Hunting Bugs

Posted on Sat May 9th, 2026 @ 11:06pm by Commodore Jacob Kane & Lieutenant Didrea Zade

Mission: Aeon's End
Location: Deck 8
Timeline: Sometime during the Intruder Alert
1355 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

The red alert had snapped Zade's attention away from the data she and P'Rel had been sorting through, and a few seconds later the ship shuddered. She grabbed her desk so she wouldn't be tossed across her office, silently thankful that she had finally gotten that damn brace off. A system alert appeared on her screen: INTRUDER ALERT - DECK 9. With comms unstable, she pushed the message through the ship's intact hardline to help the alert carry across the ship.

Standing, she rushed out of her office to see the security department already rushing. "We have an intruder alert on deck 9," she called out, grabbing her own phaser rifle. "Prepare for a large response. Set weapons to heavy stun!" She rapidly listed off security officer names to delegate them into two main teams. "Team Alpha, we're locking down deck eight. Beta, get to deck ten. We're going to box them in! Comms are unstable, so spread the order to anyone you find, and remember: do not go anywhere alone!"

That was several minutes ago. The teams fanned out into pairs to get to their respective positions. Zade and her partner tried using the Jefferies tubes to get to deck 8. They had started hearing rapid clicking, the sound carrying in the hollow tubes. The sound of weapons fire also carried, though it sounded distant. They had to retreat when a set of mandibles broke through one of the hatches, and scrambling backwards while shooting was not effective in close quarters. With about a dozen shots, they finally took out the creature, but with it blocking their path, they had to detour.

The pair eventually scrambled out of a tube entrance on deck 8, and the officer closed off the hatch while Zade kept watch. Her breathing was heavy, no thanks to her recovery period, but she was alert, eyes scanning for any more of those... things. Once the other officer touched her shoulder to indicate he was ready, they began to move down the corridor, stopping at wall panels to seal off certain access points to deck 9. Not all of them, in case crew needed escape paths, but enough to funnel anyone in the tubes into controlled exits.

At the other end of the corridor, Kane hunched with three members of the security detail. So far they had heard noise, and found one grisly aftermath of an encounter, but they were yet to come across a living intruder. Yet. Moving carefully to the next intersection, he caught sight of the other team led by Zade. For a long moment he locked eyes with her, a silent check in. You okay? All good. Let's stay focused.

He could feel the deck shift. That was unusual in itself, until he realised that the vibration was coming from the room directly between himself and Zade's group. A door suddenly caved open rather than slid aside, and something monstrously large emerged like a creature emerging from a nest. Kane wasn't one to hesitate in a moment of crisis, but this thing gave him pause. It was massive, almost filling the corridor, and ugly. And intimidating, with the front mandibles.

"Open fire!" he grunted, dropping to a knee and letting fly with phaser fire.

Zade barely had time to acknowledge Kane's look before the creature appeared, and she quickly moved out of the way of crossfire. Thanks to the brief encounter in the tubes, she wasn’t caught off guard as much as Kane was. "Heavy stun!" She wasn't sure if Kane and the security officers with him knew that yet, but better to be redundant than uninformed.

The creature shrieked as it was pummeled by weapons fire from multiple directions. It wasn't clear at first whether it was going to go down or not; the weapons fire was having some effect, but it was negligible.

"Damn...up the settings. Way up," Kane said to his detail, not letting up for a moment as his finger turned the compression rifle up to maximum setting and his fire resumed. This time the creature started to shudder from the sustained and concentrated fire. At least five phasers on repeated fire were just about enough to penetrate the carapace, and the smell of something burning joined the squeals of the flanked invader.

"Zade! Aim for the thing's face if you can!" he barked down the hall.

Zade's nose scrunched at the smell, and at Kane's command she paused just long enough to up her own settings before aiming between the two mandibles trying to grasp at anything within reach. She fired, the energy beam drilling into its head.

That did the trick.

The frontal carapace seemed to implode as the energy build up shattered something beneath it. The scream was bone-jarring, but it was worth it to see the thing go down.

"You okay, Lieutenant? I've not had contact from any of the other teams on this deck," Kane called out.

Zade found herself panting as she watched the creature collapse, despite only standing there to shoot at the damn thing, then glanced toward Kane when he called out to her. "I'm fine," she called back. "The security teams are trying to kettle them in... get down!!" her eyes widened as she saw another of those creatures come around the corridor. She ignored her body's complaints as she rushed forward to get a better angle, then opened fire. The change in position also put her closer to Kane in case she needed to get him out of there.

Not one for being happy about being caught flat-footed in a tactical situation, Kane scowled and motioned for the men with him to continue to pour on the phaser fire.

"They're tanking phasers like nothing I've ever seen," he grunted, drawing closer to Zade. "No wonder Starfleet in our time had trouble with them. We need communications with the rest of the ship. And sensors, to figure out how many of these damn ticks are burrowed into our hull." In his mind, given the size and shape of the craft outside, it couldn't have been that many.

The invader down the hall screeched as withering fire finally breached its carapace.

"What's your status, Lieutenant? I know that medically you're banged-up, but I need my Security Chief right now."

The ramifications of sudden movement soon caught up to Zade, and she pressed the side of a fist into the wall as she shifted weight off of her leg. It may have been healed enough to get out of the brace, but she hadn't been scheduled for training yet to get the leg used to action again. "I said I'm fine!" She snipped, though her frustration was more with her own body's limitations than it was his questions. Grimacing at her own tone, she tried again. "Sorry. I have the security teams trying to box in these things before they get all over the ship. They're restricting access on both sides to make it easier to take them out. For comms, teams are instructed to use the LCARS to send messages when they can. Can't be helped until the comms array can be fixed, but I know how my team works. They'll be fine."

With a frustrated huff, she pushed away from the wall and began down the corridor a short distance to where a weapons locker was. The slight limp to her gait only made Zade clench her jaw as it forced attention to the one thing she was trying to ignore. "These damn things will have to kill me before I go back on medical leave again," she grumbled. Entering in her access code, she grabbed extra cells for the rifles, distributing them amongst the group.

As much as making a joke to lighten the mood would've worked in that moment, Kane was more inclined to assert control and encourage greater focus from the small team that was left. "We seem to have cleared them from this section. Let's sweep further aft, make double-sure, then reconnect with the teams the next deck down. Smooth and efficient. Let's move out."