Running Riot

Posted on Sat Jan 15th, 2022 @ 9:25am by Commodore Jacob Kane & Lieutenant Kevan Dash & Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant JG FalenvralLi Zh’kyhrihr & Senior Chief Petty Officer Mason Malone

Mission: With Gleaming Eyes
Location: Ithaca II - Cardassian Garrison
Timeline: MD-03 1200hrs (local)
2678 words - 5.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Strangely, Kane was quite looking forward to lunch with Gul Dara. After their conversations the previous day she had once again invited him to spend some time on the surface. It was mildly suspect in his mind that she was paying so much attention to him, trying to get him to spend more time there on the planet and in her company. An Obsidian Order officer would likely be using the opportunities to drill him for information, but it was difficult to see if that was her true aim or if she was merely an exile with strong political views she was desperate to share.

Either way, he was feeling in a relatively pleasant mood. That was broken, however, when he heard his communicator chirp.

"Captain? Uh...you should see this..." Lt Dash's voice broke over the comm. "Trouble by the main compound entrance." Kane turned. He was still a few buildings over from the main entry point to the Cardassian administration sector. Although it had been here a long time it was still a walled garrison, separate from the Metis residences and buildings.

"I'm on my way. Get me Commander Zora," he responded to the security officer as he started to make his way towards the source of the troubles.

When Kane arrived, Lt Dash was already there trying not to look like he was too involved in things. A small group of five or six Metis were arguing with a pair of Cardassian sentries, and it was looking heated. Kane could see a few more squads starting to arrive, just as Zora and Malone turned the opposite corner.

Mason had already been on the planet when he'd been summoned so he met up with the XO first before joining the rest of the group. His eyes were already scanning the area, more out of habit than anything else. "Chief Malone reporting," he announced to Dash, expecting to have to report to him for new orders. Unless he was here as protection detail for the XO, though he assumed the woman was more than capable of defending herself.

Zora watched as the scene unfolded and knew things were only going to get worse. She had been in too many negotiations in her long life she not see the signs of trouble brewing. She spotted the Captain and made her way over. "Sir, do you know what has caused this drama?"

"This is a powder keg," Kane replied, surveying the steadily building numbers on both sides. He couldn't hear the arguments themselves, but the subject matter was fairly clear: anxieties over the outbreak and the disaster at the mine.

"Shouldn't we do something to help?" Kevan wondered. "People are going to get hurt."

"We're not here to manage compound security," Kane replied with a shake of his head. He wanted to intervene, too, but that would go down badly any way they tried to spin it. He looked at his XO. "Think we can calm this down diplomatically?"

"Maybe," Zora said as she eyed both sides of the confrontation. "But they have to want to talk, and neither side look prepared to settle this peacefully."

Entering the city from the shuttle landing pad, Li noticed a distinct lack of security patrols on the outskirts of town but, as she approached the administration compound, that changed drastically. In several side alleys, she saw groups of them gathered, some in armor beyond the typical uniform, having very intense-looking meetings. It was hard to gather much without obvious eavesdropping as they all turned to stare at her when she came into view, but she did catch scraps of blustery posturing. ". . . Finally giving us an excuse . . . Been waiting to show those menials how I feel . . . the utter gall! Right by the gates! Like it's still their planet . . ."

She heard the shouts of the gathering before she turned the corner to see them. Any one of the patrols she'd just passed would outnumber the Metis she saw there, but a few more were arriving. She could see Starfleet uniforms in closer, but took a position off to the side for now, as unobtrusively as she could.

The voices grew louder until everyone was shouting over one another, screaming for their point to be heard.

"This is your fault!"

"You don't belong here!"

"We didn't destroy the mining complex!"

"It's time for you to leave!"

Zora was about to order a security detail in riot gear beam down to subdue the situation, when she saw a young Metis hurl something at the Cardassian guards. The device exploded on impact, knocking the Cardassian and two others backwards and off their feet. The scene was swiftly illuminated in orange flames and Zora could feel the heat from where she was standing. This was all the provocation the Cardassians needed, steadying their phaser rifles and shooting aimlessly into the crowd of Metis. They weren't even trying to help their fallen comrades, just causing as much injury as possible. Without thinking, Zora rushed towards the flaming men, disappearing into the cloud of thick smoke.

Without pause, Mason rushed after her, reaching out to pull her back. "Where the hell are you going ma'am!" he shouted after her, "what are you hoping to do.... get shot instead?"

"Comman-!" Kane barked, but knew it was too late to change his XO's mind. Besides, typical protocol would have him on the bridge of the ship and not down here at such risk. He looked at Dash. "This is going to turn into a bloodbath. Get an emergency medical team down here now, and try to get the wounded clear for aid." He spotted Lt Li loitering in the background, and motioned her forward as he waved the security men away. "We need to separate the Metis from the Cardassians. Any suggestions?"

Li watched things get steadily worse, from shouting to incendiaries to phaser fire. She wanted to step in, but options were short for anything that wouldn't make the situation worse. When she saw the XO wade into the smoke and the fire, she nearly followed her, but a squad of Cardassians stomped right by her position, brushing her back. Once they'd passed, she saw the Captain gesture for her and readied to move in closer.

Her eyes had been on the street - the center of the unrest, the troops around her, the other Starfleet officers. She hadn't really looked up until she heard the crack of a chemical projectile from behind and above her. Before she could turn around, something caught her eye in a window of the Cardassian administration building. Someone had been standing there. Watching. Someone in very fancy-looking Cardassian civilian garb. She missed her chance to identify who it was. To see their face. She only saw a bloom of blood erupt as the sniper's shot obliterated their head.

Had it been a target of opportunity? Someone this mess had been intended to draw out? She had no idea but, even as she turned her head, she heard the gun fire several more times, taking out security squad leaders. By the time she found the window the shooter was using, all she saw was a hooded figure pulling back into the shadows. She spun and darted toward the Captain. "I'm not sure this is a fire we can put out, sir."

Kane grimaced, knowing that the Lieutenant was probably right. Politically, getting involved would turn this skirmish into a disaster for Starfleet. "The fires," he replied. "We can put the fires out. Extinguishing foam is non-lethal; we can spray it into the hot-zone. That way it'll slow down whatever riot is about to break out as well as give us the excuse that we're not directly interfering with either side."

Some of the nearby structures were starting to catch fire as several more - less effective and clearly more improvised - incendiaries were hurled toward the center of the disturbance. Was it strange that no local firefighting response was on the scene? Li didn't have much experience with riots. Maybe they were waiting until things calmed down. Maybe Public Safety was a general umbrella and the same troops currently engaged would normally be the ones to put out fires - if they'd bother on this side of the barrier. If it was going to be up to them to put out the fires, she'd do what she could. =^= Athena, this is Lt. Li on the ground. I need the damage control officer to beam down the biggest manual fire extinguisher they can get to a transporter ASAP. Direct to me. =^=

"NO, protect the Captain," Zora said back to Malone as she shrugged him off. "I need to save this man." She made her way into the centre of the commotion, no idea if the security officer was still on her heel or not. She scrambled around as low as she could to avoid being a target for the Metis or the Cardassians. She found the man who was still smouldering on the ground, he didn't look so good. Zora pulled off her jacket and wrapped it around the man, killing the rest of the flames that were still there. "Zora to Athena, medical emergency. Beam the Cardassian next to me directly to sickbay."

"Yes Ma'am,we have a lock," a voice said on the other end of the com line.

"Energise," Zora said as she moved out of the way of the transporter beam. The familiar light appeared but before Zora could get herself out of the way, something heavy struck her head and she fell to the ground.

Mason was torn. She had given him a direct order which he couldn't really ignore, but on the other hand, wasn't he duty bound to protect her too? Kevan was with the captain, he could offer him protection. So, going against his orders, he dashed into the smoke and after the first officer.

It took him a few seconds to locate her, after hearing her call for transport. Then... nothing. "Commander!" He called out, hoping for a response. When there was none, he focused on where her voice had come from but it still took what felt like an eternity before he found her. High on alert, he knelt at her side and tapped his comm badge. "Malone to Dash. Get the captain out of here... I'm with Zora, she is unconscious. Keep an open comm, I'll try to get her out of here."

"Uhhh...Captain?" Kevan looked at Kane, who'd heard the comm.

"We're working on it," the Captain replied. "Lieutenant Li, how's that fire-suppression coming?"

A shimmer appeared next to Li as a backpack with two large and one small tank attached to a comparatively dinky-looking wand materialized. It wasn't one of the little handheld fire extinguishers you'd find stashed around the ship, but one of the big, worst-case-scenario bits of kit everyone trained on for damage control in parts of a ship where the automatic fire-suppression system was known to be out. She shouldered the pack, hoping the appearance of it didn't make her too attractive a target for anyone shooting right now.

"On it now, sir," she responded, moving in and hitting the trigger on the wand. What started as a thin stream of high-pressure fire suppressant foam expanded rapidly, coating people nearby and even knocking one over. It was, after all, intended for putting out ships on fire, not people. She worked toward the center, looking for the XO, turning the stream on Metis and Cardassians alike.

Zora stirred as she looked up at Mason, 'I think that's Mason' she thought to herself, her head struggling to compute as all of her senses continued to feed her information all at once. "I'm okay," she mumbled as she raised her hand to where she had been kicked. There was no blood, but she could feel the bruise forming. She spotted the form first, and thought she was imagining it, but then saw that it was Li wielding the extinguisher. "My blue hero."

Though clearly dazed, it was a relief to see Commander Zora's eyes open. "Chief, I'll cover you as best I can," Li said. She leaned forward to counteract the pressure of the extinguisher as she kept triggering it, aiming toward fire but more than incidentally toward still angry-looking groups around them.

Kane watched the clouds spread and the foam start to cause the Metis to disperse. A number of Cardassians looked disgruntled at the intrusion but their weapons began to lower and the tension ease a little.

"Commander? Are you in there?" Kane barked into the chaos.

Mason gritted his teeth and shook his head in annoyance. Why were commanding officers so damn stubborn? He was still kneeling beside Zora, carefully helping her up into a sitting position. "Stay like this for a moment, while I checked you over," he told her, his tone carrying a note of authority which his former marine life as a sergeant had taught him. "Here captain!" He finally called out.

Kane approached, wafting his arm to clear the air.

"Looks like things are defusing," he observed, dropping to a knee next to his XO. "Are you okay? I'm not sure if that was particularly brave or stupid. Perhaps both."

Zora sat up and smiled at the Andorian, then the security officer, and finally the captain. "Definitely both," she replied. "But I saved the Cardassian, which will help with relations to their government. Are you okay Captain?"

"Physically." Kane looked around at the mess around them. He'd been clear of the trouble; ironically in his days as an XO he probably would have been as brash as Zora in charging into the fray, but as Captain those temperaments had been forced down. Now he had to consider the bigger picture, and how this would impact on the growing tensions between the Metis and Cardassians. He looked at Li, Mason and Dash. "We should do our best to clear these streets. No telling how much more trouble they could stir up."

Li took her eyes off the largely retreating Metis and the Cardassians who seemed to be gathering in cohesive units again, ready to mount either a defense or an assault - she couldn't tell which was more likely - and scanned the upper windows of nearby buildings. "Yeah, I'm not feeling too safe out in the open like this. Someone took a shot across the square. I didn't see who they hit, but I saw someone go down in the Cardassian complex. So be aware of snipers as a risk here."

"Get the Commander clear for medical attention," Kane said. "I was on my way to speak with the Gul. No doubt she'll be interested in all of this as well."

Zora was about to protest that she didn't need medical attention but the look on his stern face made her think otherwise, instead she turned her attention to Li. "If there are snipers in the area, make sure you all stay undercover. And one of you stay with the captain," she added, turning to the two security officers present.

Kevan nodded sharply. "You got it, ma'am."

Kane stopped short of making a correction. Once again, were their roles reversed he might have done similarly. "Once you're set, catch up with the medical team. We're going to need a fix for this problem soon."

"I'll stay with the captain," Mason offered quietly.

"I'll get back to the shuttle," Li said. "Keep it warm so if anyone does need a physical presence I can bring that in. Though the other shuttle should be rotating in soon. I'll make sure my relief is fully up to date on everything going on down here."

Zora clambered to her feet, with the help of Mason. Her head was spinning, but otherwise, she felt fine. She gave the group a final look and then pressed the combadge on her chest. "Zora to Athena, one to beam up." And with the familiar feeling of warmth and weightlessness, she was gone.