The Romulans are coming, by sea, by sea!

Posted on Sun Nov 27th, 2022 @ 7:57am by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D & Lieutenant Kevan Dash & Ensign Ziahli Lorel & Senior Chief Petty Officer Mason Malone

Mission: Scylla and Charybdis
Location: Tactical Craft 6:JF. // USS AVALON
Timeline: After "Deckers"
5451 words - 10.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Praetorian Colonel Rin Takar ran a black gloved hand over the newly embossed golden rank insignia running up his left forearm. He had found himself inwardly rolling his eyes whenever he thought about the rank since it had been bestowed; truly the only Praetorian officers were those attached to the office of the Praetor, and it was little else but self indulgent for V’rel to have given him this rank. But, such was the new way of things since their beloved Romulus and it’s neighbouring rock full of Reman scum had been obliterated in the Hobus blast; new Praetors popping up all over the Quadrant, grandiose claims of leadership and entitlement so numerous that one could take none of them seriously. Little Praetors, as Rin called them.

Nonetheless, it was a meaningful gesture from V’rel in her own way. The Captain of the Taleth could, and often did, show favour and gratitude using her immense wealth; certainly she could have awarded him lands on any of the moons she owned, or more substantial riches - but this was a more personal thank you. Incredulous and outwardly meaningless to be sure, but still a sincere gesture of friendship from the woman whom he’d been with since she began her one ship campaign. Queen of her particular hill, and the hill was wherever she damn well wanted to put it.

“Thirty seconds to impulse burn” the pilot informed him. He looked to his left and nodded to the cockpit, then down to his right to face the dozen centurions he had selected; like him they were each firmly secured into the sides of the small craft with large bulky supporting straps and personal inertial dampener units built into them. He twirled a finger around and pointed up, giving the signal that each should don their EV head gear. As they all did so, his HUD just out his right eye confirmed all were fully suited and ready to go.

“I shall look forward to executing any Starfleet who has survived this….” sneered one of his centurions, to whom the others replied to with approving sinister chuckles.

“Any man who takes a life without my order shall lose both his and the life of the man beside him…” Rin stated, correcting his zealous soldiers. The youth of today, so full of rage and hate towards Starfleet, misplaced blame for the aborted evacuation programme. “This is a professional operation centurions….Any survivors shall be retained for interrogation, and ransoming if valuable enough…”

“And if they are not of value…?” another asked.

“That is for Teth to determine…” he replied, recalling an ancient human idiom - ‘ours is not to question why, ours is but to do and die…’.

“Brace brace brace” the pilot warned, and Rin became alarmed and immediately comforted that the reason he hadn’t felt the sudden impulse ramming burst was in fact because the small personal dampeners were working perfectly. Though some had expressed concern that they wouldn’t make it as far as the Avalon, Rin had been certain that the Starfleet Captain on the Athena would be far less comfortable attacking a small craft than he would be firing on an entire warbird; the former being outright murder. Thankfully he had been proved correct, and the course to a weak point on the Avalon hull had been uneventful; though the ventral docking ports had been the primary targets, secondary locations had been prepared such as ramming through the deflector array, and shuttlebay, or even into the large fore windows of the CO’s quarters. This was the preferred target however. A central location from which they could disperse in any direction, their EV tactical suits masking their movements without a linear path they had to follow, were they to have entered via for shuffle bay.

The small craft shuddered and Rin felt a significant pressure on his left side as he was pressed into the sides of the restraining compartment. The carnage around him was an odd sight to reconcile with his relatively peaceful physical experience; the vessel had suddenly buckled in places with conduit and braces littering the previously clean ship. Coolant and atmospheric gases began to flood the compartment as he noticed that one of the centurions ID icons had turned red, glancing to his left he also noted the non survivable damage to the cockpit, and the limp hand poking from a tangle of hull and debris flowing green. “Position one” he ordered, without missing a beat despite to the two fatalities.

Swarming from blast hatches on either side of the craft, Rin exited first on the starboard side. The team, as per their briefing, used their combat scanners mounted in the rifles like scopes to pan across the entire room. No resistance. They were where they wanted to be, the shuttle had penetrated the docking collar and come to a rest in an adjacent cargo bay. Whilst the shuttle was throwing a containment field behind it to seal the hull breach, it hadn’t been clear if it would last very long from the simulations. “Position two” he ordered, keen to move his men away from the wrecked shuttle and the holes left behind it.

One man short, two columns of soldiers headed right for the internal door, leading into the Avalon. As they did so, a minor thud could be felt through the deck plate. “Colonel Takar, the Starfleet vessel must have docked” one of his soldiers informed him.

“Position three” he responded, and the twelve of them barrelled through the doorway and into the corridors, though they had memorised they route to the bridge, the HUDS in their helmets acted as a navigation aide, overlaying a pathway for them. Arriving at the EPS junction which had been their first target, the team set into a cover position whilst their field engineer set about trying to add their command router into the grid to be able to divert power to key systems. They must either recover the ship, or the sensor array, or not return - few knew more so than Rin just how serious V’rel was when she gave those orders.

Swearing, the engineer shook his head and informed them that the grid was locked into some kind of diagnostic, preventing access. It was one or the scenarios he had devised, and simply nodded once with a calm response - “Plan B, position one”. Returning to their transit formation, the twelve men headed down the corridor to the access shaft which would lead them into a room adjacent to the bridge, from there they could achieve the same goals, albeit with the risk of tactical engagement.

His point man raised a hand and all of them stopped dead in their tracks. His fingers flashing five and then two, before pointing down a corridor to their left side. Though their helmet comms were externally inaudible, it was possible that they had been breached; Rin gave hand signals to his men to take up positions round the corridor junction. Their auditory sensors could now pick them up; several persons presumable Starfleet were heading their way. Looking down the corridor to a T junction, the first of a subsequent series of beacon lights from Starfleet phaser rifles lit up the floor and bulkhead as a Starfleet team drew nearer. Squeezing his own rifle deep into his shoulder for steadiness, he readied himself to fire.

The first person, passed the T junction in a Starfleet EV suit, then a second, a third; now there were five of them within view out of the seven. Stood around seemingly deciding which direction to take. Deciding for them, he fired and a green bolt lanced straight down the corridor and into the chest of one of the Starfleet crew. His men followed, and a hail of green weapons bursts barrelled down the corridor taking them by surprise and dropping several of them before they had time to react. Pulling back around the corner to avoid the returned orange phaser beams, Rin poked himself back around to lay off another shot and grinned at the four lifeless bodies inside EV bodies strewn over the floor. Only three Starfleet left to deal with…though it was only a hope that reinforcements were not sent.

The realization that their unwanted company didn't show up on sensors meant that Zade and the group she called had to search for them the hard way. The group was standing in a four-way corridor intersection, and Zade was about to give them instruction when she heard weapons fire behind her. "Take cover!" She yelled, before something sharp hit her left shoulder. The hit sent her forward to the ground, the impact forcing her breath out of her lungs. Beside her, she heard several others land on the floor, one falling into her field of vision. She could see blood and things she didn't want to identify speckling the glass of the helmet, and she knew whoever it was was killed instantly.

Mason skidded to a stop, pressing himself against the wall at the first shots were fired. Hands firmly gripped around the phaser he held, now pressed to his chest as he tried to make himself as flat as possible. He glanced at the four bodies lying just a few paces away, not knowing if any of them were still alive. One definitely looked dead, the face plate of the EV suit completely bloodied and destroyed.

Knowing she'd be shot again if she moved, Zade waited until she heard a pause in the weapons fire before she sucked in a breath and quickly pushed herself up. She scrambled around the nearest corner, a flash of green buzzing her helmet as she got behind the wall. Looking back at the intersection, Zade saw burn marks on the three lying in the corridor, two in the chest and one on the back of a helmet. The suits made it hard to identify signs of life, but the hits were too close to vital organs for them to survive. She got lucky. Her eyes shifting to the opposite corridor from her, she saw two people still standing, and turning her head she saw a third person next to her. A hissing noise in Zade's suit caught her attention, and she slapped a hand over her shoulder to try and stop the leak, wincing at the impact to the injury. As far as she knew, life support was still one of the inactive systems, which meant she needed to get this under control or she'd be less than useless. Her left arm felt weighed down as her hand searched for something to seal off the leak. "Report," she said through the suit comms.

Not in charge, Mason would leave the report to those in a better position to do so than him. Instead, he looked towards her suit, and her injury. "You need a medic," he said quietly, "and some sealant." Surely, she did have sealant with her?

Luckily, she did have sealant in her pocket. She pulled the tube out and set it on her lap to open it. "The sealant will have to do," she responded to Mason's voice. The sealant was ready, so she quickly removed her hand from her shoulder, grabbed the tube, and squeezed it onto the hissing hole in the suit. Since it was hard to see with the helmet, she guessed how much she would need and added a little extra, just in case. Once the sealant was in place, she dropped the bottle and used her gloved palm to work the stuff into place, ignoring the pain. "Did anyone see how many there are?" She asked, feeling heat radiating off the sealant as it solidified.

"No physical count ma'am," Mason answered, eyes already on his tricorder, "readings say six or seven, they're a little wonky so I'm not entirely sure." He wasn't sure whether it was damage from his earlier fall, or whether it was the radiation, either way his readings weren't clear.

Rin stepped his firing shoulder back around the corner and laid off several more shots, slamming into the corners of the bulkheads and keeping the Starfleet team pinned. His centurions began to fan left and right as he signalled them to try to find a way around to the flank the defenders. “Starfleet!” He shouted, raising a hand for his remaining men to cease fire; pausing briefly to look around he could see two of his men on the floor corresponding to the two additional IDs which had turned red in his HUD. “Lay down arms and surrender. You are outnumbered and surrounded. You will receive no further terms from me; accept this opportunity to live…or don’t,” he threatened, ominously but truthfully.

From the opposite hall of the intersection, their path to Zade and Mason broken by the kill-box corridor, Kevan and Zia took up low positions, trying to guess the state of their comrades.

"You hurt, Zade?" Kevan hissed his question. "I was kinda hoping we could shut this guy up real quick."

Thank the deities that the sealant worked fast. Zade removed her hand from her shoulder and listened for any leaks, glad that all she heard was her own breath in the suit. The initial pain had subsided, instead taking on a dull ache that felt like a sore and overworked muscle. Then Kevan's voice came through her suit, and she looked across the corridor to the other two. Despite the distance, she could see some burn marks from the initial weapons fire that had grazed their suits. They were long streaks instead of a circular impact. "Yes, but I've got two arms," she responded, picking up her phaser with her right hand. The attacker who demanded surrender was not wrong. That first attack had caught them by surprise and the number of attackers was nearly twice the number of remaining Starfleet officers. She also questioned if they would actually live if they surrendered. It was a close call, but her decision couldn't be made with doubt in mind.

As several others security personnel rounded the corner behind them, Zia waved them low and gestured towards the corridor with a nod of her head. Locked in an open gunfight with Romulans hadn't been high on her list of predictions for the day's duties but the telepath narrowed her eyes and focused her senses beyond the blur of disorientation that had threatened her in waves since boarding.

Becoming marginally uneasy at the absence of a response, Rin stepped forward into the corridor flanked by four of his men, two either side, rifles stocked and slowly panning the bulkhead junction where the insolent boarding party were hiding. “I tire of your deliberation, Starfleet!” He shouted, posturing a distinctly aggressive tone when in actual fact he was acutely aware that the longer this standoff went on for, the weaker his position would be. He had no way of obtaining more men, whereas the Athena could easily swarm the Avalon’s corridors with dozens of armed personnel in a matter of minutes. He needed to win this one quickly, or not at all.

Zade was relieved to see more of their own show up behind Kevan and the other person across the corridor, feeling more confident in her next decision. Taking a breath, she made up her mind. "Athena, keep a lock on us in case we need a beamout." Hopefully, they didn't need it. Glancing across the intersection, she used hand signals to tell the group to keep an eye on the intersection behind them. If their reinforcements could come from there, the Romulans could too. Once they truly got surrounded, it was over. Knowing her side of the corridor was severely lacking in numbers, Zade also signalled for cover fire and for a couple of the newcomers to prepare to cross. She knew it was risky, but she didn't want to keep looking over her shoulder and dividing her attention. The Romulans probably wouldn't give them a chance to make the cross, so it had to be now, while they were waiting for a response.

Rin and the others fired off shots as the audacious Starfleet jumped the junction, one direct hit sent an officer flying sideways and crumpling it to the floor, dead; another hit in someone’s leg although they made it to their destination.

Zade then turned so she was facing the wall and readied her phaser, ignoring the foreign sensation of the weapon in her non-dominant hand. Switching the suit's comms so their attackers would hear it, the Trill then shouted, "you are trespassing on Starfleet property! Disengage, now!" Not giving them a chance to react, she shifted just enough to peek into the corridor and fired at the opposite corner where the Romulans were hiding.

Mason crouched low, keeping half an eye on his wonky tricorder and half an eye on his chief, while tightly clutching his phaser in his left hand, ready to fire as soon as the enemy would show itself. He peered across the corridor. "With how many are we?" He asked over his suit's comm, using the closed channel. "Can we take them?"

The offhand phaser beam struck the centurion immediately to his left, causing the remaining four of the Romulans to immediately crouch and open heavy fire. Green disruptor bolts slammed into the corners of the junction, crashing with impact into a flurry of molten metallic sparks. “FM 1” Rin ordered in his helmet comm, and the four took turns to each have a turn at firing down the corridor and manoeuvring back into cover. “Flank teams, advance to contact” he ordered, it being now being less of a priority risk to consider the comms compromised. He and his men continued to lay down heavy fire, keeping the Starfleets pinned despite their valiant efforts to lay off phaser beams, another of which struck a man leaving only himself and two others, with the remaining handful navigating corridors to entrap the Starfleet crew. A distorted crackle muffled a barely audible “contact” confirmation, coming from the centurion leading a flanking team. His men had made engaged the enemy down another corridor leading to the junction, rendering the Starfleet officers defending two angles of attack.

"We're pinned this side!" Kevan called, as disruptor bolts sizzled past their heads. He pulled Zia down to help her avoid the sudden flanking attack and returned fire with his other hand. "Lieutenant, we can't hold this position for long, any bright ideas?"

Mason glanced around, pulling Zade back as bright bolts flew over their heads. It was still a miracle neither of them were 'properly' shot so far, and it was just Zade's leaking suit that had to be dealt with. Seeing a door not too far away, the former marine used his phaser to tap her arm, then signed to her, indicating the nearby door. We should retreat inside, only one entry to cover. he signaled. They should do the same.

Could they take them? If the Romulans had stayed where they were, sure. But most of her team suddenly got pinned by Romulans cutting off their only safe exit, and Zade suspected that she and Mason were about to experience the same thing shortly. She knew the skill of her team, but three were dead in the corridor and another got shot when the Romulans got behind them. At this rate, it was a losing battle. They could probably take down more Romulans in their current, but at the cost of losing many more of her own.

Zade was surprised to feel a sudden tug on her suit that pulled her backwards from her kneeling position, but then saw the weapons fire fly past her head. The tap was subtle thanks to the suits, but she turned and saw Mason sign to her, her eyes briefly going to the door he motioned toward before nodding. If they could reduce the number of directions weapons fire came from, it would help. Looking across the way, she saw another door near the group and waved for the attention of someone on the other side before passing along the same information.

Iska caught motion across the way and turned his head to see the security chief waving at them. His back was pressed tightly to the wall, gripping his phaser close to his chest and hoping to the Prophets and every god out there that he wouldn't get a green bolt to his face. The woman began to make hand signals, and it took him a moment to remember what they meant. Looking around, the Bajoran spotted the door she pointed toward before turning back to her and giving a thumbs up. "Guys!" He said through suit comms, getting the attention of some of the other reinforcements he arrived with. He pointed toward the door and motioned for people to get inside. When the door opened, he was pleased to see tables and things that could be used for cover. He only hoped that the two on the other side of the hall were as lucky.

Zade saw the person she managed to flag down get moving, so she turned back to Mason. Just after she turned to him, though, she saw the tip of a weapon start to peek around the corner behind him, making her mutter a curse. She started to figure out their plan of attack, and that included flanking the security team, but they had clearly practiced this because it happened so quickly. "Go fast," she said to Mason. Shifting to her feet, she aimed her phaser at the weapon behind Mason and fired multiple shots, hoping to keep them back long enough for them to get into the room. She didn't let up, aiming at anything that tried to round the corner.

Firing off as the Starfleet team moved into an adjacent room for cover, Rin scolded himself that none of the new bodies which had been dropped were from his own weapon. Ducking as a phaser beam lanced towards him, his momentum was carried further as the deck bucked beneath him and a terrific crashing sound rebounded down the corridors. Obviously the Taleth had opened fire, and as per their discussion prior to launching he presumed that V’rel had now destroyed the docking arm between ships. Firing off another round, he caught the final crewman in the back and watched as they were flung through the open door before it closed behind their falling corpse. There was, he surmised, probably nothing quite like a fresh round of dead colleagues to destroy the Starfleet morale, and even more so a tool to ebb at their resolve in the form of a deceased officer laying in that room with them. He had lost count between the initial contact and the reinforcements, but he estimated there were only around five or six Starfleet left alive in that room.

An alert on his helmet HUD caught his attention; it appeared that the radiation levels had dropped and that atmospheric containment had been restored. Dismissing this as a Starfleet trick to get them to remove their EVA combat gear he refocused his attention on his remaining men and gestured for them to take up firing positions on the door. Using his comm line to open a broad spectrum channel which would push through every comm circuit in range; be it a ship wide or Starfleet EVA comms platform, be issued his final warning as he rose and softly kicked one of the bodies on the floor in a disgusted disinterest. “Surviving Starfleet crew. You are contained with no escape and no reinforcements. You have one minute to surrender. There will be no additional warnings”. Taking a deep breath in, he prepared himself for the coming executions, he would have preferred to take prisoners or at least win in outright combat; shooting up a room of frightened, trapped crew hardly seemed the stunning victory he would doubtlessly be decorated for.

Iska had finished waving everyone in when he was pushed in by some unseen force. He barely heard the door shut behind him as he smacked into the ground. Why was it hard to breathe? Pain began to register in his upper back, but every breath felt like he was being stabbed repeatedly. Wincing, he looked around to see he was the only one experiencing this. Was he shot? Did the Prophets answer his prayer and sent a shot into his back instead of his head? His breath came in short gasps, unable to take a full breath. He felt a tug and looked up to see two of his comrades drag him behind a table.

Mason on his part closed the door once he and Zade were safe inside. "It's just us," he said softly as the report about the radiation came in. He unlatched his helmet, casting her a serious look. "Though you're the chief, and your suit is damaged, I need you to help me out of mine as fast as possible. We'll set it up so they'll see that first and concentrate fire on it. The we can jump in. Ideally we both get out but I don't think there's time for that. You need to trust me to react fast... You're injured, on your dominant side, and you're the boss. You're the one we need to protect."

Once in the room, Zade took the moment to catch her breath. The voice through comms demanding that they surrender bounced in her helmet, followed by the notification that the radiation had dissipated. As she took a second from their minute of cease-fire to collect her thoughts, she turned her head to Mason when he spoke. Initially, she opened her mouth to protest being some damsel in distress, but then she saw the logic in his words. He reported that they were the only ones in the room, and last she counted there were at least six across the way. She and Mason had the hard fight. And he was right, she wasn't at her best right now.

Turning to Mason, she nodded. "I trust you." She pressed the suit comms before helping Mason out of the suit. "Dash, fan out your team so they don't get taken out so easily. Shoot to kill at anything that steps into the doorway," Zade said.

Giving her a small smile, Mason finished setting up his suit, checked his phaser and moved to the side. "We have the element of surprise, I hope... Let's hope the lights don't come on."

As if by some cosmic fated cue, the room lights flickered immediately to life, bathing their room in illumination as some of the basic life support functions started up.

Zade glanced up when the lights turned on before focusing her attention on the door, her right hand braced on a storage unit to help steady the phaser. They were close to the end of their short grace period, and she knew they were going to show up at any moment.

===

“Very well….” Rin sneered, bracing the rifle stock deep into his shoulder once again to give himself more manoeuvrability in his firing. With a hand signal he motioned for his four remaining centurions to enter the room, as the first two stepped forward to begin the clearing, two bright orange lances of energy slammed into their EV suits, the impacts on their backs sending them flying forward into the door they meant to breach. Instinctively ducking, and rolling into a pivot he blindly fired off into the direction the phaser beams had come from; releasing himself from the roll he was gratified - at least momentarily - to see that he had dropped one of the advancing attackers.

Three more phaser beams lanced were flung towards them with one just barely missing him and the other two, he could hear, making contact with his only two remaining centurions. “Team two! Team two!” He called over the comm, looking to his side to see the dying reflections of orange light on the corridor walls, where just around the corner his second fire team were succumbing to the same ambush. He was on his own, and bounced up from his crouching position, firing randomly as he ran into cover behind a nearby junction. The new ones, those who had ambushed his team, they had no EV suits he realised. Hearing them advance, Rin quickly activated his locator beacon in the combat suit helmet and pulled it off, pausing for just a second to confirm he was neither suffocating from a lack of air, nor melting from radiation penetration. Dropping the helmet, he ran as fast as he could deeper into the bowels of the Avalon. He would head to the science Laboratories and remove whatever he could by himself.

===

After a series of loud crashes and bangs from beyond the door, there was a momentary silence as things fell entirely still. Then, alarming just about everyone, the doors slid open. And in stepped a somewhat weary looking Kevan and Zia.

"Everyone okay?" Kevan inquired, raising a hand to not get shot. "The Romulans are down. Don't ask, it was massively thrilling heroics on my part. Probably deserving of a medal or something. Anyone hit?"

"Back-up to the back-up arrived," Zia explained, bursting the Trill's bubble whilst the heel of her palm pressed against a gash along the cheekbone just below her eye. "He sent half of us through the access tubes just after we boarded to cut off their retreat so I guess he can have a small medal." She indicated with index finger and thumb. "Teeny tiny, since he also smashed a rifle butt into my face."

The motion to hold fire was a moment too late as Zade's thumb pressed into the phaser at the sign of movement. For a brief moment, everything felt like it slowed down, where she could see that it was Kevan and Zia but she didn't have enough time to turn off her adrenaline-powered instinct. It was one of the few times she was glad her non-dominant aim wasn't as good, because the phaser fire buzzed between the two heads that appeared and hit the wall behind them. A pit briefly tore into her stomach as she realized she almost shot one of her own. "Jesus, you two!"

Without suit or injury, Mason had a lot more accuracy when he pressed the trigger. He'd been so focused on the door, there was no avoiding the reflex reaction and his beam shot straight towards one of the newcomers, striking the person right on the arm. Blinded by the light from outside however, he couldn't tell who had entered, until they spoke and he cursed under his breath once he realized they were their own people. "You okay?" he asked both of them, but more particularly the Betazoid woman since she was holding a hand to her face.

Lorel shrugged a shoulder without dislodging her hand, which was charged with the responsibility of trying to stem the continual trickle of blood. "Just need to brush up on my receiving, apparently I'm a terrible catch." It had been too much of a whirlwind, and the Romulan who had stumbled back into her had been less worried about where the butt of his rifle went and more concerned with the burning hole in his chest at the time, which was understandable.

"I was until you shot me..." Kevan scowled at Mason, cradling the upper half of his arm. "I thought marines were meant to know trigger discipline." He looked over at Zade. "We getting out of here or what?"

"My orders were to shoot at anyone coming through that door," Mason answered calmly, "and protect my injured boss. And I did." He turned to look to Zade, as a question was asked and he too wanted nothing more than 'to get out of here'.

Zade stood from her spot, seeing Kevan and Zia alive but wounded. A pang in her shoulder as she stood made her wince, but made an effort to ignore it as she walked to the hallway to see the damage. They may have won, but at a cost. Aside from the initial three, there were two others in sight, dead. Of the remaining team, one looked pretty bad and was being supported by another officer. If any Romulans escaped, the security team was in no position to pursue.

"Yeah..." Zade finally spoke up. "Let's get out of here."