Fallen Eagle

Posted on Fri Apr 5th, 2024 @ 7:13pm by Commodore Jacob Kane & Maxwell Brand & Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea

Mission: The Trojan Horse
Location: USS Athena - Intelligence Office
Timeline: Immediately following "Express Elevator"
1132 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

"Someone tell me what the hell is going on." Kane snapped as the large monitors lit up with all kinds of warnings and alerts. In the absence of P'rel, his eyes searched for someone to give him a status update.

"The entire Marine force...they're...compromised." Even for someone as implacable as Maxwell Brand, there was hesitation and deep concern in both his voice and his face. A paleness in his cheeks that implied fear. Kane's eyes snapped up, expecting to see his Intelligence Chief but instead spying his First Officer.

"Zora. See if you can make some sense of this," he said, motioning to the central console they were working from. "You...Lieutenant Wrea. Where's our comms? Why can't we raise the strike team?"

Nayisa shared Maxwell's expression. She was monitoring the team's comms, and in a moment half of them just... went out. The behavior wasn't like how comms behaved with interference, it was as if the comm units in their suits were disabled... or destroyed. She didn't think this group of marines were arrogant or stupid enough to decide to just cut their comms in the middle of a mission. "At least half of their comms are dead, sir. Like, the units were destroyed, no signal. I'll keep trying to reach them, but if they've contacted enemies, they may not respond until it's safe to do so."

"Try the emergency frequencies," Zora told Wrea, her eyes not leaving her screen. Her head was spinning with the information that the entire marine team could be compromised and she silently prayed that this was just a computer error. Her fingers danced over the controls finally receiving the information she had been looking for but it couldn't be correct so she checked again, and again just to be sure. "Commodore, sensors are detecting no life signs." Her brows pulled together, a sign of concentration or concern, or both. "It could be some kind of jamming signal, I'm trying to patch into the shuttle's systems and piggyback from their sensors."

Typing on the console, Nayisa accessed the emergency frequencies. A rarely used procedure, but one that was sure to be accessible 99% of the time. Once she was ready, she cupped her hand around the listening device in her ear. "Channel code Echo-Lima-six. Away team, this is the Athena, radio check." There was a pause, a quiet static filling the suite when it should have been the marines' voices. "Away team, radio check please." As the silence continued, Nayisa switched to a new frequency before repeating the request, but with a new code.

Zora paused and listened as Wrea tried the various frequencies. Each message was met with static and each time her heart ached. Her dark eyes met Kane's and it took everything in her to hold back the tears. "Sir..." she started to say but the lump in her throat rendered her speechless. "Sir," she repeated after clearing her throat, "there might not be anyone left alive down there."

"No one?" Kane breathed, unable to believe it. His hands curled into fists as they rested on the central console. His eyes confirmed what his ears were hearing; the comms were offline, nobody was responding. "You think they went dark deliberately? Radio silence? Or...Ta'ang knew they were coming...?" he wondered, looking at his XO.

"Possibly," Zora struggled to say. She turned towards the intel officer, "you're the specialist, thoughts?"

"What is suspicious to me is that their comms went out almost simultaneously," Nayisa contributed, uncovering the listening device in her ear. The static still filled the suite, but a small over-ear device allowed her to listen for signals that would otherwise be hard to hear in the noise of the room. Moving to the center table, she typed on the console to pull up a map, with a bunch of dots indicating the presence of the marines. When she played the sensor recording, they could see that the first four dots blinked out of existence with nearly imperceptible delay between them, then the rest of the dots backtracked before they too blinked out a moment later. "It certainly looks like an attack to me. At best, Ta'ang was overly prepared, knowing who he was holding captive. At worst, someone tipped him off and he planned an ambush."

"We have to assume the mission is compromised and our people are in imminent risk of harm," Kane said, cutting through the moment with a desire to be decisive. "Commander Zora. We need to form an away team to med-evac the Marines. Grab some personnel...a security detail and medical support."

Kane's take-charge action snapped Zona out of her emotional turmoil. It was a testament to their working relationship; she was the heart and soul, the sounding voice of reason, he was the brain and brawn, decision and action rolled into one. They complemented each other for better and worse. "Aye Sir," she said, standing up straighter.

"Meanwhile...we need to follow-through with our original mission to rescue the hostages." Kane's hand closed to a fist that he placed firmly on the console. "I'm going to take a team. Lt Zade, Ryan, and some of the more experienced people we have. We'll 'borrow' one of the alternate Marine infiltration plans and carry-out the mission ourselves." He looked up, expecting an objection from his XO. "I know it's against protocol for me to personally lead missions, especially high-risk. But I'm the only one on board who has firsthand experience of dealing with Orion pirates up-close. And with the loss of an entire Marine contingent there's too much at stake for us to risk even more going wrong. I won't allow my people to walk into that."

Zora paused, he had anticipated her protest before she had mouthed a word. She knew him well enough to know that meant that his mind was made up and his decision was final. She weighed up the argument in her head, thinking of a way, any way, in which she could convince him to stay on the ship. She lost every time. "Yes Commodore," she finally said, only realising that she had been holding her breath. "I assume P'rel will be on one of the teams, so who will command the ship?"

Kane paused. "Inform Lieutenant Commander Keating that she has the conn while we're not on board," he said, rising fully away from the console. "And remind her that I'd like my warp core to stay where it is this time."

Zora smiled, as best as she could given the circumstances. "I'll tell her but Finnley is determined to send us back to the dark ages." With a curt nod, she left the room pondering who she would be taking to the planet and potentially their graves.