Taking Back The Team - Part II
Posted on Mon Feb 8th, 2016 @ 1:54am by Commander Dae Nalas & Lieutenant Commander Nicolao & Jackson Banning V & Commander Oralia Zeferino & Major David Lorenz & Lieutenant Commander Gilroy & Marine Captain Quentin Harrison & Warrant Officer Awf & Ignatius Reilly & Commander Sakkath & 2nd Lieutenant Jordan Holbridge
Edited on on Wed Feb 10th, 2016 @ 11:45am
Mission:
Further Challenges
Location: Planet 6584
DAMAGED BORG CUBE
NEAR THE CENTRAL CORE
Harrison and his Recon Marines materialized and swiftly disabled the Borg sentries with their silent weapons. “Shelton, the core’s over there! Get yer EMP charges set!”
SFC Shelton, the Recon engineer, moved swiftly placing EMP charges at strategic points along the damaged core. Once the charges were in place, he made his way back to Harrison. Quentin nodded his head and Shelton hit the detonator. A loud CRAA-AAAA-AAACK signaled successful detonation and the core immediately went dark and silent.
“Core’s down!”
BATTLE SITE
“Acknowledged, Quentin. Lorenz to Hammond, the Core’s down, beam in at your convenience! We will handle the drones out here! All fire teams, cease fire! Set weapons to stun! Harrison, get your ass outta there!” Lorenz smiled. “The drones will be momentarily disoriented and we can pick em off like fish in a barrel!”
=^=Acknowledged,=^= came Gilroy’s reply. On the Hammond, he began beaming the team down.
“Troops are on the ground.” The voice that had been Dae’s echoed in the minds of the other drones deep within the damaged Cube. “The drones outside have been stunned and will not stop them entering the cube. One of Seven has taken a Marine and is proceeding to the transport.” He was silent for a moment as if listening, then continued. “There is a man on the ground. He belonged to Five of Seven.”
There was a long pause, broken by a comment in the hive mind: His name is Jackson and he is her husband. Iggy sounded a little huffy about that, as if insulted that Dae hadn’t used Jackson’s name.
“He is mine. Five of Seven will assimilate that entity,” Five of Seven confirmed.
“He will be ours,” was Six of Seven’s answer. “Prepare for incoming.”
Outside the cube, the team from the Hammond materialized. The battle was already raging around them but Nico stood still, reaching out to ‘read’ the area. “There are still some inside!” he yelled. “Also, I can sense….Iggy.”
“The drone that was Iggy?” Jackson asked.
“No, Iggy herself. She reads as normal,” Nico answered. “She’s moving towards the Marine transport!”
Nico! You returned. Jackson is here, too. Everyone will be part of the family, now! As the hive mind says: you will be assimilated. Iggy’s voice intruded on Nico’s thoughts. Resistance is fruitless... no, that is not the saying... oh, futile!
Despite the circumstances, Nico laughed aloud, drawing strange looks from the team. “Sorry, had to be in my head. I’ll explain later.” Iggy, get over here. Where are the others? He certainly hoped they were out of sight and not among those attacking the Marines.
No. I have a task. I must infect the ships. We need them so we can leave this barren planet. Our destination is..., she fell silent a moment. It was what we call Archadia, but now, with Oralia’s and Dae’s knowledge of the Station, we will assimilate the Station then the planet. Oralia is coming to you; the hive mind ordered her to assimilate Jackson. Once she does, then I can talk to him no matter where he is!
“Oh fuck me,” Nico muttered. He suspected that the collective hadn’t counted on a chatterbox like Iggy, however. “They are planning to take the ships and go back to assimilate the station and Archadia,” he informed the rest. “That includes us.” He left the specifics about Jackson being targeted to himself.
Gilroy growled. “They’ll have to get through us first.”
Nico tapped his badge, shouting to be heard above all the noise. “Nico to Major Lorenz. We’ve found Iggy. She informed us that the transports are the first targets. They want to get off the planet and get to the station! I am trying to recall her now!”
Roger, stand by Lorenz replied.
MARINE COMMAND POST
Lorenz tabbed his communicator. “JD, start your run. I’ve sent you an arachnid target location that is not to be hit, merely removed from the equation. The solar tarp and self-boring pitons should hold her long enough for the ground forces to finish off the drones.”
I’m inbound, major. Oregg is standing by to deploy. JD replied via ICS. The plan was simply insane. Sgt Oregg would skydive over Ignatius and deploy the gunabouty’s solar energy collection tarp over the giant spider, securing it in place with self-boring pitons used for rock climbing. Oregg says he wants a promotion if he lives, sir!
Lorenz smiled. “Done!” Lorenz looked up and his expression changed to horror as he saw Iggy making a beeline for one of the troop transports. “Transport One-Four, evac now! Evac…. Evac…” The ship whined to life, but was brought down as Iggy took aim and fired off her attached cannon. She made a lucky shot, hitting an engine vent and lighting up the plasma. Seconds later, the transport exploded.
“That goddamned spider is pissing me off!” Lorenz shouted.
“JD is ten seconds out, major!” Woodard yelled.
CSAR GUNABOUT
“Target in sight….firing solar tarp! Jump, gunny!” the Tellarite leaped out of the gunabout and his anti-grav boots roared to life. Oregg opened the tarp and landed ten yards away. The tarp had enveloped the spider and Oregg sprinted in quickly firing the pitons into the ground at four inch intervals. Iggy thrashed mightily, trying to find the exit but the Tellarite was too quick as he secured the last piton.
A rip in the tarp made Oregg look down. One of Iggy’s legs had torn through the tarp; as he watched, she fired again, cutting a hole in the tarp with the laser. Oregg quickly opened his medikit and pulled out a hypospray, setting the dose for maximum. He jabbed the spray against the arachnid’s leg and depressed the trigger, administering the dose. The leg appeared to falter, then staggered and fell off. Stop that!, Iggy demanded, Now look, I have lost a leg!
“JD beam me up!” Oregg vanished just as a blast from Iggy’s phaser cannon went through the space where he’d been.
On the gunabout, Oregg stumbled to the co-pilot’s chair. “That was close!” the Tellarite snorted.
“It only pissed the spider off more!” JD shouted. Suddenly the lad grinned. “Coming about!” The boy swung the CSAR ship around, putting the almost free spider on the gunabout’s nose. “Load torpedo casings 2 and 3 with anesthezine. Slowing to 1500 kph!”
“Are you nuts?” Oregg shouted. “The spider will snare us!”
“It’s what I’m counting on!”
JD slowed and sure enough, the laser from Iggy’s cannon blazed a line along the gunabout’s nose. “Fire!” JD shouted. Two microtorpedoes loaded with anesthetic gas hit the ice around Iggy and released their gas, stunning the spider. Oregg vaulted from the co-pilot’s seat, “We’ve taken a hit to the intakes!”
“Major, this is JD, I have immobilized Iggy, but CSAR is down.”
MARINE CP
“Roger, JD. Sending two squads to help. Set self-destructs and abandon ship! Lorenz to Nicolao, the spider is taking a nap! I’m sending three squads to back you up, Quentin’s platoon is still in the Cube. I’m sending you coms freqs now.”
“Acknowledged,” Nico answered. “We’re moving in now to recover the team.”
Jackson tapped his comm badge twice and finally reached Quentin. “Q, if you see Oz, leave her for me. We’re coming in.”
Sakkath led the way and the group moved closer to the cube. “Stay together,” Sakkath ordered. “How many are you picking up Gilroy?”
Naturally, Awf made no effort to deviate from the group and stayed close. He paid close attention to his surroundings, and still showed the same awareness that he had always done. That being said, he was interested in Gil's report, yet remained silent for the time being and only acknowledged the mention with a nod, considering that he wanted to remain silent for the time being, speaking only when necessary, to avoid saying anything over someone that had an important update.
It was probably a natural reflex that came from the fact that he had once been an enlisted man and was used to remaining quiet when officers spoke in front of him.
“Four inside. It appears that their more established drones were taking the perimeter fighting. Two of the biosigns inside are human,” Gilroy reported. “I’ll take point,” he said and moved to the front then edged into the cube’s interior.
Inside, it was marginally warmer thanks to the heat from the Borg electronics. Gilroy advanced along a corridor rife with black tubes and conduits, all glowing a sickly green. As they came to a cross-corridor, he paused and risked a look down the hallway. The sight there made him swallow hard. He leaned back towards the person behind and quietly said, “Two down that way.”
Sakkath nodded. “Jackson, you’ll go with Lt. Gilroy. Commander Nicolao and Mr. Awf, you’re with me. Tag them and alert the ship to transport them out.” Sakkath moved off down the opposite corridor.
“I’ll be listening in to you two,” Nico informed them. Then, motioning to Awf, he followed Sakkath.
Having taken a moment to check his own weapon first, Awf looked back to Sakkath and Nico before following along. "I still got a full power pack if anything goes wrong." Certainly he had made sure to remodulate the formula considering the adaptive capabilities of the Borg, but he did it a different way. Opening a manual keypad, he had inserted several different codes at random while having shut his eyes. The Borg could guess computer algorithms, so they could be beaten out. Good old organic know how, though, was something that the Ocampa doubted. This would have been a situation where having those old fashioned Ocampa psychic powers would have come in quite handy, but unfortunately he lacked them.
Jackson checked his weapon and glanced to Gilroy. “Let’s do this.” He started forward down the corridor, phaser rifle readied. Two drones were in sight several yards ahead and as they drew close, one turned and Jackson froze in his tracks.
“Oh holy shit,” he muttered. The drone facing them was Oz.
“Halt and prepare to be assimilated,” Five of Seven ordered, lowering a weapon to bear on the two intruders.
“I’ve got her, Jackson,” Gilroy said, ready to fire on his boss.
“Jackson Banning,” the drone that was Dae spoke in that weird multiple-voiced toned. “The ageless one. Your distinctiveness will be added to our own.”
Jackson glanced at Gilroy before he spoke. “Not anytime soon,” he answered. “Ready, Gil.”
“Never had to shoot my boss before,” Gilroy grumbled. “Ready, J.” He aimed and the four of them - two drones, two officers - started firing on each other.
The first shots glanced off the shields of Oz and Dae as they moved forward. “Dammit,” Jackson cursed. “Alter the rotation frequency.” He quickly adjusted his, took careful aim and did something he never thought he would do...he fired at Oz. It was a clean shot to the shoulder and took her down, stunned. Jackson cursed vehemently, then dashed forward to tag her.
Seeing Jackson move, Gilroy cursed and dashed forward with him, firing on Dae to keep him occupied. Up closer, he engaged the Borg in hand to hand and delivered a crushing blow to Dae’s forehead. In that same movement, he slapped a transporter tag on him and leaped back. “Hammond, two to beam up now!” Dae and Oz disappeared in a blue swirl.
“Jackson, you okay?”
Jackson stood still as a statue after Oz and Dae were gone. His shoulders slumped and he shook his head. “I just took down my wife. I’ve done a lot of things, Gil, but never have I had to do something like that.”
“Let’s find Sakkath and get back.”
Jackson led the way back along the corridor to join Sakkath, Awf and Nico. Briefly he filled them in on Oz and Dae. “Two more, let’s go. I want this over with.”
"Yeah, we'll go down the corridor, but I want to make sure that you're ready just in case anything else heavy happens." While Awf always wanted new experiences, what Jackson was describing sounded like it was the worst thing in the universe that could happen. "Man, I don't know what to say, but if I make it out alive I'm going to be there for you, you hear me?" Once again the old enlisted man that Awf was there again for better or worse standing with those alongside him.
“I hear ya.” Jackson smiled for an instant as they continued forward.
In the corridor behind Jackson and the others, Gilroy paused to listen to the Hammond’s transporter chief. He was trying to lock in on Ignatius’ biosigns but having trouble doing so. “Are they too weak, Chief?”
=^=Affirmative, Lieutenant. We don’t normally have to zero in on bugs to transport them. Also, the arachnid is on the move.=^=
“I’ll get her, then. Give me directions and I’ll tag her,” Gilroy ordered. He quickly informed Sakkath and Jackson of his intentions.
“I’m going with you,” Sakkath answered. “Given Ignatius’ innate abilities, and now with Borg enhancements, she will not be a simple capture.”
Nico nodded. “We’ll handle these two and meet you outside.”
To Be Continued...
***************
1st Lieutenant Quentin Harrison
Major Dave Lorenz
Lt. Gilroy
Lt. Dae Nalas (Six Of Seven)
Ignatius J. Reilly
Commander Oralia Zeferino (Five Of Seven)
Jackson Banning V (Lt. Commander)
Lt. Commander Nicolao
2nd Lieutenant JD Holbridge
Commander Sakkath
Warrant Officer Awf
