the gym, learning from Reggie and her time on the holodeck after the meeting with Hirek still fresh in her mind. Circling the information and experiences of friendship as she had read the order hours later. She remembered reading the message with the given coordinates on the Klingon homeworld as well as the orders to dump the Starfleet uniforms and wear civilian or some sort of tactical-like garb. Even gaining a civilian class communicator which oddly enough, was eerily similar to that of Pierce's back in the 2280's. Small favors at least.

Thankfully Alana brought with her a case with gear that Zark had suggested they have on hand for this undercover ops mission. Items like communicators, disruptors, armor plating and other tactical gear. Time was the factor here and she was very familiar with it. She didn't expect the group that was gathered however. Ives had just beamed back to the Theurgy from the briefing about the off the books infiltration orders from the future. The seemingly randomness of the officers in her midst told her that something was afoot that they were supposed to be part of, yet didn't realize the importance of. Again, time messing with her.

Ives had given Alana and the others the in person mission rather than let it be discovered on the ship or in the databanks from infested individuals and traitors possibly in their midst. The mission was too dire and important to be discovered. She tasked them with the goal of finding Korath, son of Monak and copy his early schematics of the Chrono-Deflector technology. Not to mention that they were instructed on the need-to-know basis about the Tempus Sigillum parameters. Being somewhat more familiar than the others from the initial discovery of the data days prior. This mission however was instructed that Korath must remain unaware that his blueprints have been copied.

The information wasn't something expected by the group to be sure. Ives final words before beaming back said, "Regardless how you acquire the blueprints, neither Starfleet nor the Theurgy can be affiliated with your mission, and the information from the Relativity stated Korath might be retro-assassinated in our timeline if you draw too much attention to yourselves - making the Infested of the future aware that someone is trying to finish this technology ahead of time." Ives then beamed back to the Theurgy.

Pierce looked at her teammates for this mission. Some familiar, some not. She was thankful that Reggie was present since they met earlier that day and had spent some decent amount of time at the gym together. Not to mention the woman's extremely valuable help with her body and self image. But having a fighter pilot on board with the ability to read minds would be beneficial to the mission eitherway.

Then there was combat medic Zark, who Alana knew from the Trill examination shortly after her promotion. The woman seemed strong, and ready for a fight. The fact she was a medic too, she'd likely be of definite use. And then the other Andorian, Nysari, Pierce hadn't met yet. Not surprising with the ship size and the crew manifest. She'd been working her way through the personnel and had yet to discover anything about this person outside of her being a  diplomatic attache.

A human, Andorian, Betazoid, and Andorian wouldn't look that suspicious. Other than their differences in appearance and the fact they all looked great together. All strong in different ways. Nevertheless, Pierce was ready for the mission, or so she believed. Sometimes time can be a mistress not to be trifled with.

"Well, now that we've all been brought here, let's do a sound-off introduction to each other. I believe I am ranking officer here on point but I suspect you'll just fine without being hounded. I'm Lt. Commander Alana Pierce, Intelligence. I do know one of you more than the others but I very much look forward to learning more about you both in and out of this mission." She smiled warmly to let them know she was happy for the group present.

She waited for the rounding out of the small circle and checked her communicator, flipping it open and checked the time and the short ranged internal sensors. Her head turned and scanned the area as she looked for a place that might lead them in the right direction.

Her crimson hair flailed in the pony tail behind her. Something Reggie showed her to take care of in a better fashion than she had previously. She wore an all black mesh-like bodysuit, with a chest window, and some outlining of color that accentuated her curves. Something that if needed would provide a rather interesting distraction for any guards they may encounter. What she didn't know was how to properly utilize it and not stand out.

"Now that we're all familiar, let's head out. Zark, since you're more security centered, would you care to lead?"

OOC - Posting Order -
@Pierce (Alana Pierce & Tokens)
@P.C. Haring (Reggie & Tokens)
@RyeTanker (Zark & Tokens)
@rae (Nysari & Tokens)

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #1 –
[ Lt. Reggie Suder | Unknown location | Center Square | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker‍  @rae‍    @Pierce‍ 

It was an odd sequence of events that found Reggie on the surface of Qo’nos.  It had started as a normal day with a normal morning workout.  That had turned into an impromptu albeit fun encounter with Alana Pierce wherein she’d worked to help get the new woman set to rights on how to carry herself in the gym.  That had resulted in a trip to Sickbay not because Reggie had overstepped with Alana, but rather their sparring session after all was said and done had left some injuries that needed attention.  That had ended with a new friend in Alana Pierce and a mutually stated desire to work together again in the future.  Reggie had not expected that future to be now though. 

The call from Captain Ives had been cryptic to say the least.  Report to the surface of Qo’Nos at 17:00.  Civilian clothes, no Federation or Starfleet markings.  Leave the combadge in your quarters. 

What a hell of a way to meet the captain for the first time.  She was either going on some sort of special assignment or she was being booted off the ship.  Either way, mum was the word on the orders and she could not even share with T’Less the reason why she had to cancel their dinner plans for the night.  She’d chosen to assume she was being tasked for a special assignment and had chosen a black body suit that, like Alana’s exposed her chest, though not as dramatically, and left her arm and shoulders bare.  She’d matched that with black leather pants and boots.  A light weight black leather jacket finished the look.

With the presence of Alana Pierce as well as Lieutenants Zark and Nysari, to say nothing of the presence of Captain Ives herself Reggie figured she had been tasked for an assignment, though for some reason she thought the captain was male.  They’d been tasked with slipping into some Klingon Engineer’s facility, duplicating schematics for some sort of temporal deflector and getting back out without getting caught.  The Captain had not gone into the rationale as to why the four of them had been selected for this assignment but the Betazoid suspected her role in this would fall into the realm of telepathic misdirection when called for, and given the presence of four female officers, Reggie couldn’t help but wonder if they’re physical looks would come into play at some point as well.

Likely.

Once Ives had returned to the ship and Alana introduced herself, Reggie took her turn.

“Lieutenant Reggie Suder.  I fly Wolf-13, callsign Gemini.  Pleasure to meet you,” she said as she gestured to the two Andorians.  “Full disclosure, I am a Betazoid and while it is generally against the cultural customs, I’m willing to use my telepathic abilities tactically if necessary, whether it’s to facilitate communication between the four of us, distract the enemy, either, both, neither, or something completely different.”

Once the introductions were over and they started going through the gear, Reggie found a black communicator with gold trim that looked very similar to Starfleet Standard issue circa the 2260’s. 

“Dibs,” she called as she snatched the unit from the pile and clipped it to her belt.  Damn did it look like it was designed to match her wardrobe.

“I assume,” she said turning to Pierce, “that given the the nature of our business down here, we are all on a first name basis?”

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #2 –
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Unknown Location | Center Square | Qo'nos]

@rae @Pierce @P.C. Haring

Zark had mentally groaned when she'd received the message and coordinates. Seriously, again? She'd thought, then audibly groaned when it had come with a specific admonition to stay quiet and leave the heavy artillery at home this time.  Thus at 17:00, sans rifle case, devoid of Federation markings, and without a combadge, Zark had managed to beam down to the planet and made her way to the rendezvous.   Meeting the Captain again under such circumstances was a little unnerving since her train of thought went along the lines of Great, I'm gonna be the one on call for all the weird stuff.

Walking into the meeting, the first thing that struck the security officer was the quality of people assigned to the mission.  This one had to be important.  The new head of intel, Lieutnant Commander Pierce, to top the list and the obvious leader of the group was the easiest to identify.  Lt. Zark gave a nod to the Commander in acknowledgement of their previous encounter during a an experiment with Lieutenant Ryn. Next was a dark haired woman she'd never met before, but Zark's memory yanked out the name of Lieutenant Suder, one of the ship's fighter pilot's.  The Andorian noted the specie traits that were similar to another Betazoid that she was intimately familiar with, Ensign Eloi-Danvers, but she mainly wondered what would they need such a highly skilled pilot for in this case.  This linked to the final member of the group and as close to a complete mystery as one could have since she was so new to the ship.  Lieutenant zh’Eziarath, another Zhen and newly arrived diplomatic attache. So new to the ship that all Zark had known about was the name and personnel photo.  Someone further along the time stream had seen a need for everyone here, but it was just a case of what.

While Zark could seduce along with everyone else if need be, she was dressed for somewhat the opposite.  It was also the expectation that she would have to be the acrobatic heavy in this case having had some experience and a slight warning as to what was coming.  Told to leave her Starfleet equipment at home, the marine trained combat medic had opted for a black panelled jumpsuit with of padded leather along the front, back and arms, The sides were a breathable mesh so she wouldn't over heat too quickly, but still covered up the majority of her bright blue skin.  She also wore a pair of black combat gloves, and boots that just ended under her knees with thick rubber soles that housed her special dagger compartment.  A thin utility belt completed the setup with a Nausican style hip holster and a disurptor she'd picked up on her last adventure.  The utility belt pockets carried assorted other tools, mainly a climbing line with hook, good for 30 feet, various emergency medical supplies and sedatives, a pair of disk shaped grenades, and a Nausican Dagger on the back.  A light weight thigh length leather jacket served to conceal the whole setup. In the medicos mind, heavy artillery hadn't been specified, but she decided to push the definition provided to the limit, though it did come with a price of her being somewhat on the warm side.

Although Lt.Zark was going to give her view on what should happen next, Lt. Suder spoke up first and the medico waited for her to finish as she absorbed the information. Nodding at the end in acknowledgement and agreement, Zark multi tasked as she made her way over to the bag Commander Pierce had brought along to help inventory the contents when Suder grabbed a communicator, and medic grinned at Reggie's observation about styling.  Can't take the women out of anything in the end. "I agree with Reggie on this one Sir.  Zark has always been easier than zh’Ptrell, and only strangers really call me that, plus it'll save seconds in possibly life threatening situations." A platinum eye brow rose at some of the contents that the combat medic found inside.  "Well, shoot sir, I think I'm over prepared now.  Ooooh. Cardassian Tricorders, nice, and ah hah! Lots of rope with rappelling grips."  The Andorian smiled as she pointed at something that used to look like a small ancient staple gun. "Okay, the pocket notes on Zark.  I'm the ship's combat medic, which amounts to a little bit of cribbing on behalf of the fleet in getting ground combat specialists on ship.  I'm  have some training with the Marines, though my primary education is at the Academy in nursing.  I'm also a trained gymnast and keep that up to this day.  I've also rated for Expert in unarmed combat and Marksman with pistols and rifles.  Don't sound too impressed, those are the middle and lowest qualification for the two skills over the basic Qualified.  I'm decent at battlefield sneaking, but all this spy stuff is outside my general skill set. Oh. Don't ask how I picked up computer hacking."

Grabbing what she needed, Zark stood up and leaned on a bench for a moment, looking around for a moment before she spotted what she needed.  The Andorian gave the bag a bit a tug to test the weight before nodding. "Okay Sir, I'll carry the remaining equipment, and can we all huddle near that public data terminal so we can do the data search?"  Receiving the accent, the four infiltrators made their way over to a screen, and Zark reset the language for Federation standard.  "Okay, can everyone one gather around, to cover me while I hack the terminal."   When Zark saw she had as much concealment as she was going to get, she knelt down and pulled the tricorder to scan the panel for security switches, and the combat medic smiled at the simplicity of what she found.  It wasn't unexpected since it was a public access terminal and the main focus of the security was to prevent simply opening the panel.  Who hacks a public data terminal?  Taking a moment to scan the lock, Zark punched in a series of commands and was rewarded with an click as the panel opened.  Pulling the panel off, the Security Officer scanned the Isolinear chips, and found what she was looking for as she initiated a download from Theurgy, then applied it to several different glowing pieces of polymer.  Standing up, she quickly accessed the command lines and began typing. With a few more taps of the interface, the terminal screen snowed over and fritzed for a second before returning to normal.  Zark replaced the panel quickly and stood up.  Unfortunately, Zark found the screen unreadable as it had defaulted to Klingon.  A few taps of the language button yielded no results and she cursed quietly before looking around and raising an eye brow at her fellow Zhen.  "I've introduced a ghost into the machine that'll wipe our online presence and search history, but I can't read this, Nysari, can you do the data search?"

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #3 –
[ Lt. JG Nysarisiza “Nysari” zh’Eziarath | Unknown location | Center Square | Qo'noS ] Attn: @RyeTanker @Pierce @P.C. Haring

She’d never liked surprises. So naturally, receiving a clandestine communication — from the captain no less — ordering her to report to a specific location on the Klingon homeworld and leave everything Starfleet behind… had felt very… lacking in information. Nysari liked to think of herself as thorough, though the term ‘obsessive overpreparer’ carried a hint to truth to it too. Had Commander Rutherford been trying to prepare her for missions like this, concerned as she’d been about Nysari’s ability to react to the unknown? Hopefully one day she would get to ask, but the former chief diplomat wasn’t going to be taking questions anytime soon.

Her misgivings went unvoiced and unnoticed. Mindful as always of her duty, the Andorian arrived on Qo’noS at the predetermined time and place, her face set in a carefully composed mask of polite interest. Of the assembled officers, Captain Ives was the one she knew best. A poor accomplishment, since she’d only spoken to her once before, nearly two weeks ago now. Of the others, she had seen Lieutenant zh’Ptrell a few days prior as the security officer had demonstrated the defenses around the new Diplomatic Council rooms. She recognized Commander Pierce, the new chief intelligence officer, from the personnel photo accompanying her promotion announcement. The dark haired betazoid, she did not know at all.

The mission briefing was far beyond anything she had expected. Time travel, espionage, and thievery, all with the threat of retro-assassination looming over them. While she immediately understood why the intelligence and security officers were here, the diplomat felt wholly inadequate to this task, at a loss as to how she’d be useful at all. "Regardless how you acquire the blueprints, neither Starfleet nor the Theurgy can be affiliated with your mission, and the information from the Relativity stated Korath might be retro-assassinated in our timeline if you draw too much attention to yourselves - making the Infested of the future aware that someone is trying to finish this technology ahead of time." The Captain beamed away immediately after, leaving them alone with that dire pronouncement.

As the others inventoried the contents of the bag, Nysari focused on her first issue. That being, her definition of civilian clothing was clearly wildly different than that of the other women. Compared to the leather and bodysuits, Nysari’s flowing white button-up shirt looked distinctly out of place. But, she could work with it. “Lieutenant Nysarisiza zh’Eziarath, Diplomatic Attaché. Nysari, for short.” As she rolled up her sleeves, Nysari smiled slightly upon giving her introduction after Zark’s. By Andorian standards, the other zhen’s name was quite short. Nysari’s was less so. “I also concur with the suggestion to use our given names.” Thankfully, her pants were black, matching the other monochrome clothing choices. And the white shirt could add a nice contrast. To give it a more rebellious look, Nysari decided to unbutton it completely, letting it instead act as a jacket to the black sports bra beneath. Her hair was cut short today — which actually matched the mood perfectly.

Once she no longer looked like the odd one out of the group — for all she still felt like it — Nysari stepped up and pulled out a plain, civilian communications device, as well as one of the Cardassian tricorders. The rest of it she left for those more qualified to use it. At Zark’s suggestion, she followed the other Andorian over to the terminal, trying to position herself behind in a way that hid what Zark was doing. Hopefully the others would block the other angles. A moment later, before she could suggest it, Zark asked for cover herself.

“I was never good at Klingon,” she admitted ruefully when prompted, walking over to the terminal anyway to have a look. Abysmal really, to the point where she’d dropped the course at the Academy. However, she had gained an appreciation for linguistics later in life, and had tried her best to pick up the language again during her month at the Federation Embassy here. “I understand it far better than I read it.” Even that was suspect. Since it was more of a hobby than a necessity thanks to the universal translator, she’d spent most her time relearning by walking around the city and talking to the locals. Normally she would have prompted the terminal by voice then had it read the results aloud, but that felt like a mistake in this instance, so Nysari resigned herself to the slog of silently sounding out the words instead, white brows knit in concentration.

To avoid alerting anyone that they were looking into Korath specifically, she started with a broad search into anyone doing temporal research. It wasn’t that she doubted whatever Zark had done to the terminal, but Ives’ warning were still ringing in her ears, so more subterfuge couldn’t hurt. Luckily for her slow reading, the results were sparse. “Most temporal research is being done at a university in… V'hechess,” she was definitely pronouncing that wrong, the word leaden and awkward on her tongue. “There is also a corporation called ‘nIbpoH,’ doing independent research. Since this is a public terminal, and due to the sensitive nature of the subject at hand, anything being done by the government, the Defense Force, or an intelligence service — will not be listed.” She paused to so more searching, aware that this was probably taking longer than the others would have wanted as her fingers delicately tapped on the console. “I don’t see the name of the individual we’re looking for anywhere. Of the two available options, I am more interested in the corporation. It was apparently established nearly a century ago, but there’s barely any information besides that, their raison d'etre, and an address. They must be well funded to have survived this long, and from a stable enough source that they don’t need to publicly attract donors.” She hesitated. “There is something else, but I do not understand it.”

OOC: 'nIbpoH' is Klingon for deja vu.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #4 –
[ Lt. Commander Alana Pierce | Unknown location | Center Square | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker @P.C. Haring @rae [Show/Hide]

After everyone had gotten acclimated to one another and realized that they were a female fighting force to be reckoned with, as well as gathering their own personal supplies she brought, Pierce walked with the group. Chuckling quietly as the others took enjoyment in their new toys. Truthfully, Pierce felt happy to have some old 23rd century gear for the communicator and the phaser pistol. Both objects only historians or ones who lived through it would remember. Especially with the massive change in Starfleet's gear. But nevertheless, she felt powerful after the day she'd had so far. And the way she used her feminine movements to her advantage in this place, and mission.

"Hope you all have what you need. We're going to be on the move and not going to likely have any time for anything new." The only additions she held was her old black ops tricorder that was similar to modern day in that it folded up but was pitch black and disappeared on her person with the slim nature of the device. Something no doubt that would be useful in their mission at least later.

The first name basis comment by Reggie prompted a subtle nod as she smiled at her new friend from earlier in the day. A thankful granting of mission pairing regardless of the circumstances. It helped her to feel more in tune and ready. "Grab some grappling rope as we'll make it look like we're going hiking until we reach the research station."

She listened to the squad's unique pairings of skills, each with their own added benefits for a mission of this magnitude. She was rather impressed with what was accomplished so far in their pairings. History was truly playing tricks on them as she pondered the possibilities. "I see we all have rather beneficial skill sets on this mission. I hope you'll feel okay acting on your own unless the need arises for a command based decision. No doubt we'll be doing a bit of incognito work here as we go on."

After arriving at the terminal, Zark hacked the console with a ghost in the machine to keep them off the grid. While the terminal wasn't helpful in the sense of the needs, it was for the basic local of the areas they were to navigate. Nysari, attempted to read the console and then translate. Mentioning various possible locations and organizations, something didn't click with Pierce. She used to be familiar with this part of Qo'nos but it had somewhat changed since her previous times here. When she mentioned not being able to understand it, Alana stepped forward. "May I? I read Klingon. Hell, I came to the Theurgy on a Klingon vessel." She chuckled cracking a smile.

Glancing at the terminal, she saw various identifiers on the screen. The university or corporations weren't it. If it was established over a century ago, they hide things, not keep them in the open. At least not in the public open areas. Her fingers scrolled the list and various destinations available to them. Something vaguely clicked in her mind though as she translated on the fly in her mind. A look of irritation grabbed her as she clasped a hand to her face and rubbed it down.

"Damn. It's location is in the First City, the Old Quarter district. There is a research lab near the council but close to the edge of a mountain. It's not a long trek from here but it is not particularly safe either. I knew of Korath from some reading as well as the chrono technology but this is not adding up well. He must have a reason for being in the old quarter. Likely his dishonor with the council due to a run-in with Captain Picard decades ago."

She grumbled. "We're going to have to be extra cautious. Zark, dump the terminal and download the map to our individual tricorders if you can. In the meantime, let's get this journey underway. We cannot have this fall into the wrong hands. Time is not on our side yet."

After rallying the troops, she headed onward to wards the direction it showed in the maps. Eyes carefully watching forward as she attempted to keep the tricorder out of general view from the others. She did not have a good feeling about it.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #5 –
[ Lt. Reggie Suder | Unknown location | Center Square | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker‍  @Pierce‍  @rae‍ 

As the others finished sorting their gear, Reggie set her own equipment to rights and, at Alana’s suggestion, made sure she had climbing gear as well.  It didn’t work well with her katana strapped to her back, but she would make due.  At first she thought she might need an excuse for why he and her colleagues were armed, but as she remembered where they were, she realized the Klingons had given her all the reason she needed.

Quietly she accompanied her comrades to the public access terminal but while Alana, Zark, and Nysari worked the terminal, Reggie instead chose to sit down at a nearby bench.  It was not so much that she felt cast out, but rather the Betazoid worried that the four of them crowded around the kiosk might attract more attention than they cared to garner, plus it gave the pilot much better sight lines of the plaza allowing her to people watch more effectively and reach out telepathically for any signs of suspicion that might give them away.  She did not have to wait long before her tricorder beeped receipt of the data dump from Zark, and hearing Alana’s instructions.

Alana was running point with the group and for her part, Reggie was more than happy to acquiesce.  For as much as the Betazoid had taught the time displaced human earlier in the day, there was much more that Reggie did not know about Alana’s line of work. 

At the mention of Jean-Luc Picard and the run-in he had with Korath, Reggie had to resist the urge to laugh out loud and she quickly supressed the disdain she felt for the veteran Captain, though she couldn’t be sure if the other girls had picked up on it. 

As they moved, crossing the open plaza Reggie sensed a familiar presence.  Something…no  someone she had sensed earlier while they were pulling data from that kiosk.  She made a show of looking casually from side to side as if taking it all in, and was lucky enough to catch sight of the Klingon warrior behind them keeping his distance.

We’re being tailed, she said telepathically to the group as a whole.  Single Klingon directly behind us about 10 meters.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #6 –
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Unknown Location | Center Square | Qo'nos]

@rae @Pierce @P.C. Haring

Zark barely jumped as the hollow resonant version of Reggie's voice broadcast in her head.  The blue and white mind worked to process what she'd just experienced. Some of the thoughts were superficial like the voice sounds like it came through an echo chamber to more serious ones on how much she could suggest people do things Doesn't seem to much like what a Betazoid would do though. Zark thought to herself.  Spirits help us from a Betazoid psychopath. Internalizing this took a good twenty or so steps with not much to show about the tail till the medic's mind began to settle. To be fair, it was less come to terms and more file away for later. Zark didn't have much choice except to trust in Reggie's character and that was it.

The Andorian would have to unpack that box later,now it was time to hope. Zark moved closer to Reggie and linked her arm as she brought her body closer. Reggie, play along. she mentally broadcast as her hips began pushing the Betazoid along in sync. Her other arm began to gesture at buildings as they passed. Nothing outrageous, just some interesting signage here, something in a window there; just what looked remotely interesting. It took a little more effort to get the Wolf to slow down and begin manoeuvring her behind Alana and Nysari so the two ended up behind them, then slow down the pace even more to give the other two a healthy lead.

When it looked like the other two were about 50 meters ahead, Zark turned her head in mock surprise to the dark haired pilot and leaned her white hair into black. There was no time to revel as the medic turned her head to Reggie and pushed her hair away from her ear and leaned in as if to say sweet nothings into the other woman's ear. Zark spotted the tail from the corner of her eye and mentally marked the target. Play along Reggie. and Zark planted a kiss on her cheek. Giggling for a bit, the Andorian spotted an alleyway, and grabbed Reggie's hand before pulling her into the darkness with a rush.

The heavy foot falls of a Klingon warrior on the move were unmistakable as he took the bait. As Zark ran, she kept her eyes peeled for something that would give her the tactical edge. The trick here was making a run for it, but in this case, going just fast enough to keep barely in sight.  The footfalls seemed to be pretty steady, so she hadn't lost her prey yet. After a second turn Zark's lips curled into a smile when she saw part of a dumpster in the darkened alleyway.

Whatever was in it smelled nasty, and the Andorian could only guess what it was doing to their tails heightened sense of smell. That didn't matter though as the combat medic swung Reggie like a counter weight and turned to face their pursuer and charged. Zark ran at the very surprised Klingon and rolled to knock out his feat. The warrior was quick as he jumped over the crazy blue alien, and tried to crash stop himself as he landed, but stumbled and had to fight to the unexpected change in momentum. Zark on the other hand had planned what she was doing and got to her feat quickly then ran back the way she came. It was a few steps to the dumpster, and her legs pumped madly as she jumped up the bin. There was a brief glimpse of a dark shiny creature with a bright white smile a few feet off the ground before she snapped her aerial kick. Zark's armoured toe smashed into the turning Klingon in the temple where he crumpled into the ground like a sack of tubers.

Klingons were tough and a hit that would have knocked any other humanoid unconscious merely stunned the warrior. Zark wasn't taking any chances as she landed and drove her polymer protected fist into the back of the warriors head, knocking him out. The Andorian took a moment to make sure he really was out, then popped the compartment under her boot and extracted a knife. Activating the vibro function, she deftly cut the band that held his knife. Deactivating her knife and sticking it back in its slot just as quickly, she tossed the d'k tahg away. The rest of the strap was turned into an improvised set of binders and had the Klingon's hands bound behind him.   The Andorian stood up and linked her arms behind her, twisted a bit to stretch, then turned to Reggie with an honest to goodness smile.  "Thanks for the assist Reggie."  With that, Zark sent out a message with a location to the other two who had been separated with a quick update as to what happened before rifling through the unconscious man's pockets for any documentation.  When she finished, she had a few ident cards and a house patch. "Huh.  I must have hit him harder than I thought."  Zark said to the air as she checked his neck for a pulse which came back steady.  Now all she had to do was wait for Alana and Nysari to show up and hand the pile over to them to figure out what to do next.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #7 –
[ Lt. JG Nysarisiza “Nysari” zh’Eziarath | Unknown Location | Qo'noS ] Attn: @Pierce @P.C. Haring @RyeTanker

Whereas she had come to the Theurgy via the Federation Embassy on Qo’noS, and her command of this language was still abysmal. Nysari tried her best to file away her embarrassment at how smoothly Alana tapped through information on the panel, clearly much more proficient at Klingon. Instead, she tried to be grateful that at least someone on this mission could read quickly and fluently. She was not surprised that the intelligence officer knew more of what to look for, her training would be an asset here. Once her new tricorder beeped lightly to confirm receipt of the data dump, Nysari gathered up the climbing rope Alana had suggested they’d take — it didn’t match her outfit at all, but there was no helping that while the others were also carrying it — and picked her place behind the bright redheaded human.

Though Reggie had warned them that she would potentially use her native Betazoid talents to facilitate silent communication, it still took all of Nysari’s training to stop herself from jumping out of her skin when the pilot’s voice appeared in her head. She had never been fond of telepathic communication. There was no denying the practical applications and usefulness of telepathy, both on missions like this and on her own work. But for a woman who spent much of her time crafting her outward appearance, being faced with a telepath always left her feeling naked. Rather than the carefully selected pieces of herself that she allowed others to see, a telepath had the chance to see her fully.

For the most part, she trusted others to stay out of her head. Having an ability didn’t mean one was going to abuse it. And projecting a thought into her head didn’t mean she was looking any deeper. Though Nysari was certain Reggie would feel her flash of discomfort, disembodied words landing neatly in her head, lacking that normal reverb of sound traveling through air, her ears straining for speech as her brain struggled to accept how it could hear without hearing.

They were being followed. She should focus on that.

As this was yet another area where she was the least experienced of the group, it was an easy decision to follow the others’ leads. Nysari knew better than to look behind her, instead keeping her pace steady, relaxed, and unbothered, taking in the scenery before them as though she were a tourist interested in Klingon architecture, when really she was examining all the locals they passed, looking for anyone else out of the ordinary. A slight giggle from behind finally gave her the excuse to turn around. Seeing what had caught a friend’s amusement was a perfectly legitimate reason to look over one’s shoulder. She didn’t know much about combat, but Nysari was an excellent actress, so she caught onto the game quite quickly when she saw Zark cozying up with Reggie. With an eyeroll and a slight shake of her head, she turned back around to catch up with Alana, as though this was something that happened often. A slight scuffling behind her indicated where they’d finally broken off, and she mentally noted the stores on this block so they could circle back to the alley.

“The lovebirds are at it again,” she remarked dryly to Alana. “Shall we give Zark and Reggie a few moments to themselves before interrupting their tryst? We’ll never get to go climbing if we have to spend all day searching back streets for them.” While speaking, she pulled out her tricorder, quickly scanning the map to readjust their route. Her time on Qo’noS hadn’t done much for her language skills, but she had learned how the Klingons structured their cities. “This way for the cockblocking,” she announced with a rather nasty grin, before turning of into another alleyway that would intersect with the one the other two officers had chosen.

Her directions were correct, but the rest of the group wasn’t waiting. Apparently there had been a chase, and a helpful message from Zark set them on their path again. “What is his history with Captain Picard?” Nysari asked Alana as they walked. She hadn’t wanted to speak openly about Korath while they were being followed, but that bit of information had been nagging at her brain since Alana had mentioned it. Any knowledge she could glean was something that could potentially help them either. Unfortunately, Picard’s name alone wasn’t enough for her to place the specific incident. The Enterprise’s captain was quite active in Klingon politics, due to his position on a ship whose name destined it to be at the forefront of galactic politics, and friendship with Worf.

Right as she asked, they turned a corner and found Zark and Reggie looking over a thoroughly beaten up Klingon. “How hard did you hit him?” Nysari asked, slightly shocked as she knelt down before their unconscious pursuer. Klingons were thick headed — both literally and figuratively. It would have taken a serious amount of force to leave a Klingon forehead looking like this. “Do we have anything that can wake him up? We should question him, and I’d rather not wait for him to come to his own.”

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #8 –
[ Lt. Commander Alana Pierce | Unknown location | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker @P.C. Haring @rae [Show/Hide]

Walking onward, Pierce could imagine the trouble that they were about to get into but wasn't sure the extent, at least just yet. She did hear the telepathic tell from Reggie in her mind about the Klingon followers. She wasn't surprised but it was interesting it took this long. Listening to the scene unfolding behind her, she kept looking about like a tourist in the town, despite the fact that they had on their persons communication devices, phasers and rope. Otherwise they were just black clad uniformed women.

Her red hair waved as she stepped onward, meanwhile Nysari ran up closely to Alana as she played tourist as well. The sounds of giggling was behind her as they looked at an alleyway nearby. Her intelligence hackles were on full alert, knowing that if Reggie and Zark didn't pull off their attempt to subdue their follower quickly, things could unravel just as quickly.

When the giggle occurred, both Pierce and Nysari looked over in amusement as the two women were giggling and looking like they were on a date of sorts. Meanwhile Pierce slapped lightly Nysari on the back. "Looks like they're having fun. Let's give them some space." She winked as she turned back around.

Listening intently around the corner, she pulled her tricorder out and scanned the vicinity. She pointed to a nearby building. "It appears that where we're headed is beneath the slums just ahead. It's a rather brilliant location actually. No one would think to look there as opposed to an embassy or a university." Alana looked onward as she detected the house of Monak, where Korath was no doubt in hiding. But this would take some tact from the lot of them to distract the scientist as they planned to steal the data. She saw Nysari scanning as well the perimeter and the cockblocking mention giving her a chuckle. "Lead the way." She motioned.

"Well, Captain Picard was as you know the arbitor for Klingon politics for some time in helping them install Gowron as Chancellor, which later proved to be problematic during the War. Had to read up on the massive amount of history I missed since my time." As they circled back around the building to check on Zark and Reggie, Pierce saw the two standing over the Klingons, now knocked out.

"According to LCARS data, Korath is from the House of Monak and was recognized for his part in the Battle of Khitomer. Again shortly after my being lost to time. Korath developed a deep hatred of Captain Jean-Luc Picard back in his days as a cadet in the Klingon Imperial Corps, after coming in a close second to then-ensign Picard while competing in the Federation "Outreach Games". News reports indicated that Picard attempted to congratulate Korath after the awards ceremony, only to have Korath spit in his hand and swear vengeance for "the dishonor before the entire galaxy."

Pierce let the information settle in for the diplomat who may or may not make use of the data. She herself had only recently gotten reacquainted with the Empire's history but it was proving useful. Of all the species to learn, Klingon seemed to stick and continue to be the point of irritation for her.

"Korath's plot for revenge was using a cloaked temporal distortion, where he attempted to abduct a group of early 21st century Humans into the 24th century. One of these Humans was an ancestor of Jean-Luc Picard, and Korath had planned to erase Picard from the timeline. Korath's plan, however, was disrupted when the USS Enterprise-D, acting on information from Federation Intelligence, intercepted his transporter beam, and returned the 21st-century Humans to their own time in a shuttlecraft. Korath's ship was destroyed by the Enterprise in the skies over Las Vegas after both vessels followed the shuttlecraft back in time."

She rubbed her temple as she remembered the last details. "Korath is known for being the foremost temporal physicist in the Klingon Empire. His technological prowess of time is second to none in most the known universe. That's why he is so important to the timeline, both now and later."

Approaching Zark and Reggie, she asked a simple question as she crossed her arms. "Hit them hard enough?" She grinned.

Alana listened as Nysari suggested waking the broot up for information. "Good idea. Tie him up and wrap his mouth as well so that we can question and subdue him. Be prepared to high stun him."

Watching as the others tied him up, they woke the man up. nuq 'oH Dochvam'e'? (What do you want female?)

Pierce spoke back in his native tongue. "mInDu' wIleghpu'. vIghajqang Korath" (We have questions... Tell me where to find Korath.)

"qaja'chugh, vaj pagh vIqaSmoHbe'. peta'q!" (I will tell you nothing!)

"Fine. We'll do this the hard way." Grabbing a utility knife, she sliced his leg and stabbed his hand causing the Klingon to nearly bellow as she placed the gag back in his mouth. "I won't repeat myself..." She sneered angrily at the soldier.

"Fine! His dishonor will not be on my house. You can find him in the catacombs up ahead in the slums."

Pierce nodded to Nysari. "Data confirmed. Cut him loose, and well..." She motioned to remove the bonds and stun him. Motioning onward she headed to the corridor between the buildings looking for the entry.

"We need to move. Zark and Reggie, care to do the honors of leading? I'll watch our six."

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #9 –
[ Lt. Reggie Suder  | Center Square | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker‍  @Pierce‍  @rae‍ 

Reggie sensed Zark’s devious nature and was more than happy to play along.  In other circumstances, she would have liked to have seen Zarks’ cover flirtations play out.  She’d never been with an Andorian before.  Could be fun.  Still, she played along, and returned the affection, planting a kiss or two of her own on Zark’s cheek and sneaking one on the lips.

Yummy.  I’ve never tasted blueb….

Her return thought was interrupted as Zark pulled away from her, spinning her around before charging after their Klingon friend.  By the time Reggie regained her balance, Zark had subdued their shadow.

“No…no problem…” she replied to Zark as she regained her balance and cleared the hair from her face and hung back as the calvary arrived and the all too brief interrogation began…and ended with  Alana stunning the warrior.  It took Reggie a moment or two to think it through.  Between Zark’s hit to the head and the stun from the phaser he’d likely wake up with one hell of a headache.  An easy condition upon which to capitalize.

The nearby dumpster provided everything she needed in the form of a pair of bottles of blood wine.  They were opened of course, and both mostly empty still had more than enough to do what she needed.    Stepping back to the downed Klingon, she unceremoniously poured out the last bit of wine over the klingon’s mouth and chest, before unceremoniously tossing both to the ground on top of him.

“With any luck he’ll wake up with one hell of a headache, and think he over did the blood wine.  Even if he does remember encountering us, I highly doubt he’ll be boasting about the time he got overwhelmed by an unarmed Andorian woman, taken prisoner and interrogated.”

Reggie knew, as did they all, that they were all armed.  But Zark hadn’t used those weapons to subdue him, making his defeat all the more hilarious.

At Alana’s suggestion, Reggie turned to Zark.  “Shall we go and slum it?” 

Without waiting for confirmation but assuming Zark was with her, Reggie headed out towards the direction of the slums, her telepathic centers open now more than before, just in case.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #10 –
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Unknown Location | Center Square | Qo'nos]   Attn:@rae @Pierce @P.C. Haring

Lieutenant Zark gave her fellow Zhen an impudent grin and looked at her nails before buffing them a bit on her shoulder as an exaggerated lack to concern regarding the warrior she'd dropped.  He was still breathing after all and if he'd provided a more courteous introduction, maybe he wouldn't have ended up with a boot at his head. Overall, what Zark did to him was mild in her books versus drawing blood with a blade. That was grounds for shit to hit the fan. When Alana and Reggie finished knocking him out and making him look like a drunk, the medico felt a little bad and took a moment to give him a bit of medical attention with the dermal regenerator. Not enough to fully heal him, but enough to make sure he didn't bleed out. And leave a nice scar.

Her work done, the security officer acknowledged the team leads orders and led the way out of the alley. Experienced eyes gave the street a once over. A few people warranted a longer if unobtrusive observation, but she didn't spot anyone who appeared to be trying to keeping an eye out for four alien women. Zark gave Reggie a look and an inquisitive eyebrow, but got no warning signs, so she nodded and walked out like nothing had happened. As the security officer led the way to the catacombs, she casually kept her head and eyes on a swivel. Her paranoia was up and she didn't even know who had been tracking them. Could it have been House Mo'Kai? Some men from Councillor K'Tal that he'd sent to keep an an eye on her after her last rather spectacular trip planet side.  Some patsy acting on behalf of the temporal interlopers. 

That was the worst since she felt like They knew her moves before she did.  These pleasant thoughts carried her to the catacombs entrance.  It was definitely much less travelled part of town as the foot traffic was sparse.  Zark led the four into a corner of a nearby building that had a good shadow, and a decent field of view of the cave entrance.  The entrance way held a single guard shack with a bored and fat looking Klingon who was more interested in guzzling his blood wine bottle and watching something on his screen than keeping an eye out for intruders.  Obviously well passed his prime, but for all Zark knew, he could be a front.  The Andorian pulled out her tricorder and adjusted the power settings, then the frequencies and materials for the various security systems that she had stored in her mind.  "Please seems deserted.  Feels more like a tourist spot than anything else."  She idly tapped the device for second, then adjusted the scanning aperture and the power output, then ran a vertical scan line scan straight ahead, then down and stopped.  Zark pressed more buttons before turning back to the rest.  "There's a shielded area about 100 meters down.  It doesn't look natural since I compensated for the cave's mineral composition and whatever is down there has a multi-spectral shield in place."

Zark pursed her lips for a moment in thought. There were multiple ways to get into the catacombs, but the Security Officer hit upon an idea.  "Wait here.  Follow the path I take, when I wave to come over.  I'll meet you by the door."  She whispered.  Looking out left and right seeing the way was clear, the medico took off at a low run across the street towards an area where trees provided a shadow against the street lights.  It was very dark as she kneeled on the ground and began working her tricroder once more.  The first thing to do was to put the cameras on a recorded loop.  She managed to finagle about 20 seconds of absolute nothing and forced it into the system on a loop.  Next came the other sensors and security systems.  It wasn't the easiest since the medic wasn't the best hacker and she cursed while  wishing that Dantius was here to deal with this stuff.  After what felt like a very long time, she managed to get the system into an automatic test cycle.  Now, it was just the key.  Crouch walking her way over, Zark dashed for the door of the shack.  Zark's eyebrows flew upwards in surprise as she saw the man yawned and stretched himself.  He appeared to drop a hand behind himself, moving it up and down slowly and belched.  Then his attention went back to the screen and the Andorian let out a breath of relief she'd been holding when she got to the door.  The next part was a little tricky as she searched for the controls to the screen and jacked up the volume.  The guard stumbled awake and stared at his screen dumbfounded, then began smacking it.  The security officer activated the door, which whooshed open silently.  The guard seemed to have gotten the volume control and was trying to bring the volume down.  There wasn't much time to find what she was looking for, and even less to grab it, so Zark triggered another jacking of the volume which sounded like a whole bunch of grunting and squeeling of a targ fight.  The lithe Andorian quickly stepped in and grabbed a device hooked onto the guard's belt, before quickly stepping back out and letting door close.

With key in hand, Zark leaned out around the corner in the general direction of the rest of the group and waved to join her.  The security officer didn't wait to see how they were doing as she made her way to the gate and opened the electronic lock.  Opening the gate just enough for everyone to get in one at a time, Zark entered the stone corridor and kneeled in an alcove while waiting for everyone else to catch up.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #11 –
[ Lt. JG Nysarisiza “Nysari” zh’Eziarath | Catacombs | Qo'noS ] Attn: @RyeTanker @Pierce @P.C. Haring

Nysari had listened in silence as their pursuer turned hostage was interrogated, allowing the intelligence chief to take the lead. While Alana talked, she instead studied the Klingon’s body language and comparing it to what she’d learned during her time at the Embassy. The diplomat winced slightly as the conversation moved to more physical violence, opening her mouth to try talking to him again, only to close it just as quickly as he gave up the information they were looking for. Pierce nodded towards her, and Nysari inclined her head in agreement. The location matched what they’d already suspected, and the Klingon gave no indication that he was lying.

As Reggie set the stage, Nysari shook her head at Zark’s utter lack of shame. At least the medic made a slight attempt to fix what she’d broken. Then they were off again. Nysari kept up her appearance as a tourist, even as they entered an older and more rundown part of town. Zark suggested that the catacombs were a tourist destination, but Nysari wasn’t as sure. There were far less people around that before, which would only make the four aliens stand out more. “You’re right about the location,” she mused as the other Andorian vanished. Nysari had pulled out her tricorder as well, setting it to scan for lifeforms, fiddling with the dials on the unfamiliar device to try and get a more accurate reading. “This is the last place I would expect to find a scientist at the forefront of his field.”

Especially one so dramatic. “If we do speak to Korath, I would suggest appealing to his ego.” With luck, they would be able to get the schematics without anyone seeing them at all, but she preferred contingency planning. “This is not a man who appreciates losing, to swear vengeance over a sporting match, then plotting said revenge so extravagantly. Any other Klingon would have pulled a knife and settled it there, but Korath decided to erase Captain Picard from existence.” It was overkill, plain and simple. “His plan was strangely underhanded for a Klingon, to defeat an enemy without facing them head on. Despite what he will do for the Empire, his history is not that of an honorable man.” Reggie hadn’t been there when Alana had given her history lesson, but unless asked, she didn’t want to take the time to repeat the story again. In essence, she was mostly speaking to the redheaded human anyway.

She paused in her musings as a brief flash of movement caught her eye, Zark waving them forward through the now open gate. “He will probably appreciate a woman telling him that he’s the greatest temporal physicist in the galaxy, far better than any in the Federation,” she finished as she went to meet with their other teammate. She slipped through unnoticed, a glance at the Klingon guard confirming that he was fully focused on whatever Zark had done to his screen. He never seemed to consider looking outside his guard box.

Once inside, the catacombs were instantly cooler, something the Andorian approved of as her antennae twitched at the dry air. The tricorder was back in her hand as she ducked into the alcove. “There is another lifesign down here. I can’t get a good fix, the tricorder only catches it for a moment before they blink away, and it’s moving. Either something in the catacombs is naturally shielding lifesigns,” she didn’t know enough about the minerals to make the determination, “or someone is trying to shield their lifesigns.” Or Cardassians made terrible tricorders, but she'd rather not think about that.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #12 –
[ Lt. Commander Alana Pierce Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker @P.C. Haring @rae [Show/Hide]

Alana followed the others through the gated area and into the catacombs. She knew that Nysari was correct in her assessment of the Klingon scientist. He was likely to be a pain and to have an ego the size of the moon. "That might not be a bad plan Nysari. Getting Korath's attention by using our combined appeal and stroking his ego might be what's best in this situation. Mind you, that won't be our only issue. We might have temporal guests or others like the Scions. We'll need to be very delicate in our work here."

She took note of the scanning done by the others. It did appear that there was something brewing below but what it was, they didn't know yet. Taking a deep breath and exhaling now that they were past the guard and into the cooler catacombs. Her skin that was exposed showed signs of being cold, and another area that she wasn't pleased with getting cold. But she did choose her particular attire for the mission. Now she slightly wished she'd chosen something warmer, but that would be moot once they got into action of some kind.

Looking forward she could see Zark and Reggie scoping out the area while Alana took up scanning and watching their six. It was very dark and eery in the tunnels but she could hear the thrumming of some sort of power station up ahead. "Stay alert everyone. I hear an electric hum up ahead. Scanners aren't picking anything up but it's getting closer."

Pierce gaining on the group finally caught up to them and heard an older Klingon belching loudly as he told the others to get back to work in the tunnels so he could do his work. The belching old man must be Korath she thought. Pulling her tricorder up, she scanned the man and while it was difficult to take readings, it was him. The visual stated it.

"Who else here has skills in data extraction? Just in case our host up ahead ends up enamored with one of us long enough to distract him. Shouldn't be too hard as he seems slightly drunk." She pointed at the man they would discover to be Korath. "And whatever you do, do not bring up Picard to him. Keep stroking his ego. He's a sucker for it with his experiments being confined to these parts of the planet. If there aren't any questions, let's move in and see what we can find. It will take some looking on the consoles to see whether he has it in one of these out here or in his personal console."

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #13 –
[ Lt. Reggie Suder | Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos] | ATTN:  @RyeTanker‍  @rae‍  @Pierce‍ 

Reggie waited until Zark signaled the ‘all clear’ and then proceeded to follow into the Catacombs.  For a Betazoid accustomed to feeling the warmth and life around her, the Catacombs stood as a stark contrast.  While the architecture was beautiful not just by Klingon standards but well… by anyone’s.  Yet they were harsh, cold, lifeless, both figuratively and literally.  It gave Reggie the creeps and while she understood the need to be prepared, the betazoid wanted nothing more than to move on as quickly as possible.

The conversation circled back around to how best to appeal to Korath, to distract him, to avoid certain topics especially that of Jean-Luc Picard.  She felt herself tense up at the thought of that man.  God, what a preening primadona.  For all of his bold posturing and grandiose philosophies, when it came right down to it all he was good for was hesitation and getting people killed.

“I might be able to help with that,” Reggie said as a plan came to mind.  “I’m obviously no expert, but I can nudge him telepathically and make him more receptive to opening up.”  Her voice trailed off as she hesitated.

The idea had merit, but she wasn’t sure how her teammates would react to the idea.  She didn’t know much about Zark and Nysari yet, but she suspected they might object to what she was about to suggest.

“We could…” she hesitated, “present Zark and Nysari as well… potential lovers for Korath.  I’m not suggesting you have to sleep with him, but you could work him him, appeal to his ego and get him talking while I read him telepathically.  I could then relay that information to Alana who could then act on it.”

She took in a breath as she let the others process the idea.

“Also, if the topic of Picard,” she grumbled his name, “comes up, I can help there too.  Korath isn’t the only one who severely dislikes the man.”

She looked down at her feet, as if embarrassed by the admission.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #14 –
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos]   Attn:@rae @Pierce @P.C. Haring

When Nysari asked her question about data extraction, Zark shook her head, she'd just picked up a few programs that could do the job, but she didn't have the skills to mentally adjust as needed.  Once again the curse of Why the hells isn't Dantius here? played through her mind.  The Orion was so much better at this sort of thing.  After hearing what Reggie had to suggest, Zark was fine with the seduction, but she didn't agree with antagonizing him any more than necessary, unless she was missing something about Klingons.  Maybe hate and lust amounted to the same thing for them.  On the other hand.....  Zark turned to Nysari "Reggie may not be too far off.  We don't have to specifically go after Picard, but we can use it as an in, something in common with him." Zark shrugged as she tried to come up with something as she then turned to address her fellow Andorian specifically. "I'm not sure about you, but if we need to seduce him, I can handle the physical part, you can tantalize his mind. Maybe make it seem like we're visitors from the future where Picard didn't advance too far in Starfleet?" The Security Officer shrugged as she began working the tricorder to figure out what the buzzing was that Alana had picked up.  It was weird since she could feel it and her antennae kept pointing around and searching for the source of the buzzing.  A wide spectrum scan on the tricroder revealed nothing though.

There was just one more thing to do and Zark muddled her way through the security system.  This one was also curiously easy.  Given the sensitive nature of the research, maybe whoever was the patron had depended more on the secrecy of the facility than anything else.  The standalone programs were able to cut the camera feeds and set the sensors to a tests cycle loop.  At least there shouldn't be any interlopers. Still, it was troubling that so much of the facility was shielded.  On the digital map that was being slowly built, she could see a powerful generator of some sort that was on standby, but it's signature was barely leaking through, which did raise the question of what else were they not picking up.  "Alana, I've got the security system in a test loop, so we shouldn't be monitored, but there's still a lot of unknowns.  That weird humming for one, and the map is incomplete.  We don't know if there are other people in the catacombs since we can't get a detailed scan.  If Korath has got any assistants, they could pop in at any time."  Zark warned.

Zark turned her attention to the dark haired Betazoid and was sure she was projecting an exasperated beacon that she was exaggerating to make sure the pilot picked it up. Zark watched the pilot squirm for a moment before relenting and sighing.  Turning to Nysari to see what she thought and her antennae said it all.  They stood straight up.  Zark snorted in amusement at this discovery about her fellow Zhen before turning back to the clearly embarrassed Reggie.  The blush did look cute on her. "Okay Reggie, you have your two hot Andorians ready and apparently quite willing to be the distraction."  Zark smirked at Nysari once more, then opened the top of her body suit.  Grabbing her bossom, she shifted it around a bit till she got a decent amount of cleavage.  "I should've packed the push up bra for this."  Zark grumbled as she pulled the zipper up just a bit more so it looked like she was about to burst out of her clothes.

Standing up and linking arms with the other Zhen.   Zark turned to the non-Andorians. "We should also keep an eye out for additional information terminals we can access." Zark waved towards Korath.  "You lead and I'll play along."

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #15 –
 [ Lt. JG Nysarisiza “Nysari” zh’Eziarath | Catacombs | Qo'noS ] Attn: @Pierce @P.C. Haring @RyeTanker

Technically, she was skilled in data extraction, but not in the way Alana was hoping for. At it’s core, diplomacy was the art of talking someone into doing what you wanted, while giving up nothing in return, and making them think it was their own idea. Sometimes, especially when one spent too much time among Romulans, that meant intelligence gathering. She’d spent many days engaging in creative wordplay across a table in Ki Baratan. But she’d never had to pretend to be an infatuated airhead while doing it.

“I would suggest we leave the past alone.” It was a good plan, and for the sake of time she decided to hone in in the one part that worried her. Normally she would have started with a compliment, but Zark seemed to possess plenty of self-confidence without any pushing. “If we start making up stories about Captain Picard on a whim, there’s a chance we’ll misspeak and show the flaws in the other’s tale. Besides, choosing to see Korath over a renowned Starfleet captain is even more of an ego boost, considering we’re from a Federation world.”

The time traveling part had been her idea as well. And she unfortunately agreed with the seduction part. She threw a curious glance to Reggie, wondering what had prompted the animosity towards the Enterprise’s captain. But that could be a question for another day.

As Zark arranged her boobs, Nysari ran a hand through her hair to mess it up some, also hoping that the motion would cow her antennae back into submission. No doubt Korath would be disgusting, but the challenge of this charade had lent her some excitement. As she’d already unbuttoned her shirt earlier, she left her clothes as they were. This bra wasn’t made for that, and no amount of shifting would change that fact. Her exposed midriff would make up for the lack of cleavage though, blue skin standing out vividly against the monochrome clothes.

“Here we go,” she stood up and allowed Zark to grab onto her arm. “Any nudge you give will be most appreciated Reggie.”

As opposed to their earlier sneaking, Nysari abandoned all pretense of stealth now, practically pulling the other Zhen forward through the catacombs. “This is it!” Years of theater training – for fun, not work – were what she drew on now, crafting a character and starting the show before they even saw the stage. She pitched her voice so the words were meant for Zark, breathless, full of wonder, and just loud enough so a hint would accidently drift down to the room ahread. “I can’t believe we’re finally here!”

When the two Andorians burst into the main room, she made the decision to give her full, undivided attention to the old, drunk Klingon in the center of the room. He’d never believe her if she started looking for informational terminals first. If she drew him in like a fly – though a fly would probably smell better – then the other Theurgy officers who knew what they were doing would have easier access to the consoles.

“There he is! Korath! Standing right where the history said he would be! Did you bring the holoimager?” The final question was directed at Zark, with a slight turn of her head and suddenly very serious. “No one will believe we met him if we don’t have a holo.” There was a risk at pretending to be from the future, especially if there were temporal agents around. But she felt it was worth the risk, because it was a clean way to explain how they’d found their way down here. It was a great big secret now, but in a future where Korath was famous, why should it be public record?

“Who-“ The Klingon seemed at a loss for words, his eyes traveling on the paths they’d laid out for him, before gathering himself into the beginnings of a rage. “How did you get in here?” He hadn’t become a successful scientist without some modicum of operational security, but she had expected that.

“We’re your biggest fans!” Arms still entwined with Zark, she pulled right up to him, resisting the urge to wrinkle her nose at the smell. “We’ve always wanted to meet you! And we might have talked a temporal agent into a tiny favor…” She giggled, letting the sentence trail off with a small, mischievous smile. “Wow, your lab looks just like it does in the museum.”

If there were any gods out there, at least they’d made this mission so classified that they’d never be allowed to discuss this thoroughly embarrassing moment again.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #16 –
[ Lt. Commander Alana Pierce | Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker @P.C. Haring @rae [Show/Hide]

Pierce nodded at the notion to let the past alone unless otherwise prompted to do so. "Agreed, let's focus on his attention and pleasure with the situation than anything else. Be ready in case we have a sudden intruder. The mission log said we may have to deal with that too. If that happens, make our audience sleep and protect him at all costs while we work."

She glanced at the Andorian women as they hiked their cleavage into a wondrous view for the Klingon savage to admire. But like it or not, she admired the view too. Shaking her head of crimson she put her mind back on the task at hand. Time for those ample thoughts would be later after the mission had concluded. Sadly she herself had chosen to wear a rather uplifting bra as she had the window view available. If nothing else, it gave Korath something else to visualize and for her chest to breathe.

Seeing the Andorian women parade to Korath, she and Reggie pursued the consoles in the room adjacent to them. Keeping tabs on the pair as she began looking into the computer systems. She grinned as the notion that this was a ploy on seduction of the brute to get his data, made this an easier task for their distracted 'friend'. "Anything Reggie? How are they doing?"

Alana placed her tricorder to the computer and code broke the encryption sadly faster than she had when she'd broken into the other top secret facility in the 23rd century. "The encryption is very very poorly done. Either that or I am just that good at it in Klingonese." She chuckled at Reggie before returning to her work.

Hearing from the other room, she heard Korath boasting about his guests to one of his henchmen. Something about his greatness was bellowed as he recorded these events for his personal logs. "These Andorian women appeal to my greatness! Mark that down peta'Q!"

Listening the Klingon could be heard from afar and was clearly puzzled but enthusiastic for the wanted attention of his greatness. She snorted at that but did have to admire the mind that came up with this technology. It was brilliant even if the reasons it was invented wasn't for the best of reasons.

"Reggie, I found it, let them know I'm starting the download but this may take some time." 1% showed on the tricorder as she began the download. That was when she heard something unwanted. A sound of a transporter like beam coming in. And it's guests were less than friendly, ugly and infested Scions.

"Shit..." The moment she hoped to not see, had just happened.

The creature spoke, 'I am Idemthal, and you will not succeed terrans... It's squeamish voice relayed.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #17 –
[ Lt. Reggie Suder | Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker‍  @rae‍  @Pierce‍ 

For her part, Reggie was grateful that Zark and Nyseri had agreed to be the distraction, though the sense of embarrassment did not immediately wash away.  For her part, the Betazoid was not above using her sex appeal to get what she needed when a mission demanded it but it had been presumptuous on her part to assume her Andorian counterparts would be as well.  It also would not have surprised the Betazoid if her colleagues now thought it was a racially motivated thought on her part.  It wasn’t so far as she knew, but she also knew just how hard perception skewed reality.  Still, she felt the exasperation of the two of them, particularly that of Zark.  It only

As the Andorians prepared for their tease of Korath, Reggie also took a second and ditched her own jacket while plumping her own bosom a bit to get as much cleavage as possible showing through the otherwise small keyhole in her top.  There wasn’t a particular need for it at the moment, but if she had to improvise, she wouldn’t have enough time.

Upon hearing Alana’s instructions she gave a silent nod, but before following Alana into the side room, she trailed behind Zark and Nysari as they entered Korath’s hall.  Even without a direct line of sight, Reggie sensed the Klingon’s presence.  His ego, his bravado, his sense of righteousness.  His arrogance.  Still, if the Betazoid was going to nudge the brute’s mind in the right direction doing so would be easier if he could see him.  She held back, staying out of sight as she pushed ever so gently into his mind.  Already he was distracted by their beauty and for whatever reason he found their blue skin that much more appealing.  Reggie’s hunch had been right…less a comment on her racism and more so on Korath’s.  She teased with the sense of his lust and massaged it, causing his desire to grow both literally and figuratively before letting go and quietly withdrawing her mental influence.  It wasn’t that big of a nudge, but it was just enough to start the cascade. 

She slipped back to where Alana was searching for the records.

“How are they doing,” Alana asked.

“Oh they’re just fine.  Korath thinks they are from the future having come back in time to see him at the precipice of his greatest achievement.  He also might be salivating at the thought of making them his latest bedroom conquest.”

Reggie set to work on a different computer panel, but it was clear that she was looking at an inventory manifest and not anything of use.  She was about to move on in the records when she heard Korath.

"These Andorian women appeal to my greatness! Mark that down peta'Q!"

Then a moment of inspiration occurred to her.

Bloodwine for our guests!  They have traveled far to see me…

“BLOOD WINE for our guests,” he bellowed.  “They have traveled far to be in my presence and I wish welcome them properly!”

She even felt his sense of lechery and she would need a shower.  Not the sonic shower… no… a hot wet steamy shower to get that shit off her mind.  Alana’s proclamation that she’d found pay dirt drew her attention and this time she followed orders to the letter and pushed the message to the Andorians.

Files located.  Downloading now, but it’s slow work.  I’m here if you need me…

Her thought was cut off midstream by the sound of the transporter beam, and Alana’s utterance.  Reggie turned to see what had drawn her attention.

Reggie had never seen a Scion before.  What little she had read of them included no visual records, but between the thoughts she was picking up from Alana and the descriptions she’d read.  She knew what had found them.

Awww fuck. 

Zark! Nyseri!  We have un-welcomed visitors!

The lead Scion leveled it’s weapon, an ugly firearm that looked like the bastard child of a Romulan disruptor and a Ferengi phaser.  It’s eyes turned towards Alana.  As though she were going toe to toe with a novice fighter, one poor in disguising it’s intention, she read the movement and dove for Alana.  Her chest smashed into Alana’s upper arm and shoulder, their momentum sending the human to the ground as pain lanced across Reggie’s flank.  She knew instantly she’d been hit, but given she wasn’t dead it had to be a graze, a lucky (or unlucky depending on perspective) flesh wound as the beam intended for Alana’s center mass caught her on the way to the ground. 

They fell behind the terminal assembly, giving them cover from the Scions and allowing them long enough to draw and fire their own weapons back.

Put the Klingons to sleep! She ordered the Andorians.  We’re pinned down by Scions!!

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #18 –
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos]   Attn:@rae @Pierce @P.C. Haring

"Nahhhh.  Zh'yi!  We don't need a holo imager, we'll just up load it from memory later!  I wanna EXPERIENCE this!"  Zark practically gushed like a ditz as she looked around in apparent awe at the setup! "Spirits Zh'yi! You were right!  Korath is brilliant!  No wonder nobody every found the place in this time!  He's a master of planning to hide a place like this in plain sight! Look at the consoles!  The museum replicas don't do them justice!"  Zark faux swooned while praying the scientist was insensate enough or his ego was in need of such a stroking, he wouldn't notice any sort of discrepancies in what was going on.

"These Andorian women appeal to my greatness! Mark that down peta'Q!" Korath bellowed in apparent pleasure.

Zark mentally swore as her look of wonder became plastered on her face.  She was hoping her warning wasn't needed earlier, but it had come true and the lackey dutifully began punching in notes into a terminal nearby.

“BLOOD WINE for our guests,” he bellowed.  “They have traveled far to be in my presence and I wish welcome them properly!”

Zark's hackles suddenly rose and her antennae shot straight up as a sense of dread suddenly over came her.  It was soon accompanied by the faint, but unmistakable sound of a transporter.

Zark! Nysari!  We have un-welcomed visitors!  Reggie's telepathic voice echoed in her head suddenly, to which Zark immediately dropped a mental F-Bomb.  Zark moved with the trained reaction of a combat veteran before the first shot was even fired as she grabbed the scruff of Nysari's jacket and Korath's collar and hurled them both to the ground.  Korath was fat and somewhat drunk, so couldn't even try to defend himself, but hit the ground and began protesting instead.  Whining would have been more accurate, but in that voice, it sounded like a protest.  Put the Klingons to sleep! We’re pinned down by Scions!! came next.  "Nysari, you do it after you get him somewhere out of the way while I draw that things attention."  The other Zhen gave her a look that Zark stared at blankly for a second before her antennae quickly peeled back against her head. "Nysari, you idjit! At least pack a fucking cricket!  Shelat!"

Quickly poking her head over the console, Zark saw the scaly bug like form of the Scion, except it's eyes were glowing as it pointed it's nasty looking weapon in Reggie's direction.  It pulled the trigger and a ball of energy lanced out and smashed a console in the Wolf's general direction.  Zark snarled as she pulled her disruptor out and set it to maximum.  Taking a moment, she took aim and pulled the trigger.  The Scion sensed something was amiss and tried to dive out of the way.  The green disruptor bolt flew a little wide of the mark with the dive, but a little wide was still decent, but there was a flare of blue energy as a personal shield tried to interdict the destructive bolt.  It was too much for the miniature shield generator to handle and a device on the Scions hip exploded as the disruptor bolt pierced the shield and clipped the ugly alien's free hand. 

The possessed Scion screamed a sound not this universe and continued rolling.  It knew it had been hurt badly and screamed it's rage in Zark's direction to which the Andorian snarled back her hate.  "Someone give Nysari a gun!"   Zark lowered the power setting to simply kill and yelled as she ran out of cover at a hard oblique angle, then began firing in the general direction of Infested.  The Scion replied in kind and energy fire began flying back and forth causing consoles to explode and walls to blast apart as shots missed all over.

Whatever the Infested did to the Scion made it that much harder to kill as it seemed to move even faster than normal and began to chase after the very annoying blue one that had injured it.  It could aim better and faster than any non-Infested could, so the weapon was adjusted and it pulled the trigger at where Zark should have been running towards.  Unfortunately, the medico had been dodging and weaving behind whatever cover she could find, and this saved her this time as the shot blasted a pillar that the Andorian was passing.  The column was gouged then exploded in a shower of energy and rock, and the Andorian was picked up off her feet as the blast front battered her to the side unexpectedly only to grunt as her body collided with a railing with a solid clang of metal being struck by something.  Momentum carried Zark as she flipped over the unyielding metal only to crash onto her back on a landing a couple meters below.  Zark lay there stunned as she tried to process what had just happened and get her body moving again.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #19 –
[ Lt. JG Nysarisiza “Nysari” zh’Eziarath | Catacombs | Qo'noS ] Attn: @Pierce @P.C. Haring @RyeTanker

Nysari wasn’t the least bit telepathic. That talent had been lost somewhere down the evolutionary line to their ancient Aenar cousins. But she hardly needed to be to understand what Korath was thinking. The old Klingon was practically drooling as he looked them over, his gaze traveling everywhere but their faces, returning multiple times to linger on Zark’s breasts and Nysari’s exposed midriff. Her skin was crawling, but she kept that stupid, enraptured smile on her face anyway.

“But Zhi,” she continued Zark’s ploy by picking another pet name commonly used for zhens, “The holoimager is more authentic to this time period! Oh- but I can’t bring myself to look away and go find it!”

"These Andorian women appeal to my greatness! Mark that down peta'Q!" Korath shouted. Nysari had worried that they might be overdoing it, but he was lapping it right up. For such a brilliant scientist, Korath was remarkably thick. There was nothing they could do about it at the moment, but they would need to make sure to delete that log entry before they left. “BLOOD WINE for our guests! They have traveled far to be in my presence and I wish welcome them properly!”

Files located. Downloading now, but it’s slow work. I’m here if you need me… As expected, Nysari wasn’t a fan of Reggie’s voice appearing unprompted into her head, the words disembodied and appearing almost as though she’d thought them herself. But she had given permission, and it was useful, so the Andorian did her best to push the discomfort away.

“Give it to me,” she begged the subordinate Klingon. “It would be the greatest honor to pour bloodwine for the amazing Korath!” And if she poured Korath a significantly larger portion than hers or Zark’s, they might get out of this before he started groping them. In a drunken enough stupor, he might forget about their visit entirely or think they’d been a dream.

It took all of two seconds for that plan to be ruined. Nysari marked the sound of the incoming transporter beam, but unlike the others, she didn’t immediately recognize the danger. She had barely registered Reggie’s mental warning before Zark’s hand was yanking her down. Then there was another whine – not the transporter this time – as the blast of an energy weapon hurled through the air where they’d previously been standing. Before, Nysari had been disgusted, but firmly in control of the situation. Given enough time – she’d estimated only a few minutes – she was sure she could have convinced Korath to do whatever they’d wanted. He was thinking with something other than his brain, easily manipulated under trained hands. But now? Now she was completely out of her element. She hadn’t even realized that she’d forgotten to take a phaser until Zark started chastising her for it. She’d never been good with weapons, passing the required tests only marginally. During the last few years as a civilian, she had not required one for any part of her job, a fact Nysari had quite enjoyed. It had never even occurred to her to take one earlier.

“So that’s what a Scion looks like,” she muttered as she grabbed Korath’s arm, falling back into her idiot tourist persona. “Korath! Come with me, quickly! If you’re injured, the future will be lost!” Ironically, were it not for her tone of voice, this was the first true thing she’d said to him. He seemed perfectly happy to run, which was very un-Klingon of him, but it didn’t make moving the scientist any easier. He was tall, grossly overweight, and not nimble enough to stay low and crawl behind cover. He kept trying to stand, and Nysari kept yanking him back down with repeated platitudes towards his safety. She would have dragged him were he not so damn heavy.

As they went, Nysari noticed the disruptor hanging from his belt and pulled it off him, searching the settings on the unfamiliar device. “Preferably one with a stun setting!” she called out to the others upon realizing that the weapon didn’t have one. Maybe she’d just hit him on the head with it once they finally made it—

The console they were hiding behind exploded, the force sending both Klingon and Andorian flying back. Nysari slammed into a wall, then Korath slammed into her, crushing force coming from both sides. Now that it had dealt with the others, the scion had turned its attention to Nysari and Korath. “Little help please!” she shouted, having lost track of her companions while cajoling Korath along. She raised her stolen disruptor, awkwardly freeing her arm from the scientist’s bulk to lay down some cover fire, only for it to be jerked out of her hand. The blast had reminded Korath of his heritage, taking his weapon back and jumping to his feet with a bellow, firing wildly in every direction. She couldn’t see if he’d hit the Scion or not. He seemed to be targeting everyone indiscriminately, be it the other Theurgy officers or the actual enemy.

“Get down!” Nysari shouted, kicking his legs out from under him and dragging him down hard. She misjudged it completely. Korath fell partly on top of her, the weight immobilizing her legs. Something hard slammed into her jaw as he flailed and swore. At least she’d saved Korath’s life – though he hardly seemed worth it at this point – as the Savi’s return fire exploded into the catacomb wall above them, showering debris down. A larger piece of rock hit Korath in the head, and he went still.

Panicking for a whole different reason now, Nysari momentarily forgot the Scion as she hurriedly checked of a pulse, sighing in relief when she found one. “At least he’s asleep.” Then she set to work pushing him off her, before the assailant realized that there were two helpless targets ripe for the picking.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #20 –
[ Lt. Commander Alana Pierce | Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker @P.C. Haring @rae [Show/Hide]

Reggie ran briskly towards Alana, and she felt the woman's chest smash into her arm and shoulder. With force but a cushioned blow to her person. She rolled with Reggie to the ground avoiding the shot that was fired. She heard nearby that the Andorians were dealing with one of their own now too.

"Damn!" She saw that Reggie had been hit, albeit slight. Alana leaned and checked and it was thankfully singed closed but still alarming. Have Zark patch you up as soon as you can. Thanks for taking that shot. I'm just sorry I wasn't fast enough... She slunk slightly at having botched that and causing her friend pain.

Alana barrel rolled near a bulkhead for cover and fired a shot off near the entity as she scanned her tricorder download which was 56% now. Regardless of what happened, she would have the console download to keep safe and the Scion's to take out. "We need to find these behemoths weak spot. So inopportune for us right now too. But I guess it was easy going so far."

She fired another shot off. "Check Zark and Nysari's status when you get a moment. We need to keep Korath safe and take these things out of here."

Looking overhead an idea hit her as she saw a plasma tube in the cave, likely for an energy conduit. Taking a shot, she caused the Scion to move backward to avoid being hit. Aiming up, she fired at the tube and the plasma sprayed wildly over the top of the Scion as it proceeded to melt the flesh of the creature, exposing it's exo-skeleton. Alana dove to reach the console to check the status, all the while hearing the screeching yells from the creature nearby as it flailed about. Leaving the remaining bit for Reggie to finish off, she tapped the console. Thankful she learned Klingonese, she noted that it was picking up the pace in their struggle.

"Download at 89%!" She yelled nearby as the creature screamed still as it began to attempt to grab it's blaster again despite the pain. Firing a shot, she knocked the blaster from it's hands as it dashed for Alana in wild abandon with her back turned at the console. "Once we're done here, we'll be heading to the other near Zark and Nysari."

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #21 –
[ Lt. Reggie Suder | Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @rae‍  @RyeTanker‍ @Pierce‍ 

The pain in her side seared through her body as she regained herself.  Already Alana was back on her feet, and Reggie sensed both Zark and Nysari as they engaged their own scion.  Alana seemed to have things in hand so, for the moment, Reggie was content to re-gather herself behind the cover.

“Zark and Nyseri are holding their own but they’re going to need support,” Reggie called out in response to Alana’s question about the rest of their team.

But then she saw the Scion go for Alana.  Again instinct took the Betazoid and she charged to her feet, the pain a forgotten memory as she dove for the Scion, knocking it to the ground and landing hard on top of it.  She did not need her telepathy to sense it’s malice and hatred and she wasted no time in rolling off it. 

She stumbled to her feet, staggering onto one of Korath’s work benches.  For the brief moment she spotted the weapon.  Her hand gripped the hilt of the Klingon sword and she spun around with a vicious slash, keeping the Scion at bay.  The sword was heavier than her Katana but it’s balance felt similar.  She could make use of it.

The Scion regained itself as Reggie spun the weapon, mimicking one of the exercises she often used with her own blade.  The Scion seemed momentarily confused by her actions and made the mistake of reaching for it’s fallen weapon.  The Betazoid capitalized on the error, bringing her blade down to cleave through the creatures arm.  The Scion screamed in agony and swung at Reggie with it’s good arm, knocking her off balance.  She recovered, attacking with a forward thrust that drove the blade into the Scion’s chest.

Another swipe from the Scion; this one downward at the blade, dislodging it from the wound.  Reggie, un prepared for the swipe, dropped the weapon and found herself sprawling back as another swipe caught her in the face.  She met another workbench head on before falling to the ground. 

There, at her fingertips, she found her salvation in the form of a micro photon grenade.  Palming it, at the Scion advanced on her, lifting her off her feet with it’s good arm.  She jammed the grenade into the chest wound.  Her foot followed suit serving the dual purpose of giving Reggie leverage to break the Scion’s grip while at the same time shoving the explosive deeper.  She hit the ground and rolled to her stomach as the explosive detonated, turning the injured scion into a cloud of debris and bodily fluid.

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #22 –
[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Secret Facility | Catacombs | Qo'nos]   Attn:@rae @Pierce @P.C. Haring

The combat medic's body was in pain, that much was evident from the dull burning sensation she got while she coughed and her lungs tried to suck down oxygen after having it slammed out.  If it hadn't been for the padding on the body suit and an Andorian's exoskeleton, Zark was pretty sure she'd have suffered a mortal injury with her trying to down in her own blood.   Instead, the combat veteran groggily rolled over as she hoarsely groaned.  Her movements were jerky and uncoordinated as she began grimly looking around for her weapon.  When she found it, instead of picking it up, her hand slammed down on the pistol and dragged it closer with alloy rattling against metal.  Her mind had trouble forming thoughts, but it's last objective remained and the Andorian shakily pulled herself up the platform and looked over, a face of pained rage.

The Scion was advancing towards a set of consoles, firing it's strange weapon and taking apart one in particular, as well as the rest of the room in a shower of sparks and debris.  Her vision was jerky though and as she brought her disruptor to bear, it kept weaving and wouldn't line up.  Taking a moment, Zark pulled the ready hypospray out and jammed it into her wrist and depressed the trigger. The hiss was imperceptible amongst the carnage, but the effect of the combat stim was almost immediate as her vision stabilized as did her hand.  The Andorian fired, but the show was little wide and the Infested screamed in agony and possibly like ecstasy when the energy bolt hit it's back and burned a hole straight through the upper torso in a splash of green energy.  It's movements defied the damage it had taken as it whirled on the bug behind it and began firing.  The stim had taken enough effect for Zark to begin running again, though it wasn't in the straightest of lines.  The Scion screamed unintelligibly and gave chase and fired at the retreating figure that had caused it so much pain once more.  The combat medic ran, as the world came apart around her and she fired back as best she could over her head.  Most were wide, but a few came close and the Scion had to duck to avoid some of the emerald green blobs. 

The Andorian eventually ran out of room and came to a dead end, then spun and looked around.  The options were bad, try to jump up and under the fence to same level as the Infested, or go back the way she came.  It wouldn't help to be a sitting target by jumping up and negotiating the fence, so she ran back and fired to cover herself.  Zark made it about three steps before a blast showered stone behind her and she yelled as she was knocked over and her disruptor went flying out of her hand.  Scrambling up, the Andorian ran towards her opponent and her hand reached into one of the pockets and pulled out a grenade.  By long memory, she activated the device and counted.  A massive chittin form slammed down on metal grating in front of her and Zark automatically tossed the grenade at it's feet, then jumped up and grunted as she desperately pulled herself through the fence she'd wanted to avoid, and rolled as the strange weapon was being trained on her. The abomination yelled incoherently as the device exploded and tossed it back.  Zark didn't get away scot free as she felt herself get picked up again and tossed away from the blast and bounced a few times before rolling to a stop.  A quiet seemed to settle in the room and all the Andorian could hear was the sparking of electronics and her own heavy breathing.

A crash and sounded as the massive bug form landed over the Andorian and she knew at that point she was screwed.   The three glowing eyes seemed to relish the situation as it raised a leg and brought it down towards the prone medic.  She rolled and the room reverberated with the sound of concrete being pounded, but the Infested was quick as it scooped it's remaining good arm at her and Zark cried out as she felt a sledgehammer connect her with midsection and send her flying into a console that seemed to shatter under the impact of her body and elicited another cry of agony.  The horror roared in delight at the damage it had done to the puny blue thing as Zark fell to the ground.  It wanted to savour this moment and waited his opponent to get up.  It wanted to rend and utterly destroy the foul thing that had injured it in such an delicious manner. It would watch as the terror over took the frail thing in front, then when it was assured of it's destruction, it would squeeze the life from it so very slowly.  Now, if it would just get up.

Zark hurt and as she unsteadily got up, she wiped her sleeve across her mouth and could feel the slickness around her mouth and running down the side of her head.  Her mind was cold as she stared at the beast in front of her.  It was a ruin, yet somehow, it managed to keep moving.  One hand was missing, and two of its legs were bleeding ichor all over.  There were wounds on it's chest that were also bleeding, and somehow, it was still going with the hole in it's torso. Any other being would have fallen either dead or unconscious at this point, but the thing seemed to be enjoying the moment. 

The two stared at each other for a heart beat or two, knowing this was it.  This showdown would end with the death of one of them.  Her off arm felt a little funny, but it still worked, and the combat medic reached behind her to pull the Nausican blade out, then reversed the grip.  Her other arms took a fraction of a moment longer, but it pulled the last grenade out and activated the device, bringing it one step short of activation. Another heartbeat as the bug like head twisted to one side and made a sound the seemed reminiscing of chortling at the challenge, then stopped to stare.  Andorian and Infested moved towards each other at some unrecognized symbol to begin the final dance and Zark prepared to charge as her mind worked out her moves.

A green energy bolt flew out and screamed passed the Scion's head and it ducked at the unexpected attack and blasted the area where Nysari had been hiding, sending shrapnel whizzing as more masonry fell. This was all the distraction Zark needed as her face became one of frozen hell while she ran towards the abomination and jumped onto the Scion's knee and used it as a step to twist and land on it's back.  The arm with the knife wrapped around the Infested slammed down into the hole in body and the Scion roared in agony as it felt the blade sink in, then began to buck to get the blue gnat off it's back, but it was too late.  Zark didn't wait to see if she was secure, she activated the grenade and violently jammed it into the hole on the back with a bloody squelch.   There was a muffled beep and the Andorian let go of the knife and let herself he thrown off the wildly bucking Scion where she bounced off the ground and collided with a shattered pillar with a grunt.

The beast desperately tried to reach the device stuck in it's back, but it was out of time as it went off and the top of the Infested exploded in an expanding sphere of ichor, internal organs, and fire.  Zark closed an eye and shied away from the rain debris that sprayed the room in a macabre paint job as her breath worked to return to normal. 

Smiling at her victory, Zark did the only thing she could think of "Fuuuuuuck." she cursed, then the dizzyness began to make the room spin. Her vision wasn't settling too well, but it slowed enough for her to be able to think about other things, like how much she hurt, and the fat Klingon, and... "Nysari?" Zark called through a haze of pain as she worked to get up. Stumbling towards the wreckage where the shot had come from earlier, she called out in desperation for her fellow Zhen. "Nysari?!!"

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #23 –
[ Lt. JG Nysarisiza “Nysari” zh’Eziarath | Catacombs | Qo'noS ] Attn: @Pierce @P.C. Haring @RyeTanker

Humans had a saying for those in vulnerable situations. A sitting duck. Though she had studied this language since she was a child, Nysari had never quite understood that one. She had seen ducks, and for all they looked rather helpless seated as they were above the water, at least they were floating. Right now, she didn’t even have that luxury. She had to get out of here. And she had to make sure Korath got out of here too, personal misgivings aside. Repulsive as the Klingon was, the future had need of him.

But to do that, Nysari needed to get him off her. Not near strong enough to push the deadweight off her, she settled for the less dignified – and, more importantly at the moment, much slower – option of shimmying out from beneath him. She could hear more crashes and explosions that weren’t directed at her or Korath, so Nysari assumed that Zark was up and moving again. Having heard stories about the infested, she was understandably worried for her comrade, but Zark was far more formidable than Nysari. The other zhen had a much better chance of dealing with the thing. Once she was free and mobile again, Nysari debated and quickly decided against moving Korath. The unconscious scientist was as hidden as he was going to get. He was safer there than he would be while she dragged him centimeter by painful centimeter. She peaked her head over the console to see what was going on.

The Scion looked terrible. Its body was ravaged, one arm was missing, a hole in the chest big enough that light was passing through it. The sight alone made her sick to her stomach, but somehow it was still standing. It was the Federation Embassy all over again, but this time it wasn’t a recording or filtered through a viewscreen. How could anything take that much punishment and still be alive? The scion was between her and Zark, leaving Nysari only glimpses of the medic moving across the room. The sight gave the impression of two fighters getting ready for another bout.

Nysari had left the disruptor in Korath’s possession, and she quickly reached back to yank it from his fingers. The unfamiliar weapon felt terribly awkward in her grip, leaving her even more uncomfortable than she would have been with a Starfleet issue phaser. She’d never been a good shot. Basic phaser training was something she’d passed by a hair, and that had been more years ago than she wanted to admit. Disliking phasers on principle, Nysari had never put any effort into improving that score, though Vyta had offered. The safest way to do it would have been to shoot from her position of minor cover, but she didn’t trust her aim from this angle. So Nysari stood up, planted her feet in the basic position she’d once been taught. Back straight, shoulders down, arms firm, and two hands wrapped around the disruptor.

Her plan had been to drop back down the moment she fired, but she hesitated for a moment to see if her mark was true. Not surprisingly, she missed. When the returning shot came, she panicked, taking a step back instead of ducking, tripping and falling onto Korath. She survived through sheer dumb luck, the bolt grazing along a flailing arm where her body had been a moment prior. The wall behind them was stuck with the full blast. The stone, already weakened from previous shots, shattered into smaller pieces this time, too small to crush her, but she felt a few of the sharper ones pierce her skin. Unwittingly, she had shielded Korath quite well. It hurt like she couldn’t believe. Nysari had never been shot before.

There was another explosion, followed by terrible silence, then Zark was calling her name. Nysari tried to answer right away, but her mouth was dry and filled with masonry dust. She coughed a few times before finally managing, “I’m here!” With a groan, she rolled off the Klingon, cradling her injured arm close. “Korath is alive.” She probably should have sounded happier than that, but all she could muster was a statement of fact. “Are you alright? Is it gone?” She probably should have looked, but Nysari had lost the disruptor again, and she didn’t want to return to the line of fire. “Where are Alana and Reggie?”

Re: Day 13 [1700 hrs.] The Chrono-Deflector Schematics | Tempus Sigillum

Reply #24 –
[ Lt. Commander Alana Pierce | Unknown location | Qo'nos] | ATTN: @RyeTanker @P.C. Haring @rae [Show/Hide]

Pierce ran to Reggie who thankfully was still breathing but was course from the stench of the charred corpse of the Scion beast in the air. She crinkled her nose as if to block it and grabbed her friend. "Are you alright Reggie?" She said leaning the woman up and attempting to help her to her feet.

Peering at her tricorder, she saw the data download was a success. "Well, that was certainly eventful." She said with a smirk as she tapped the controls and saved the data to an access chip should the need to toss the tricorder arise. Looking for an area least likely to be seen, she shrugged and slid it between the deepest crevaces of her exposed breasts. "Eh, what the hell."

As Alana looked around, the debris and silence was stunning. Taking steps into the other room, she saw Zark out of commission but still alive, and aware. And Nysari wasn't far behind having just shoved the sloppy Klingon to the floor with a disgusting grunt and thud. Waltzing towards them in the other room, she checked on each individually before helping them to their feet. "I see you guys were fairly busy here as well, and Korath seems to be alive still. Good work preserving the timeline. Means we won't be getting an unannounced visit from the Supervisors."

Taking her phaser, she set the settings to vaporize to remove some of the alien 'parts' around the room. Firing on the bigger components, she took that at least from Korath's eventual wakening and knocked a few containers around to make it look like there was a drunken Klingon orgy. "Mess the place up a little and let's regroup outside. We need to get to the surface and to safety to get this information back to the ship before we get any other unexpected guests."

She looked at Reggie and nodded at the suggestion for her to implant thoughts into the old Klingon's mind. "Good idea. Make him think it was a drunken rage and let him allude to the rest after you've fully scrubbed the system of our little visit here."
 
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