Escape Under Fire

Posted on Sun Jun 2nd, 2024 @ 6:59pm by Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Commander Savin & Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D & Ensign Quinn Alka-Sutton

Mission: The Trojan Horse
Location: The Tunnels
Timeline: Following "Telepathic Search"
2021 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure

Zora placed a hand on the counsellor's shoulder and waited for him to turn around. "You're in the way, take up the rear, we're leaving now." She turned to Ornaht, "we'll lead the way. Phasers out, they're close." The El-Aurian led the group, half-running, half-crouching, back down the path they had come. She could hear the panted breath and groans of the injured marines, but she didn't give it too much thought. Better to be alive and in pain than a feast for the Gorn. She felt an overwhelming sense of danger and stopped dead in her tracks. She lifted a fist, indicating that everyone should stop too. "Did you hear something?" She said to Ornaht, right before the Gorn attacked.

----

"I don't hear -" Ornaht's response was cut short as something big blocked the light at the far end of the tunnel and then something large, nearly twice his own size, slammed into him out of the dark. There came a searing pain in his left arm and down his left side and a sudden wet warmth as he hit something else in the tunnel before landing against the wall. Instinctively, his right hand closed on the phaser rifle, setting the weapon off. A slash of energy surged from the weapon, lighting up the tunnel around the ensign - and revealing a green-brown scaly hide and dripping incisors beneath multifaceted eyes that reflected the light. He only had a moment to consider what he was looking at before the reptilian muzzle came shooting towards him.

Savin gave a silent nod that he had understood her and waited until the others had passed. There was no use trying to continue to treat the injured marine until they got to safety and when Zora halted abruptly, Savin knew that might be a while. Phaser fire lit up their surroundings and Savin lifted his own phaser in the hope of keeping the enemy at bay. He wished, not for the first time, that he had brought his sword which would be far more useful up close.

P'rel went down as something thick and heavy collided with her left ankle and her corresponding knee cracked against the ground hard. Using the moment down low, she rapidly thumbed the rifle setting up to a high setting, ensuring anything would vaporise on contact. Gorn were notoriously adept at surviving phaser fire, and she would take neither chances nor prisoners. The risk of friendly fire was an irrelevance to her admittedly rapid logical reasoning; they would be dead regardless if the Gorn were not eliminated first.

White torch beacons flashed in contrast against orange phaser beams, illuminating scales and claws and teeth as the attack swiftly took hold. Someone called out in pain; she couldn't be sure but it sounded like the Counsellor - though for all the echoing and chaos it could just as easily be a Gorn. As if it beamed into place, a wide green face of teeth and death lunged at her dead on and collapsed in on itself as her rifle beam hit it in a sudden red and black fire which was as quickly extinguished as it had been to strike.

Propping herself up on the good knee, P'rel quickly looked to the chaos and saw the Commander grappling with a Gorn soldier. It was most impressive to say the least, to see the XO holding her own against such a warrior. Her rifle still set to vaporise, she took an easy and clear aim at the Gorn on the left hand side of the two and -

Someone tumbled into her and threw off her position slightly

- fired. "No" the Vulcan bleated through a panicked exhale as the phaser beam lanced towards the duelling pair.

Savin struggled to keep his hold on his phaser as claws sank into his chest. The chaos was almost overwhelming and the darkness was not helping. He could see flashes as lights moved and bursts of phaser fire expanded briefly on the illumination. He grit his teeth even though an agonized cry escaped him. As he fired, his attacker fell away and another wave of agony tore through his upper body. At this moment, he was grateful for his alien physiology because if he'd been human, he would be dead. He turned, firing at anything that moved and didn't look humanoid. He turned at the sense of panic that washed over him and watched in horror as a phaser beam lanced towards the first officer. He was too far away to push her aside, too far to do anything. "Zora!" He cried out instead, hoping that the call of her name would cause sufficient shift. All he could do was watch in horror.

The threat of danger was real, Zora could feel it tingling in every one of her nerve endings. El Aurians were called the species of listeners by humans and other alpha-quadrant species, it was a gross simplification of the true nature of her people. Yes, they did listen and yes, people felt at ease enough with them to tell their darkest secrets. But they did so much more than listen with their ears, they listened with their entire body. Every nerve, every cell, everything! A better term would be - El Aurians were aware.

Zora had grown to trust this instinctual awareness, it had saved her life many times and she wasn't about to doubt it now. She ducked as P'rel's phaser blast hit the rock behind her, the place where her head had been only seconds before. She turned to Savin, his scream awakening her from her trance-like state. In a fight, it only took a millisecond of a distraction to get the upper hand and her Gorn counterpart took full advantage of this. He swiped at her face and she fell to the ground in a spray of blood.

Darkness and chaos surrounded them, just like the previous attack, Ray thought. He lost his grip on Martina and allowed her to sink to the ground as P'rel was swiped. The rest of the scene unfolded like a horror movie gone wrong with phaser fire seemingly only interrupted by flashes of reptilian like skin and claws. Ray waited in silence for the next flash and fired, hoping to have at least damaged their Gorn attacker.

Savin fired towards the Gorn that attacked the XO, the illumination of the phaser fire around him in combination with their flashlights sufficient to take proper aim. He supported his trembling left hand with his right as he fired again to make sure the reptilian enemy wouldn't be getting up. Breathing was getting difficult and each breath sent waves of pain through the left side of his torso but he tried to ignore it as he moved towards the fallen XO. "Get up," he told her, offering his hand in support. There was no time to check for injury, their priority was to get to safety first. "Can we transport to the shuttle?"

"No! Transporter inhibitors," Zora said through gritted teeth. She was in a lot of pain as she held her face where the Gorn had slashed and was annoyed that the Counsellor didn't know the mission specs. She got to her feet with his help and picked her rifle from the ground. Willing the pain to the back of her mind she scoped their area, looking out for more of the reptile aliens. "I think we got them all. Is everyone okay?"

Though he missed the first part as she spoke through gritted teeth, he did get her latter query as he was watching her closely. He sensed her pain and now, guided by his palm light, saw the gashes on her face. "I am not," he answered through laboured breath, "and neither are you." But there was no time to treat either of them. He would continue to support her, reasoning that it would assist in keeping himself to his feet.

P'rel stood whilst bracing against the pain in her leg which had caused her to fall in the first place, she shone her rifle down her left calf to reveal a fairly tattered uniform soaked with sticky green. Being next to the casualty as she already had been, her light next found the unpleasant sight of flesh and bone and blood. "The marine is dead" she reported, eschewing her own injury from her words. "Curious that we all are not..." she said, wondering how they were alive and conveying her confusion to Commander Zora with a quizzical look.

Ray had thought the same thing. Even more so he wondered how he'd managed both this attack and the prior one with only very minor wounds. Mere scratches compared to those around him. "Maybe more of a miracle that we all aren't dead," he sarcastically spit out. "Quickly, let's get out of here and get all of you to sickbay back on the ship before they come back for another round. We likely have very limited time." Ray slung his rifle over the shoulder and moved to help Zora and Savin. From his previous experience with P'rel, he felt she could likely handle the pain and injury on her own and probably would have turned down his help anyway. "I assume you brought a shuttle? How far is it from the infiltration point?" He asked as they began their slow march back to what would hopefully be safety.

With the chaos finally over, Ensign Ornaht had pulled himself to his feet; now, rifle propped under his right arm, his heavily blooded and torn left arm hanging uselessly at his side, he trudged along near the front of the group. It was clear he was in pain - possibly bordering on shock - beads of sweat rolling down his face. He realized it was probably only one of his implants - an adrenaline release device meant to keep a person conscious in just such situations - that was keeping him moving. The bloodied Tulian glanced back over his shoulder, speaking through gritted teeth, "Depends how fast we keep this train moving."

Zora patted Savin on the arm with as much strength as she could. Getting his attention, she pointed at Ensign Ornaht, who seemed to be struggling with no one to support him. "Help him," she ordered, her tone indicating as much. "Not much further," she said, hoping more than knowing whether that was true. She tapped her combadge but all she heard was a faint static on the line. "Doesn't look like we'll be able to call for an evac."

Savin gave her a nod of understanding, patted her arm in response and moved over to the injured ensign. "Lean on me," he instructed, moving to wrap his right arm around the young man while keeping his left hand presses to his chest in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. He was starting to feel a little lightheaded but tried to ignore it as best as he could. "Keep moving and draw my attention if you need something. I cannot hear you."

The party was on high alert as they somewhat shuffled their way back to the landing sight. They moved in an awkward circle formation, trying their best to keep an eye on all directions of possible attack. Zora couldn't sense any of the Gorn nearby though she hadn't sensed them up until the point they had attacked before. But the sense of foreboding was now gone, she had a gut feeling they had retreated. She wasn't willing to let this blind her though, she was still on high alert. She vowed to get her crew home and this was what she would do.

As they moved closer to the landing site Zora was beyond grateful to see Dash and the others still alive and working diligently on the marine shuttles. The pain in her face ached a little less knowing that they would soon have access to medical treatment. "I'm glad you're all okay," she said genuinely. "We all need to leave, now."