Boarding - Part 1

Posted on Tue Feb 22nd, 2011 @ 7:52pm by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Commander Curtiss Drake & Captain T'mpest Michaels & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Alessandro Reynaldi & Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd & Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper & Lieutenant JG Richard Lay & Lieutenant Commander Eliza McAdams

1,933 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Triad

ON:
Transporter pad, USS Ranger

For a change, T'kaarch the Caitian was first in the transporter room, after being called up by Commander Drake. He had done his homework, and besides his standard kit of tricorder and phaser he had modified a holocamera to disrupt and detect holograms better then the standard tricorder could. Presently, he nodded at the petty officer on duty and waited for the rest of the away team.

Commander Drake stepped into the room with an air of confidence, determination and a bit of excitement as well. Combat was his element and though he had stepped away from it somewhat, it was where he had come from, and it was always good to come home. Adjusting the sling of the rifle on his back and the phaser on his hip, he nodded to the room at large. "Soon as everyone else arrives we'll be on our way." he said, taking up station on the other side of the transporter terminal.

Lay and the security contingent entered together. Richard Lay walked in his usual disciplined manner. He held his rifle close to his chest and contemplated what would become of his first mission. Directly behind him was MCPO S'teis, a Cait superficially resembling T'kaarch, but a touch shorter and more thickly built, along with four security crewmen. All carried Mk17 rifles and wore gear belts holding short telescoping truncheons, binder cuffs, and transporter tags.

T'mpest walked in, her backpack filled with things she might need. Data rods, a tricorder, duct tape. She smiled at the others, hiding her eagerness to find the artifact and have a good look at it.

"Everyone's here?" Drake asked, looking around and deciding that they were indeed all there. "All right, let's talk game plans." he said.

"We need to retrieve the artifact and we need to take control of the ship," T'mpest offered. "The order in which we do these things doesn't matter."

"If we capture the bridge, we can retrieve anything we want", Lieutenant Lay assured.

"Scans show the ship seems to be on high alerrrt, as one could expect in the circumstances. Maybe we could make a diverrrsion of some sorrrt?" T'kaarch mused.

T'mpest turned to T'kaarch. "A diversion could be very useful. Can you tap into their holographic emitters? Sammi won't be of much help, but Holly might."

As if on cue, Holly appeared right in front of them. She had planned to hitch a ride on the teleporter beam, but now that her 'talents' were appearantly 'needed', there was no need to hide. T'kaarch, hardly suprised, turned to her. "You hearrrd her, didn't you?"

"Yup!"

"Listen, I don't know what is in therrre... so please be carrreful." T'kaarch then turned back to T'mpest. "How about we teleport herrr and let herrr drrraw firrre?" Immediately Holly responded "Hey! I'm not a crash test dummy!"

"But someone will need to draw fire." Drake replied, cutting off the rebuttal. "I'll take that role, with two of our Security contingent." he said, looking over to them. "The rest of the team can beam in at a more strategic location and set up a cross fire. That should be enough to confuse them at first, and we can use that to your advantage."

Looking to T'Kaarch. "That hologram might in fact be useful... can you make a fake team? Similar to our friends on the station - using fake avatars to take control. If we can confuse them on who's real and who isn't, we have another advantage we can use." Drake added.

"Possible, but I'd rather keep it to Holly and maybe two others," T'mpest said. "If I can take control of their holograms, they might be able to take control of ours. Fewer holograms gives them less of a chance to do that."

Without further ado, and without any influence, Holly changed into a guy with a big moustache, and a phaser rifle. With a twisted, low voice she said "How's this?" as 2 more similar guys completed the holographic squad.

T'kaarch could only look suprised, but then again, Holly had suprised him more often, so he decided to drop it. "I prrreferrred you as a girrrl" he purred softly, which immediately made the Holly-man rub against him to his dismay. "So you do like me?"

T'mpest chuckled. "I agree with T'kaarch. I prefer Holly, but I think this is perfect for our current needs."

"Good." Drake said looking around, "We all know what to do. Stay sharp and stay focused. Let's move out."

The bridge of the QAR ship was operating under emergency lighting when the eight transporter flares blazed into the room. The occupant pirates that weren't wounded or unconscious dove for cover positions as the away team coalesced, the bright shimmer of the transporters replaced a half-second later with the strobing pulses of energy weapons.

On one side, the team of man-Holly's appeared, on another the rest of the team. Immediately, Holly started firing at the bridge to draw their fire, while the security team first made sure they couldn't be suprised from behind before pressing down towards the bridge.

Almost immediately, a panicked voice called out "Intruders! Intruder alert on Decks 1, 4, and 7!" before one of the QAR bridge officers dodged man-Holly's fake phaser blast and cowered behind one of the consoles.

USS FAIRFAX

"Commander Hill, this is the Captain. You have your mission. You are a go for transport in ten seconds." came the voice of Captain Northcutt over the intercom to the transporter room. Hill tapped his comm badge. "Aye, sir. Team is ready now." he said as the eight of them stepped onto the transporter pad and counted the seconds down.

As the clock hit 2 seconds left, Hill and his team drew their phasers out and had them at the ready. Hill simply nodded and said, "Energize Chief."

In an instant, the group of eight was on deck 4 of the QAR ship. It was a very strange configuration. The passageway they beamed into was made of dark metal, there were flashing white strobe style lights, and quite a bit of smoke. The ship wide alarm kept ringing in their ears, and it was quite loud.

Hill was in the lead. The short and stocky Executive Officer barked out the orders. "McCudden, take Grilock and two Security officers and head down that corridor. Lieutenant Thomas and you two are with me." he said to the group. "We will go down the corridor there, parallel to you and meet up at what we believe to be the Captain's cabin in two minutes." he said.

Just then, a shipwide alert sounded. "Intruders! Intruder alert on Decks 1, 4, and 7!" came a panicked voice. Hill assumed it to be the Captain or the XO. If it was the Captain, he was probably on the bridge and not guarding the artifact. "Perfect." he thought to himself.

Hill looked at McCudden. "Tina, two minutes. GO!" he shouted as the two groups parted ways, with phasers at the ready. The smoke and flashing lights on the deck made their task of finding their way on an alien ship quite difficult. "Thomas, on point. Wait...whats..." Hill didn't get to finish his sentence as a blue disruptor ray slammed into the bulkhead just behind him. Instinctively, everyone dropped and returned fire with their phasers in the direction the disruptor ray had come from. "This might be a little bit more difficult then I thought" Hill said to himself as he fired his phaser through the smoke.

USS ARCHIMEDES

Zhukov had just finished hooking the phaser to his belt when he walked onto the transporter pad and nodded at the Chief. Within moments, he and the seven others found themselves in the shuttlebay of the QAR ship, adjacent to the Main Engineering section.

He quickly looked at the others and said, "Remember, just like we talked about before we left the Archimedes. Stay together, and remember, they don't fight fair, so you shouldn't either. High stun setting on all your weapons, but make every shot count. These guys sometimes wear energy absorbing body armor so they may be harder to take down." Vladimir said to them. It was then he noticed that Dr. Alicton was carrying a phaser.

"Doctor?" he asked him simply.

"I'm on a damn pirate ship. If you think I'm walking around here with just a med kit and a tri- corder, you're insane." the Englishman said. "I've been through some special training. Don't worry Commander, I know what I'm doing." he said to Zhukov. Vladimir just nodded. He had not known much about the doctor, or anything about his service record.

"Chief Watson, do you have the breeching charges?" Zhukov asked. The Chief nodded. "Aye, sir. Have um here. Where do you want um?" he asked.

The group walked over towards the reinforced doors that led to the rear area of Main Engineering on the QAR ship.

"Place them, there, there," he paused for a moment to look at a ventilation access point, "and one there" he said pointing to it.

"Sir?" Watson asked, seemingly confused.

"Set the one off in the ventilation system first. Then they will have to clear out of Engineering, and there are only two ways out. If they come in here, we hit them as the come in. If they go out the other door, when we breech, we don't have any resistance." Zhukov explained as he smiled. He liked this whole tactical aspect. It was new to him, but he seemed to have a knack for it.

Watson nodded and smiled. "Ah, I gotcha, sir. Setting smoke charge." the Chief said as he rigged the explosive. After about ten seconds he backed away from the grating. "Detonation in three, two, one, mark." the Chief said as the group watched the explosive charge detonate throwing smoke and debris into the interior of the ventilation system.

"Alright, everyone at the ready. Take cover." Zhukov said as he pulled his phaser and got behind a pair of transport barrels.

After about thirty seconds, the doors didn't open. "Alright Chief, blow the other ones. Then we go. Ready?" he asked. Watson nodded and pushed the button, setting off the two explosives and blasting the reinforced doors wide open.

"GO, GO, GO!" shouted Zhukov as he rushed in with the rest of the group. The Main Engineering area was smoke filled and deserted. "Chief, get back to the hanger and activate the decontamination exhaust system there. It should suck out most of this smoke." Zhukov said as he coughed a little into his sleeve. His eyes were watering and he was having trouble breathing.

"Lieutenant V'lortra, take the controls. Lieutenant Saad, make sure you lock and secure that other door. We don't want them coming back in on us when they figure out what happened." said Zhukov.

It was then that an alert sounded. "Intruders! Intruder alert on Decks 1, 4, and 7!" came a panicked voice.

The smoke began to clear as Chief Watson had been able to use some of the systems in the shuttlebay to draw out the smoke from Engineering.

"Alright, they know we're here, but we've got control. Make sure they don't lock you out from the bridge. V'lortra? What's the status?" Zhukov asked the Engineer.

"I'm working on it" she said as she shook her head side to side and her fingers danced over the controls. As she worked, there was a loud bang from the main doors. The QAR were back, and they weren't happy.

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