Package Acquired
Posted on Wed Mar 20th, 2019 @ 11:50pm by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Paul Michael & Staff Warrant Officer Jennifer Masters - Calhoun & Major Cornelius Tremble
Edited on on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 @ 3:16am
2,408 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 6 - Old Habits Die Hard
Location: Cardassia Prime
Timeline: MD004 1300
Andrew was crouched down behind the corner of a house as he watched the old Cardassia Central Command. It was locked down tightly with overlapping patrols and shift changes. Checkpoints looked to have at least a fire team each with two soldiers searching anyone incoming while the other two kept weapons ready. Around the perimeter was a duracrete wall that stood at least fifteen feet high and Andrew could only guess how thick it was. He shook his head and stepped back before turning to his team, "all right, guys, our first road block, ideas?" he asked in as whispered.
Paul looked up. "Do you want us to blast our way in, or find a more...subtler approach."
The Senior Chief grinned, "subtle Michael, we're here to be a scalpel," he replied softly, using surname over rank just in case they did get overheard.
"Then," Paul continued, "I recommend we scale the wall to gain entry."
Wilson looked at the wall nodding. "Aye, I can make that no problem."
Neil scanned the wall his his tricorder vambrace and scratched his head, then said quietly. "Nothing. No embedded vibration sensors, anti-personnel mines, monofilament whip wire. Not even broken glass or gotch-ya's anywhere. Nothing. I'm a bit disappointed in our Cardassian friends. They appear to be trusting that a a big, beautiful, tough wall will keep people out."
Snorting, he turned leaned back against the wall, his feet bracing as he cupped his hands to form a step. Looking at the gunny he said, "Right. Go. "
She had spent a short amount of time getting a pair of gloves on and folding her Phaser rifle into a smaller package, giving a nod and putting her foot into the pair of cupped hands offered to her, and then another foot on a shoulder and another carefully on Neil's head. And then rather gracefully hopping and pulling herself up onto the top of the wall. One of her strong suits had always been being able to get into or on top of odd places.
The gunny stopped ontop of of the wall looking around before deciding when and where to come down on the other side of the wall.
Moore put a hand on Tremble's shoulder and leaned in, "Booby trap one oh one, don't let a simple tricorder scan detect them....give an order to go before I do again and I'll stun you and pick you up on the way out, there's no room for recklessness...." he whispered then pulled back, "hold, lets see if the Gunny triggers anything," he ordered, knowing if something seemed to good to be true it probably was.
Neil just looked at the Chief. "Alright, Moore. I'll bring up the rear so I can rein in my natural tendencies and training. " He ground his teeth and bit off the rest of what he was going to say. Moore and he might have to have words later; this wasn't Tremble's first mission and he wasn't about to take a threat and lack of respect. But it would have to wait until later.
"Of course no one asks the intelligence officer." Jenn points to the wall. "Such high placed officers won't just use a wall that can't be climbed over. There must be some kind of invisible force field that will trigger an alarm as soon as we approach the building."
Paul went ahead of Neil. He ran towards the wall, got a foot hold, then vaulted himself almost to the top of the wall.
Andrew pinched the bridge of his nose, "why do officers have such a hard time with following orders....if I have to write a letter it will say killed due to stupidity," he grumbled, "and Masters, you and I had the same thought, that's why I asked for options," he added as he heard some of the guards call out followed by laughter, "Masters, go, and tell them find cover, do not approach the building."
"Yes, sir." Jenn said as she went to the wall, holding her head down. She wasn't stupid.
Neil stared at the Moore and smiled. "Threaten me again and I'll see you courts martialed. Try me and I'll leave your corpse for the carrion eaters to deal with. Now, shall we get this show on the road?"
"Go back to the shuttle," Moore said simply, "and feel free to bring me up on charges, I'm more than happy to repeat what I said in court," he added before taking off.
Mina looked both says, taking the time on top of the wall to click her rifle back into working order. using the scope on it to look around at the complex. It was a good enough view, but she was more looking for cameras or weapon emplacements.
Staying low, Paul pulled out a night vision scope and surveyed the area.
"Hey," Jenn tried whispering loudly. "Guys, stay low, and find cover, do not approach the building." She then looked around the walls. She grabbed her tricorder and scanned the complex. She signaled to Moore and pointed in a direction. She pushed down as she walked alongside the wall and stopped in front of a console. "And this is why you brought me along. Power junction." She grinned. She held the tricorder next to it. "I can hack this beauty faster than an engineer. Also, you said scalpel, You may not want to just cut the power. Just the defense grid." She tapped something on the tricorder.
Prenar saw the Starfllet team as they attempted to gain access to his complex. How quaint they want to play spy with me he thought. With a simply point of his finger he redirected the first of many security teams to intercept them. He also had the motion disruptors set to active so when they jumped the wall they would be met with a hail of fire.
Neil's eyes followed Moore, then waited until the rest followed the Chief. He mulled for a moment, then thumped his head backwards into the wall, chiding himself, before he straightened and began paralleling the wall. He'd return to the shuttle when the mission was over. He found a spot in deep shadow and moved to lurk.
Jenn looked on her tricorder. "I hope you are prepared for battle, sir? Your jar heads made us. There is movement in the complex." She looked on her tricorder. She almost groaned. "This Prenar is good, or his security officer that installed this, is. But they haven't met Jennifer Masters." She grinned. "Prenar is just another high class aristocrat, and his treasures are waiting inside. Cardassian, Ferengi, Klingon, Vulcan....they are basically all the same." She softly chuckled. "Ok on your mark I can cut the power or the defense system. Your choice."
"They aren't my jar heads, I was advanced tac," Andrew replied as weapons fire started coming from emplacements on the wall, "do it...once she cuts the power get to the building and breach, three and three!" he called out, already knowing Tremble hadn't gone back, the Senior Chief knew that order wouldn't be followed, but it made a point, then looked at Jenn, "on your mark."
"Alright," Jenn was quiet in suspense a bit as she held her finger above the button. "Mark!" She hit the button and the lights went off, indicated all power to the building was cut off.
As the automatics cut in and he listened to Masters over the net, Neil consulted the telemetry he was getting and made adjustments to his equipment. When Moore ordered the team to move, Neil pulled three grenades, pulled the pins and chucked them over the wall as he moved. Three concordant pops sounded and the air beyond filled with smoke and chaff. The chaff should foul up beam weapons and the smoke give extra cover.
Next he dropped to one knee, lacing the butt of his carbine on the ground and began angling the barrel into the air. When a tone sounded in his headset, he touched the firing stud on the weapons side and the grenade launcher chuffed.
Twice.
Five seconds later, two homing rounds found the entrance Moore had indicated and he hit his whisper mike, "Chaff and smoke deployed. Breaching rounds in place set to go off at a five meter proximity when you make entry."
Typhon ordered his men to full deployment status. It seemed that this strike team from the Pioneer would be a little more of a nuisance than he would like. "Come my daughter it seems that we should retire to the bunker, from there we can deploy the bio weapon and be done with this Starfleet interruption once and for all."
Shoshanah smiled to her father and holstered her disruptor. She knew that she was the last line of defense for her most beloved Gul.
Moore ran forwards quickly as he could. Phaser basis started ringing out from the guards at the gate and Andrew stayed hunched over as he ran until he was close enough to baseball slide to the door, "BREACH, BREACH, BREACH!" he ordered as the team caught up. The the breaching round went off he motioned forward before pulling his rifle to his shoulder and bending his knees slightly then moved forward himself, leading the team in.
Michael ran as quickly as he could to take up position to cover the others.
From his covering position, Neil saw Cardassian security teams converging and he swore. His HUD showed the net dropping and he knew there wasn't much they could do about it. He rapidly loaded and fired two more rounds through his launcher, sending ionic pulsed munitions into the buildings point defense weapons, causing them to go offline. "Point defense down for one minute," he said over his mike as he took a couple of paces back, ran at the wall and pulled himself up and into a prone position. Though the smoke, his goggles picked up heat signatures of both his team and Cardy security. "Inbound, on your six. Moving to covering position."
With the chaff in the air, beam weapons would be hampered. He worked the action on his launcher and sent two anti-personnel (non-lethal) rounds into a knot of security. The munitions burst and scattered the surprised Cardassians. He saw another group coming up the other side of the wall and knew he'd have to move soon.
Michael saw a Cardiassian approaching, so he stopped behind a boulder, and when the Cardiassian walked past him, he jumped out and hit the Cardi with a rock.
The guard had a bead on a human female with his disruptor, however, he did not see the rock coming to the back of his skull. He stumbled forward and dropped to a knee as he dropped his gun. He quickly rose to his feet and turned to face the source of the attack. He took a stumbling step toward Michael as the Cardassian regained his bearings.
"Hey....how you doing?" Michael swung his right leg in a long arch and struck the Cardassian's head on his left side, dropping him unconscious...or dead..Michael didn't bother to check. After making sure the Cardassian was down, he rushed to enter the building with the others.
Traimor was on the roof of the compound, he was a sharpshooter trained by the Gul himself, one of three with the additional training. The man looked through his scope and saw a human male laying prone on the wall. Over his mic he whispered for two security officers to converge on that position and wait for the shot. Traimor had his eyes on a prisoner and as such he waited for the moment. That moment came in about a minute, the smoke cleared and he had his clear shot, he inhaled and held his breath as he depressed the trigger and his disruptor fired. A beam of red energy traced through the air and struck Second Lieutenant Cornelius Tremble in the right shoulder blade on heavy stun.
Neil scuttled with the best of them when he needed to. At this point, he scuttled along the top of the wall, looking for a good place to post up when his armor took a hard hit. He felt a stun shot numb his arm and he grunted, fighting the rabbit holing of his vision as he rolled off the wall into the compound.
Wilhelmina had moved little sense the whole thing started, she had already taken a shot or two at a few of the Cardassian guards, mainly aiming at anyone brave enough to actually come out onto the roof. Her older model phaser did better then others in the Chaff and smoke but it was still less then ideal. While trying her best to provide overwatch it was less then effective at times. But then she caught sight of the red fire Disruptor fire, turning her weapon up to the roof and at Traimor firing before really getting a good look at the target, and repeating the shots one every half second or so, not really trying to hit the target as much as trying to keep however it was from repeating the shot.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Junior Grade Jomaus Miex
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Paul Michael
Assistant Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Warrant Officer Jennifer Masters
Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Pioneer
Command SeniorChief Petty Officer Andrew Moore
Chief of the Boat/Behavioral Health Specialist, USS Pioneer
Second Lieutenant Cornelius Tremble
Marine Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Gunnery Sergeant Wilhelmina Wilson
First Sergeant/Rifle Fire Team 2 Leader, USS Pioneer
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
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