Post by Scribe on Aug 16, 2009 1:40:43 GMT -5
BAJORAN INTERNAL SECURITY
STARDATE: 09082168
FROM KIRSHANA MINING CONSORTIUM
Requesting immediate investigation of Mining Colony Seknora on Pallas Torr planetoid. Colony Seknora is responsible for dilithium production and has a population of 600 people, including miners, administrators and local merchants with their families.
Scheduled status report has not been received in 72 hours and efforts to contact via priority channel has not been successful. Last status report indicated nothing out of the ordinary. Daily reports since 6082168 has not been forthcoming. All communication, official and has ceased
URGENT attention to this matter is required.
========================================
STARFLEET MARINE CORPS
STARDATE: 09082168
FROM BAJORAN INTERNAL SECURITY
Requesting reconnaissance mission to Mining Colony Seknora on Pallas Torr planetoid.
Refer to the following:-
Requesting immediate investigation of Mining Colony Seknora on Pallas Torr planetoid. Colony Seknora is responsible for dilithium production and has a population of 600 people, including miners, administrators and local merchants with their families.
Scheduled status report has not been received in 72 hours and efforts to contact via priority channel has not been successful. Last status report indicated nothing out of the ordinary. Daily reports since 6082167 has not been forthcoming. All communication, official and civilian has ceased.
URGENT attention to this matter is required.
In the likelihood that the cause of this communication failure could lead to military intervention, it would seem expeditious if Starfleet was dispatched to deal with the situation. Bajoran Defence Ministry requests formal intervention of Alliance forces.
=======================================
Seventy two fucking hours.
These arseholes waited 72 hours to report that they'd lost communication with their colony. That was three days. Three whole days where any damn thing could have happened. Tom was out of his office as soon as his secretary had brought him the news, hurrying down the hall looking for one Derick Rickman.
It didn't take long for Tom to spot the big oak over the heads of most of the personnel both human and Bajoran.
"Oy! Tom hollered closing in an on the man, ensuring that anyone who planned on talking to the Captain, fell away to make room for the Starfleet Marine's top dog on Bajor. "We need to saddle up mate," he said coming to a pause, the datapad with the request from Bajoran Internal Security still in his hand. "Looks like we've got a situation."
"We do?" Derick looked up from the padd where he was reviewing evals. "What?" he asked, not mincing words anymore than Tom had.
"We've lost contact with a mining colony on the edge of Bajoran space," Tom answered. "Its pretty close to the latest reports of Xindi activity. The last check in was three days ago, they're supposed to send status reports on a 24 hour rotation since the war began. They're three days overdue."
Owing to Starfleet's presence on Bajor, the Alliance had managed to stave off any attempt by the Xindi to build another one of their spheres. Each time, they attempted it, a fleet of starships would appear and blow nine colours of shit out of it. Other times, they attempt to build it into the moons and planets themselves but the Sharks were always there like Fleet to put a stop to it. A few days ago, Starfleet had detected a Xindi ship outside Bajor space but had assumed it was a reconnaissance. They did that sometimes.
Except now Pallas Torr was no longer communicating.
This was not good.
"Mining colony.. isn't that where Carys was going with that actress? Sort of a feel good we're behind you morale booster thing?" Derick asked, already sending out the necessary calls for his men to gear up over his padd. "What about solar activity, someone checked to make sure it's not hyperactive?"
"You mean Elena Rose," Tom replied, pausing in his step to look to at Derick aware that she was his favourite actress. "She couldn't make it, some last minute scheduling troubles. She postponed to next week."
Bugger, he had forgotten that Carrie had gone to the place a few days ago. This was what came of being in charge of the Bajoran operations, he didn't remember the little details when he was more concerned about the security of the whole system. People tended to get lost in the shuffle. "No, no solar activity at all but something is happening there."
He could sense it in his gut.
"Any ships in that area?" Derick asked, sure that this stuff had been done already but well, he asked anyway. "Anyone we can bounce a signal to?" With the recall sent, he pushed up from his desk to fall into step with Tom, only to pause a heartbeat later. "Oh shit.. I just remembered. The news feed... there's been some unrest on the outer colonies, something about the mines being unsafe and them not getting the equipment and stuff they need, shifts too long, that kind of thing.."
There had been a lot of that going on. Bajorans were a highly emotive race. When things were at their satisfaction, they could be one of the most spiritual peoples Tom had ever encountered, however, piss em off and you'll be setting off a powder keg you could see from the other side of Gamma Quadrant.
"Yeah but if it was just about civil unrest, we'd hear something." Tom pointed out. "We haven't. Not a bloody sound. No demands, nothing. Just silence." It made him uneasy. "We're going out there."
"You don't think the Expanse...?" Derick left the question in the air because if that's what it was, they were going to need more than MACO's. "Who else are they calling in? What ships?"
"Already taken care of," Tom replied, having taken care of that as soon as he read the request. "The Saratoga is on her way here. Alex was bringing back the crew for a bit of maintenance and shore leave so she ought to be here in a day." Tom wished there could take some time off together but that wasn't happening now it seemed. The fortunes of war he supposed.
"I'd like us to go in and do a quick recon," Tom continued speaking. "Just one squad, nothing too excessive. Get Ren on it. She's been chomping on the bit to get out there since she's signed back on. We'll go check it out and provide a recommendation for action when Saratoga arrives."
Derick knew better than to tease Tom at this moment, besides he was too wrapped up in the situation.
"Alright. I say we prep for both recon and riot gear," he said, sending the message to Ren. "We'll need Red for sharpshooting too." Giving birth hadn't slowed her reflexes any or swayed her sense of target. "Naza went with Carys too," he said. The Bajoran nurse was a bed warmer yeah but that didn't mean Derick didn't see her as a friend.
"Well the sooner we get there the better," Tom retorted pausing at junction in the corridor, liking the fact that either of the women were there. "I want everyone kitted and ready to go within the hour. Pull them off furlough if you have to. I'm going to arrange getting us a bird to make the trip."
"The recall went to everyone," Derick replied, holding up the padd where acknowledgements were already coming in. Luckily, under the restrictions currently in place, no one's furlough or leave put them more than an hour away from base. "I'll hit the barracks and meet you on the grinder in thirty."
"Will do." Tom answered back with a wave as he took the exit that led to the northwest quadrant of the facility where the hangar was.
*******
Thirty minutes later as promised, Derick was already on the grinder, with marines in various stages of gear assembly around him. His kit was ready, at his feet. Others were still arriving but he'd heard from them all. Thankfully, no one was very far out and even the last one would be here in fifteen minutes. "Richards?!" he called out, not looking from the padd in his hands.
Renee Richards hated to admit it but she was happy to hear that bellow in her ears once again. It told her that the stars were in alignment and her universe was once again back in its proper orbit, even if she had taken a bit of a timeout to be wife and mother.
The Governor had not at all been happy to have his wife returning to active duty but the realities of war did not give them a choice. Every Fleeter and Shark who was capable of active duty had been called into service because resources were thin. With humans leading the conflict, they needed to be visible and Mesu had demanded that everyone who could serve did. While Gabe could undoubtedly use his clout to get her a waiver, it was never entertained seriously. Gabriel Loman Hayes was incapable of playing favourites, even for his wife.
That's probably why she loved the Iron Colonel so much.
Thus Ren had left Chris with Gabe since he was mostly stationed on Gaia to ensure the security of the colony and command the Sharks across their deployment on Bajor, Cardassia and on the various ships. Besides, with humans leading the charge, the Xindi were vindictive enough to try and strike at Gaia itself. The defence of the home world and the coordination of all Sharks required the Iron Colonel. Accept no substitutes.
Returning to active duty with Alpha Squadron, Ren kept in contact with Gabe as frequently as she could and could not deny that it felt good to be back in the fight. Motherhood was important to her obviously but it nagged at her that her friends were engaged in the greatest engagement in human history and she was forced to watch on the sidelines while they risked their lives. Ren was never good at staying out of a fight.
"Everyone's ready and encountered for," she started to answer Derick until something caught her eyes and she flicked a sharp glare at the two in question. . "Hey you two..." she barked at the two privates dawdling on the ramp way to the transport carrier like this was a fucking picnic. "You want move your ass before I go over there and show you how to do it on broken knee caps?"
Not looking up, trusting Ren to have the situation in hand, Derick read the newest report with a bit of shock. "Fuck a dead chicken, a Bajoran listening post is reporting massive fires on the surface." Not waiting for Tom, Derick turned his attention to the ones still getting kits together. "LOAD UP!" he called out. "Richards, find the Lt. Colonel," he told her. "I want everyone buckled down in five minutes, this is not a drill!" he called out. "We're lifting off in ten!"
"I'm on it," Ren answered promptly and spun on her heels to go find the Colonel when the man himself strode up the ramp of the troop carrier they had been provided with by the Bajoran government for their use.
"You heard the latest?" Tom said to Derick and Ren, heading straight to the cockpit. "The explosives are coming from inside the mining network. They're blowing up the dilithium. Why would the miners and do that? The mines are their bargaining chip. You can bloody replace dilithium. As a negotiating strategy that bloody sucks."
"Yeah it does. I think you're right. This isn't civil unrest," he told Tom. "Those guys know what fire can do in a mine, how it moves underground and what it can destroy." He blinked, hand going out to catch Tom's harness. "That's it..." Derick looked at Tom, his gaze nothing less than severe.
"What?" Tom looked over his shoulder hearing inspiration in the man's voice.
"They're destroying something Tom. Look, on Utopia, the first thing you ever learn about is fire. Everything's about fire, from your escape plan to mowing the fucking grass, everything's about fire because of the mines. Fire sucks the oxygen out of a mine and any tunnel can become a roman candle and reach dilithium melting in seconds." He tapped Tom's shoulder.
"If there's Xindi, it could be their way of trying to defend themselves," Tom agreed. It made sense, the miners wouldn't have the ordinance they did and depending on which Xindi faction it was, they may have thought they had nothing to loose. Reptilians were cold blooded fuckers, they were very indiscriminate about who they killed.
"Whatever the situation," he looked at Derick impressing upon his two veterans that all this was academic until they actually got there, "we've go to go. Get this lot packed and ready to leave in five. I'm going to go start the pre-launch sequence."
Derick was both man enough and the type of leader to accept that kind of question. Some guys he knew weren't. "Right. You heard him!! Asses in your seats now!!" he called out, voice carrying easily in the transport. "Richards, see if you can't access the last communications while we're in the air," he told his friend and headed into the cockpit behind Tom.
"Ren's checking the last comms we got from them," he told his friend, taking the seat next to him. Derick was not a pilot, not by a long shot but he sat there anyway. "Let's go."
*******
"Got you Captain," Ren answered promptly before raising Bajor Internal Security on her communicator. They would have the latest transmission readouts from the colony and were accustomed to such requests from her by now.
"Tark, this is Sergeant Richards," Ren greeted the liaison with Bajoran security, "we're about five minutes from dust off to rendezvous with the Pallas Tor Colony, we need a transcript of all communications between Bajor and the colony prior to the 72 hours of silence, sent to the mainframe on the S'Pata."
*******
Meanwhile Tom climbed into the pilot's seat of the troop carrier he had called 'Sparta' and began prepping the ship for launch. Since the beginning of the war, Tom had begun dusting off the piloting skills that he hadn't been used in more than a decade. While he was nowhere a pilot of Sloane McRae's calibre, he was able to fly long range shuttles and most MACO birds. However these days, he had been learning how to fly some of the more sophisticated Bajorans ship, the S'Pata being one of them, for short range flights such as this one.
"Buckle up lad," Tom instructed. "Don't want you to be one of the goods that shift while we're in transit."
"Yeah, Yeah," Derick replied, shouldering on the straps and doing as ordered. His pack was secured in the back, along with everyone else's. "Richards, I want anything out of the ordinary. If it's not finding rocks, I want to hear it," he called back, giving a nod of encouragement to some of the newer members of his team. They looked.. not scared.. but expectant. Maybe.
"Copy that," Ren answered and return to the main body of the carrier. As she did so, her eyes surveyed the faces strapped into their seats and then checked their harnesses and gear. She paused at intervals to make adjustments where it was needed, before heading towards her own seat.
****
"Fuck I hate flying," Sean Randolph grumbled to Luke as he sat back, hands gripping the straps of his harness. "If I wanted to fly, I'da gone Fleet," he said.
"They're a bunch of pussies," Cori Hartwood retorted from where she sat across from him. "What would you do if you were stationed on a ship? Dealt with it."
"I hope all this conversation means that you're all packed and ready to go," Ren retorted as she walked past them.
"Always ready to go for you Sarge," Luke Randolph smiled at her as, flashing another Weapon of Mass Seduction in her direction.
"So the boys tell me," Ren said smoothly as she continued her check of everyone's harnesses.
This one, she mused was nine kinds of trouble. Even in Derick Rickman's glory days, Ren doubted he had ever had his libido dialled on maximum the way this kid did. The way Luke was going, he was either slatted to die of a venereal disease or shot by a jealous boyfriend.
Laughing, Cori grinned at Ren who.. well, she'd never admit but damn near idolized the Sergeant. And not just because she was beautiful but she was so confident and contained and just knew her shit.
"So what's the sitrep, Sergeant?" Sean asked, resolutely looking ahead and not at Ren's backside. The woman had eyes in the back of her head.
"Not sure," Ren said finally sitting down herself and strapping in. "We're doing a recon but something's up. It could be the Xindi or possibly a natural disaster. We've lost communication with the colony and we've detected fires on the surface but nothing more conclusive then that."
"Okay." Cori frowned, glancing at her Sean. "Has there been any Xindi activity in the area?" She remembered that from class and it seemed the right thing to ask and for a newbie that was still shiny, she felt it was okay.
"Not that we've been able to tell but Pallas Torr is on the edge of Bajoran space, it is one of their outermost planetoids. If the Xindi decide to establish a beachhead to build a sphere which we know they've been trying to do, this would be the place."
"It's awfully bold though," Cori remarked, frowning as she recalled what she could from boot and training. "Aren't they usually more stomp and grab?"
"Depends on the Xindi species," Sean told her, elbowing Luke who was chatting up another female.
Snapping back to attention and showing always that he was listening, even when it didn't seem like it, Luke replied. "Yeah, aquatics like to come in with fire power, mammals are mostly engineers so they don't do much fighting but the reptilians are stomp and grab. Not sure about the bugs though, they're kind of an unknown. We haven't had much to do with them have we Sergeant?"
When he asked the question devoid of sexual innuendo, Ren was impressed. "That's right, only one or two recorded contacts."
No Randolph Special Commentary? Sean gave his brother a look that clearly said who the hell are you and where's my brother?
Luke tossed his brother a look and retorted, "hey I read mission tapes...in between lifting my head up or getting on my elbows from tail."
"You can read?" Cori deadpanned, blinking at him before she looked at Ren. Who knew? Not a genius like he was, she'd still been able to see that the guy was on that level and couldn't help teasing him for it. "If I remember right, the only recorded contacts were intercepted subspace transmissions?"
"Actually no," Luke said smugly, "you have to go through Enterprise logs, pre-Earth destruction, during our first engagements with the Xindi in the Expanse. Governor Hayes, then Major Hayes, had actually been forced to take command of the ship after an infestation of Xindi young caused the Captain Archer to be declared unfit for duty. Isn't' that right, Sarge?"
She'd know better than anyone.
Ren was actually surprised, Enterprise logs were not required reading for cadets or gropos on this mission. "That's right. Ga…sorry, the Governor said it was the only time he was in charge of the ship."
Annnd he had that damn knack for making her feel like she was some hick boomer, too. Cori frowned at Luke. "Oh. Well, what did he do then, Mr. Encyclopaedia?" she retorted covering over her discomfort. Fake it til you feel it, right?
Ren watched Luke in interest.
"According to Captain Malcolm Reed's log reports," Luke returned. "He and the Major were able to resolve the situation. Apparently Enterprise had unwittingly taken aboard one of their hatcheries and the things were about to emerge. They have some kind of a telepathic link with whomever they come into contact with and they affected Captain Archer in the same way. In the end to help Archer, Reed and Major Hayes returned the Xindi to their parents…whatever. After all, state of war or not, children are children." Luke grinned.
Game. Set. Match.
Glancing at Ren, who everyone knew was married to the Governor (and another reason she almost sort of worshipped the woman, talk about a fairy tale), Cori waited to see what she said.
"That's right," Ren nodded with a faint smile, it was the first thing this kid did that impressed her today. "The Governor is particular about things to do with family. Besides, there are rule of engagement in any war, true the Xindi probably don't deserve it from us but we're better than that."
"But they won't honour those rules with us," Cori replied, not thinking that was fair as she looked from Ren to Luke and Sean and back. "They don't adhere to the Geneva Convention." Over two hundred years old, the standards of war and prisoner treatment were still honoured.
We don't kill children," Ren replied firmly, not because she was a mother but Sharks did not harm helpless civilians. "They don't but we do. We have a tradition of honour and fair play. Thugs and mercs kill kids, we don't."
Of course not!" Almost in horror, Cori shook her head, sensitive to anything with children. She wouldn't harm a child either, which was why she'd sacrificed a lot for a certain infant back in Acheron. "I meant for prisoners, adult prisoners."
"No they don't," Ren shook her head. "They're on a genocidal war. They don't want any of us alive. They're convinced we're going to be responsible for their destruction of their home world. When they hit Florida and then Earth, it was a pre-emptive strike."
"I remember reading that." Sean spoke up then, nodding. "After Earth, Utopia Planetia, Alpha Centauri, all the human colonies. We were kids, I don't remember much except when our dad went missing."
"What was it like for you Sarge?" Luke asked.
Ren didn't answer but thought back to being 15 years old, terrified and then falling into the clutches of the worst kind of man. If the Xindi had done damage, it was nothing in comparison to what David Satler had did to her too. "Captain," she spoke into her communicator. "The babies are in their cribs, let's get the fuck out of here and go kick some ass."
"Be sure to pull their blankies over them and give Randolph his Mr. Snuggles," Derick retorted, nodding to Tom. "Boxed and taped, sir. Let's roll."
And with that, Tom contacted Tower Chief O'Larak, "Hey Tower, this is Major Merrick. So good to hear from you again. O'Larak, have they dropped yet..."
****
Pallas Tor was a planetoid on the edge of Bajoran space, facing the great wilderness of territory that was the Expanse and the rim of the Alpha Quadrant. It barely had atmosphere and was little more than a scab of rock. However, the scab was one of the biggest sources of dilithium in the system that sealed its importance without doubt.
Tom flew over the surface and saw lots of desert like terrain. It did not look hospitable and had very little natural vegetation. There wasn't a water source on the planet so plant life had no opportunity to flourish here.
"Charming bloody place," Tom retorted, watching the console showing the digitised image of the landscape below. "Remind me to take Alex here on our next holiday."
"I was just thinking about buying a vacation property here," Derick replied, shaking his head. "They obviously didn't terraform it before they started digging into it, did they? Oxygen's thinner than Earth norm but not by much." Pulling up another screen on the HUD, he frowned. "Landing pad's offline. Like.. completely blacked out. Want me to get out and shine a light?"
"Yeah, get the external strobes out on the landing sight but only before we set down. I'll try to bring her in on digital as much as I can." If something was wrong, best to keep their arrival to a quiet for as long as they could.
Tom saw the silhouette of the colony appearing and yes, structures were still intact but there was no signs of internal power anywhere. "We pack a portable generator in this crate?" He assumed they would.
"Two of them." Always, just in case one didn't work. "There's no life signs either," Derick told him. "But.. the dilithium in the soil and bedrock can block LSD's," he said, hoping…
God he hoped they wouldn't find a colony full of dead people.
Tom didn't like this any more than Derick did. Carrie was down there and while he kept telling Derick to keep his mind out of the gutter, he rather liked the woman in a platonic way. She reminded him of Alex and they had become friends since their meeting during that evacuation on Bajor 5 a while ago. He didn't like to think she was dead.
"Any signs of seismic disturbance?" Tom inquired as they came up on the colony and saw that nothing seemed relatively out of place, excepting the lack of life and power.
After a moment, Derick answered. "None besides, the colony sits on a giant slab of bedrock for that reason, so the seismic activity doesn't bother it. Nothing atmospheric either, nothing out of the ordinary. This is fucking creepy," he commented. "Like a ghost town."
"Yeah," Tom nodded in agreement, almost expecting to see tumbleweeds rolling across the street. "Right then, turn on the bulbs, I'm going to make my landing. I want to do it quick so on my mark, flare up." He instructed.
The ship began its descent, lowering into the colony whose tallest building was no more than four floors high and only after Tom had disappeared beneath the skyline, his eyes watching the contours on the digital screen carefully, did he look to Derick. "Now."
Around the ship, strobes flared brilliantly into the darkness, shedding absolutely no more clues about the colony than before except to show them where to land. "We shouldn't have watched Aliens last night," Derick commented, running an air test again, to be sure the atmosphere was breathable.
"That's not funny," Tom tossed him a look as he brought down the Sparta because he had watched it too and those bloody aliens in that picture were bloody savage fuckers. "However, if you see anything that looks like its about to jump on your face, shoot it. And I don't mean Naza."
"She only sits on my face, she doesn't jump," Derick commented dryly, not looking up from the readouts scrolling across his screen.
The Sparta descended slowly, bathed in bright white light as it set down on the landing pad. Tom noted in the illumination there were no other ships on location, not even a Hopper - a Bajoran version of a large scaled skimmer, used to carry miners and equipment across the surface. Maybe the colonists did a runner. For Carrie's sake, he hoped that was the case. The Sparta touched down on the ground with a gentle thud and Tom said automatically, "turn off the strobes."
The place descended into darkness once more, before Tom had even finished his sentence. "Switching to infrared on the HUD." Within a second, the HUD had gone from night-black to the odd shades of greens and blacks. While there hadn't been life signs and there was no power, MACO's didn't live long if they at least didn't plan ahead.
Derick panned the viewer all around the transport. "Nothing," he said, shaking his head.
Tom didn't like this, not one damn bit. "Alright," he said shutting off all systems, "let's get out there and see what's going on in this place."
"Yep." Unbuckling himself, Derick got to his feet easily and moved to the back. "Alright, listen up," he said. "Colony's dead in the water, no power, no life signs, no nothing," he began, glancing back at Tom. "You want to split us up? Two teams? North and South sides?"
"That's right," Tom emerged from the cockpit. "We go in quiet. Strictly search for now until we work out if anyone's home."
"Alright. Bravo and Charlie Squad, you're with me," Derick announced. "Break out your CG's too, full infrared," he said, pulling the combat glasses/goggles combo from his pack. "Time to see if the lowest bidder was any good. That includes you, Thing One," he told Luke. "Hartwood, you got the radio."
"Roger that," Cori responded, dutifully remembering that you did not use rank in a situation like this. It was the fastest way to get your seniors killed.
"You heard the Captain" Ren prompted everyone into movement, remembering to check her own gear as well. Going up to Derick she asked, "what its like out there?"
Through the window she could see darkness but thought perhaps Derick might have a better view.
"Dark and damned fucking eerie. We should not have watched Aliens last night," he told her. "O2's a little thin and aside from the power being out, it looks normal. Nothing's wrong."
"Well we could have watched Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood but you had to be difficult," she dead panned. The hatch slid open and the ramp extended outwards, allowing a gust of cold air to rush into the place. Ren felt a slight shudder. "People, suit up for cold if you need it. I don't want to hear anyone's teeth chattering on voice com."
"Hey.. Elena Rose was Ripley, how could I not watch it?" Derick grinned at her, shaking his jacket out of his pack. Shrugging into it, he zipped it up. "She was more buff than you," he winked at Ren, slinging his rifle back over his head. "Bravo, Charlie, spread out to the south and set up a perimeter."
"Oh Jeez spare me the Elena Rose love..." Ren groaned as she checked her weapon and did the same, slinging it across her shoulder. "I mean seriously, why even land there? And if I landed, the minute I saw one of those face hugging aliens, I'd have nuked the thing and call it done."
"They couldn't leave the colonists behind," Cori interjected, checking her rifle. Everything seemed to be proper order. "Besides, Mike Teague was Hicks, he's a hottie and we can't leave the hotties behind," she said and added belatedly. "Randolph excluded."
"The hotties are the ones that get you into trouble," Ren said with a smirk. "They're only good for one thing...." she winked at Cori in a moment of feminine solidarity.
"Yeah. Head." Cori grinned back at the red-head.
"Jesus Christ," Derick slapped Ren on the back of her helmet. "Is this payback??"
"And even then..like everything else," Ren winked, stepping forward. "You gotta show em how or they'll fuck that up too."
"Exactly." Cori threw a smirk at the Brothers Randolph and zipped up her jacket. "Cad.. Private Hartwood, ready, sergeant."
"Hey I was born knowing what to do down there," Luke snorted, feeling a little victimised for some reason. "Right?" He looked at Sean.
Sean stared at his brother. "Why the fuck are you asking me, man?" he said, laughing dryly. "Not like I'd fucking know unless you want me to tell them about all the cries I heard out of your room."
"If you're screaming that much Private," Ren threw the young man a wink, walking out of the carrier. "You can't be doing it right."
Luke smiled after her, admiring ass and sighing out loud before leaning forward and asking the question of his Captain, "is she really thatsmoking?"
"Yes, Grasshopper, she is," Derick commented, grinning.
With a grin, Cori sauntered out of the carrier right behind the sergeant and fanned out, as ordered. One hand adjusted the positioning radio attached to the strap of her pack until she felt the very faint buzz against the back of her ear, in the piece hooked over her ear lobe. "We're lined up at the sat," she told Ren, glancing back to where Sean and Luke were coming off the carrier as well and adjusted the sight on her CG's.
"Good," Ren nodded, "Try and see if you can pick up any signals." Her eyes scanned the area and it was eerie. There was nothing. The wind whistled in the darkness and Ren followed the line of buildings around her. "Structure's still intact," she commented to Derick.
The last one out of the Sparta, Tom came down the ramp and strode over to his comrades. "I've tried scanning for LSD's now that we're scraping belly but there's nothing…" he shook his head. "It could be the dilithium interference but it could be genuine. Alright, advance by squads, no stragglers and keep an open channel. Report anything unusual."
"Right Colonel," Ren nodded, all traces of earlier mischief vanished from her face. Ren was back in job mode.
"And incidentally Ren," Tom added with a smirk of his own. "We only fuck up when you lasses can't shut up long enough for us get on with it."
"Well, if we didn't get so bored, we would shut up," Cori returned, brassiness not at all stunted by the fact the man she was addressing was a high-ranking officer. "If it's not done right, we get bored."
Stifling a laugh, Derick cleared his throat. "There's been no seismic activity," he told Ren, focusing on the task at hand.
Right, both Ren and Tom shifted their head s back into the game. The mission.
"The mines are about five miles from here aren't they?" Ren asked, recalling what Derick had said about explosions earlier. "You'd think they'd be here after they blew that up. As a fall back position."
"Unless they got taken out in the blast too." Tom commented. "Well let's do our survey and see what we can find. No point standing around here holding our dicks, guessing."
"Charlie, Bravo follow me, road formation," Derick told his teams. "Lorio, you're on point."
"Roger that," the Corporal said and jogged ahead of the group to the front as the moved out. Behind them, Derick nodded to Tom. "Radio check every ten?"
Tom swept his gaze across the colony and nothing he saw made him feel at all comfortable.
"Five," he said firmly.
"Five, affirmative," he said, moving out behind his group.
**********
More than thirty minutes later after both Bravo and Charlie squad had done their sweeps of the entire colony, Tom found himself inside the main command centre of the colony facility. There had been signs of disturbance. In some places some pretty horrific blood splatters that could have only meant certain death to whomever had shed it. These were mostly detected on the outside walls of buildings while inside some doors was ripped apart like nothing he had ever seen. However, there were no bodies.
Not a single one.
Tom listened to the reports and stepped the office of the missing Administration Head with Derick to get his report, leaving Ren to attend the squad.
"This is fucking creepy," Cori whispered to Sean and Luke. "Food still on their plates, clothes in washers full of water. It's like Croatoa, back on Earth."
Luke was just as disturbed as Cori but he was hiding it better. He was convinced that this wasn't Xindi, at least not the Xindi they knew.
For once however, he shut the fuck up until he had more evidence.
*******
Inside the building, Derick took in the relatively lack of disorder in the main office, with the exception of a blood spatter along the wall. "Definitely looks human or even Bajoran," he said, straightening up from his examination of it. "What do you think? Mutiny? Still doesn't explain why they set off explosions that close to a mine," he said, one hand idly gripping his phaser rifle. "Pirates? This doesn't look like an Orion swipe and go."
"No," Tom didn't think it was any of those things, the images of how those doors had been broken into still fresh on his mind. "What do you know can punch its way through steel the way these doors were?" He asked Derick "And can cause a blood splatter like this. What race do we know ever kills like this. It wasn't just arterial spray, its splatter."
Tom was pacing, pacing because something was nagging at him, quickly turning this thing from a simple recon into something far more sinister. "Whatever it was, I think the colonists tried to lead it to the mines and attempted to blow it up while there."
Tom realised he was using the word it a lot as opposed to them.
Klingons might be able to do a door like that but even then, it would have to be a dozen berserker enraged shell faces. About to comment on that, Derick spied something odd under the administrator's desk. Pulling his rifle up, he motioned for Tom to be quiet and moved around the desk.
"Tom, we need to get back to the fucking transport, now," Derick breathed, booting what he'd seen out from under the desk. The large lump of something landed dully out in the open, in the moonlight streaming through the window. What Derick had seen was a foot, a humanoid one still attached to a length of shinbone that was exposed and covered in blackened, dried blood.
Watching it, Derick noticed something else in that patch of light. Dried blood... with the oddest track he'd ever seen preserved into to the gelled goo. "Fuck, it's not a who, it's a what..."
Tom's gaze followed what Derick had kicked but instead of backing away, when over to the appendage and picked it up, face recoiling in disgust as he picked it up.
"Give me some light," he ordered, taking it to the desk.
Derick clicked on the Taclight on his rifle, shining it on the gruesome clue.
Putting down the grisly find against the administrator's desk, Tom leaned in close wanting to examine the limb or what remained of it. "Flash that light here," he ordered, finger examining the cut and tear of bone and flesh as if he were a surgeon.
"There.." Derick unlocked the light from the rifle and held it closer.
Leaning forward, he studied the wounds. No cauterized cut, or even serration against the bones, not even gnaw marks. "Whatever did this," Tom commented, "severed the bone in one clean cut. There's no signs of heat either, so it wasn't a phaser and the cut isn't smooth enough for a blade."
"So what are you saying? It was snapped clean in two?" Derick didn't like this. At all. Not with green soldiers outside on a fucking ghost planet. "There's nothing here big enough to do that unless mad cow just took on a whole new meaning."
"Look at the tissue," Tom replied running a finger along the torn flesh, "same thing, not cut but still even across and not like a blade. Those things on Mars," Tom put down the thing and looked up at Derick. "Those scorpions you were telling me about once...what were they again?"
"Pinchers," Derick replied, leaning down for a closer look. "But they're only like.. six inches long, if that," he said, fingers measuring the distance for the sake of things. "They had claws, like lobsters though. They were strong enough though to snap..." A weird chill skittered down Derick's spine. "To snap through a finger."
"You saw the doors..." Tom said simply.
"And I've seen the plascrates after those things tore into one because they were hungry... Tom..." This time, Derick was earnest. "We need to get back to the transport. Now."
"Yeah," Tom agreed, "but we can't leave. This body was left behind, why him and not the others?"
"Because they're stillfucking here," Derick hissed, voice quiet. "This is the main office, the main comms are here and if this is some kind of predatory thing, the reason we didn't find any bodies is because there aren't any to find or we haven't searched all the hidey holes in this place. We only did a cursory sweep. You saw the blood," he urged. "We should fall back and wait for the 'Toga."
"I saw the blood but I also wonder if they're still alive, do the colonist have the luxury of us waiting for the Saratoga? We need to get to that mining site and find out what the fuck went down out there." Thinking a moment because Derick was right, there were green troops. "We'll fall back to the transport and go check it out at first light?"
"We can fly out to the mines for all I care. Tom, this isn't like the MULKs." Derick directed the light at the print in the blood. "I'm one of your best trackers but even I don't know what the fuck that's from or even where to begin categorizing it. The Saratoga's scanners are a damn sight better than the transports. They can filter out the dilithium feedback and tell us what's going on."
Tom thought about Carrie and knew that if what he suspected was right, it was too late already. She was already dead. The thought upset him more than he would care to admit but he brushed it aside because they had a job to do.
"Alright," he conceded the point because Derick was freaked out and Derick didn't get freaked out - ever. And having been on the business end of a MULK, Tom had no desire to have a repeat of Jack Avery happening to one those kids out there. "Tell everyone we're heading out, set phase rifles for Setting 2 - shoot to kill."
Outside, Cori frowned and looked down at the radio pack at her waist.
"That's weird," she whispered to no one in particular, having spread out from Sean and Luke to maintain the perimeter. The channel they were on had suddenly developed a pulse and she peeled back the top of the pack to inspect the device inside. As she did so, something wet and sticky splattered against the fabric, a smattering of it onto the back of her hand and for a moment, she was caught in fascinated horror as the nylon and plasthreads just.. melted away as the surface of the radio began to pit. The surprise delayed the pain receptors in her brain but not for long as the burning of her skin registered. "Ouch.. fuck..." she hissed, dashing her hand against her pants and that was when she heard it
A clickityclick... clickity.... When she found it, Cori's jaw opened at the sight of the biggest fucking insect.. thing she'd ever seen. Easily as big as a German Shepherd, the thing had a row of eyes and above that, some kind of appendage that was rearing back and dripping with the same goo that had burned her.
So she did what anyone would do (or at least she hoped). Cori screamed and not at all girly. "Contact left!!" she called out, not bothering to inspect that fucking nightmare any further. "Contact left, Sarge!!!" She brought her rifle up, firing at it only to have the damn thing skitter away into the darkness like a cockroach.
Inside, Derick had just keyed his comm to give the order when he heard that distinct voice yelling out. "Shoot to kill, Sergeant, Sierra Two. Fall back to the transport!"
Ren was already closing into Cori when she heard the exclamation of pain from the young woman. The open channel kept her aware of what each member of the squad was doing for circumstances just like this. "You two, follow me!" Ren ordered Luke and Sean, running out into the corridor from the complex they were in. The were no more than a few dozen feet from Cori when Ren saw something that made her pause.
"Keep going!" She barked at the two brothers.
"Captain.." Ren turned down the corridor leading away from the others, going to investigate the shadowy movement she had seen. "I'm just going down Corridor 11," she reported, boots thunking along the metal grate.
A door waited a the end of the corridor and what had caught her eyes was a sudden flutter of light that looked like shadows moving. The only light illuminating the place came from the mounted torch on her weapon as she closed in, saw the distinct shape of something moving. Derick's last order had impacted on her brain and she adjusted her phaser rifle accordingly.
Slowly, she entered the room and discovered it to be a storage bay of some kind, with high ceilings and a large external doors on the other side of the room. However, this was secondary to the large hole in the ground, where concrete shattered into thousand fragments.
"Uh Captain," Ren said backing out of the room immediately, "they're coming through the floor!"
Inside, Derick snapped the taclight back onto his rifle, thumbing the setting to kill. "All units, fall back to the transport immediately! Richards, what's your twenty?"
"This is Randolph!" Sean's voice came over the channel and in the background of his call, Derick could hear phaser fire in odd stereo with what was filtering back to him unaided. "Insects.. big ones, like dogs!!"
"No way," Tom shook his head, knowing it was not that simple as he hurried out of the administrator's office with Derick, "too small. What snapped that bone was a lot fucking bigger."
"I can attest to that." Ren Richard Hayes said almost calmly.
It wasn't the size of a dog.
Not unless Lassie had taken steroids and had grown. The thing in front of her was all legs, pinchers, standing at least eight feet tall. It moved like nothing she had ever seen and for a split second, her shock was so that she allowed it to get close. When she saw it swing one of those pinchers…whatever the fuck it was. Ren reacted, diving for the floor when it lunged. If she hadn't it would have speared her like a fish. Rolling across the floor, she opened fire, the phaser took out one of its legs but that didn't slow it down, not in the slightest. It had more than four and was quite capable of managing without one of them. The speed in which it moved was unbelievable and Ren fired again, finding herself back to the wall as it closed in. Firing almost blindly, she took out another leg and then another.
She drove it to the ground within two feet of her and tried to get past. With one of its legs, it moved with amazing agility and caught her in the shoulder, right through her armour, through flesh and bones. The scream it took from her came without Ren even knowing it had left her lips.
"FUCK!" She growled and aimed the phaser rifle at what loosely its head and fired at point blank rage, one after the other. Gritting her teeth to keep from groaning, the room flashed with the light of multiple phase blasts until the thing which had been poised to drive one more pincher through her chest, collapsed in a heap.
"A LITTLE FUCKING HELP HERE!!" She shouted.