Fight Shadows in the Dark

Posted on Sun Jun 18th, 2023 @ 8:50pm by Lieutenant Etan tar-Lexros & 2nd Lieutenant Simon Rowe

Mission: Starship Side Quest
Location: mining colony
Timeline: current

Kip gave the officers an approving nod, "The Major and I will take point, you and others stay frosty and Gilohesh you can watch our six. Be Josha on the spot if we need medical attention"

The Angosian turned and began moving toward an exit out of the bay.

Tale looked around her. The rundown mining facility looked absolutely wretched -in her humble opinion- and she had a sneaking suspicion that something would just jump out at her at any turn. "Hey Major... Hey Kepek, look at that," she pointed at a small beam of light that was barely perceptible in the distance of the hallway. "Is that a hair trigger mine?"

"That's what it looks like, but Ren would never be that sloppy," Kip said as he opened a pouch and retrieved a red ball. "Stay back."

The Angosian tossed the ball and there was a small jet of flame at chest height melting the bulkhead.

"Definitely not one of Ren's; he would have set it lower to take out the deck and slow us down," Kip explained "Looks like the Mercs are getting ready to abandon the station.'

From the corner of her eye, Tale noticed a hair on the doorframe. "No... He wasn't sloppy, he wanted us to sidestep," she murmured. Pointing at it. "Major, I think he has that linked to a phase grenade."

"Tralfagar," she commented as she nodded and they paused forward.

The young 2nd Lieutenant started assessing the trap and with a swift movement had it disabled. Without saying anything, he handed her the stabilized phase grenade.

"May come in useful. Sensors are showing the first trap across the place. It looks like they were going to eject the plasma and melt the station from the inside out," the Major stated. "This is going to take forever to get through the set traps and the haphazard self-destruct. Honestly looks like they were trying to kill two birds with one bomb "

Off to the side, Tale could see something odd. It wasn't an expected trap. In this hollowed section of mine, there was a dead Orion mercenary, completely stripped. Nearby, another with his weapons. They were flayed. That wasn't exactly the strange part. She whistled for the Major and Kip, but found they had kept walking into the other shaft. "Oh shit..."

Kip turned, "Hey where is the Doc!?"

The Major stopped in her tracks and they walked back scanning as they went. "I'm not seeing her on the sensors." The Betazed opened her mind to see if she could sense where the doctor had slipped through a trap. "Not detecting any transporter signatures in or out of the area."

Before Kip could respond a bolt of energy hit the bulkhead behind him and a man shouted. Kip fired his rifle.

"Contact Left!" The Angosian called out before ducking for cover.

The Major raised her weapon and fired at the two mercenaries that were perched down at the end of the corridor having come down to find them. She nailed one, while Rowe got the other. Their heavy stun wasn't enough to bring them down so they both fired another couple of rounds each as they popped out of cover. Another group of mercenaries came from another branch of the corridor and pinned Alisa back to the wall. "I can't sense the doctor," she commented between barrages.

"Well we're a little busy at the moment," Kip spat.

He grabbed a stun grenade and tossed it in the direction of fire, there was a flash and Kip shouted as he charged forward.

At the time that the Angosian charged forwards, Alisa and Simon both leaned forward from their positions and fired cover fire at the same time to help reduce the number of enemies at the junction, leaving two for the man to deal with.

Kip shot the first one and brought the butt of his carbine down on the second one's head with a sickening crack. The first one was still moving so he bludgeoned him too.

Alisa waited for more to come down the hallway, but there was no more at least at this juncture. She checked the display on her wrist. "That seems like it for now," she said. Even though she was in the environmentally controlled power armor suit, that had gotten a bit hairy. "Still no sign of the doctor."

Kip turned to the others "I'm reading a weird life sign that could be Angosian."

Tilting her head, Alisa tried to reach out to the life sign that he had mentioned with her mind. There was far too much static going on that she wasn't able to hone in on a single someone other than the ones that were present here. She simply nodded and followed the Angosian's lead to the life sign.

Kip keyed his COMM. "Kepek the Eldritch, can you read us on sensors? And see what is in front of us?

Etan had been monitoring the situation via the probe he'd fired from the Eldritch and had drilled into the rock of the asteroid. The two teams were about a hundred meters separated and he'd just seen some weapons-fire from the forward team. "Kepek, Eldritch reads - tar-Lexros speaking. I have you clear on sensors. The other team is a hundred meters ahead, it appears the corridor is clear. I've just recorded a single-shot energy weapons-fire. I believe it was a stun setting, but resolution from the probe is low. You should be safe to move forward."

TAG Kepek

Alisa nodded and motioned to Rowe and the other agent. They hoisted their weapons and took flank behind the Angosian.


******--kkkkkzzzztttt–******

******--Gilohesh to Kepek!–******

******--******--=^=Gilohesh to the Major!=^=–******–******

Tapping her display unit on her wrist, Alisa responded. “Major Nisu, status report, Gilohesh.” She started flipping through the various sensor screens on her unit trying to pinpoint the direction the comm signal was coming from. However, all it showed was the static that they were getting in on the comms.

******--******--=^=I’ve foun ***^%#%) does not *#%(^Q#(& me &#(*&%#%#) danger, get to safety =^=–******–******

She didn’t get much more than a little bit. Alisa knew that there was something that the Orion found, something that wasn’t something, danger and the call for safety.

“Repeat.” She ordered but only got a handful of static back. “Repeat.” The order went out again after Alisa messed with something on her wrist. She shook her head when only static came back. “We should move.”

The team ambled their way through the dimly lit corridors. Kepek muttering to himself the while as the rest followed behind him. Each searching for the lost crew.

To be continued...