Rescue Mission

Posted on Monday 10 May 2021 @ 09:28 by Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant Nir’anyar & Major David Scarlet & Lieutenant JG Oakham Renn

Mission: A Cry from the Darkness
Location: Colony barracks
Timeline: MD7 0100
4589 words - 9.2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Pearl hated leaving Lieutenant McPhee behind but he outranked her and he ordered her to leave. Especially since he gave her information that was important, make that vital for the Captain's rescue. She ran at top speed causing quite a stir including going into the medical area to look for both Scarlet and Richards with a great sense of urgency. Almost running into Anya, "Sorry Doc, looking for Scarlet and Richards, got some information from McPhee" then leaving just as quick.

Anya heard McPhee's name mentioned and was puzzled as to what information he had given to the Marine. He hadn't said anything to the group while she had treated him in the field. She continued patching up the person before her, applying bandages had become standard practice as most of the dermal regenerators were in use on the more critical cases.
"I am unsure who Scarlet and Richards are but most of the senior Officers are in there!" she pointed to a structure, if she could call it that and started to move over with the women after sending the marine on his way.

Heading for the makeshift hopefully finding them there. Once she located them, Pearl gasped out, "Captain Jones has been captured, McPhee made a deal with a devil, information contained here where Captain is." holding up small PADD that McPhee gave her.

Richards turned as Bijoux entered the CP and crossed his arms over his chest looking at her. "Woah now, slow your roll princess..." He said, accepting the PADD. "Catch your breath and then you can fill us in on the details." He reviewed the PADD briefly then passed it over to Scarlet. "Intel seems actionable, boss." He said then went back to Pearl. "Alright Princess, give me a full report on what happened and why you're here and not with them..."

"McPhee ordered me to take this to you. He outranks me, so...did you want me to disobey an order? Basically, Lieutenant McPhee came to me for some help to get money for the person who gave him this information, I didn't see whom it was but... he initially convinced the leader to give up bars of latinum and a personal runabout to get this information. I was there as the muscle since the Lieutenant is injured. I didn't even know that the Captain had been grabbed, until he told me. I flew the runabout to the drop off point and then he had me get this to you. That is it in a nutshell."

Anya's breath caught. What was McPhee thinking? She stayed quiet and continued to listen until she was asked directly to comment.

Far be it from Richards to question the judgement or thought process of a senior officer, even if it was ridiculous. Still, the Lieutenant must have realized the value of the intelligence provided and made it a priority to make sure that they got it far beyond the safety of himself or the rest of the landing party. "Alright Princess, go get some water and rack out whilst we review what you brought. Good job." He said, giving her a reassuring whack on the shoulder.

Pearl gave a nod, starting to walk away, to get some water. She wasn't going to get much in the way of sleep, deciding to linger.

The intelligence in question had indeed been of considerable value - as it revealed the location of not only the base of operations for whoever had attacked them, but that crucially the Captain was located there. However, this was not going to be a simple task of simply rolling up there, kicking the door down and waving phaser rifles in their collective faces. Under ideal circumstances, this level of mission would be passed over to the Special Operations Command (SOC) for a Tier 1 team to perform the extraction. However, that option was not available to them so they'd have to make do with the assets they had available to them.

The main enemy stronghold was located deep inside a mountain about thirty kilometers away from the main colony. It was accessible through one central access point, more specifically a cave-like entrance that was likely guarded and would house all kinds of anti-personnel defences such as forcefields, photonic mine emplacements, turrets and the like. That's what he'd do if he had to secure such a focal point of entry. Beaming in was also likely not an option as he could all but guarantee that there would be scattering fields in place. These people weren't a rag-tag force of incompetent novices, but experienced mercenary times who would know Starfleet processes. No - the way to win this would be to take the manual and throw it out the nearest airlock and operate in the dirt.

Alex walked over to Scarlet to make sure he'd reviewed the intelligence. "It's pretty good stuff, but it's missing critical information if we're going to perform any actions against them. Whilst it gives us its location and that the Captain is there, it doesn't tell us the layout of the complex, likely holding locations, their strength of numbers or what defences they have. I'd feel a lot better if we had more actionable intel. SOC wouldn't authorise an op here with that many risk factors not accounted for."

Scarlet was silent for a long moment as his eyes read and reread the information on the PADD. He clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth. They'd been unprepared for this. It'd been all but a trap. There would be hell to pay for this when this was all over. For now though...

"SOC isn't here." Scarlet said firmly. "We get what information we can and then plan the next steps. Priority is getting the captain out alive." He finally looked up at Richards. "Ask for volunteers. Let them know the risks and there won't be repercussions for not volunteering."

He was about to continue when a sharp rap on the bulkhead interrupted them. Scarlet wheeled around, his eyes full of fire and rage. The private either didn't notice or didn't care. "We got one of them alive sir. A Klingon."

Glancing at Richards, Scarlet put down the padd and scowled. "Let's see what we can get out of our guest."

Pearl came back "Sirs, I volunteer to go on the rescue mission."

"Get kitted out Princess. And watch yourself. You're tired but I won't tolerate mistakes on this one." Scarlet said firmly.

"And you'll need a medic on hand, and before you object I am a senior officer, I will be joining you on the mission!"
Anya moved to the nearest supply cabinet and started to refill her medical kit but also collecting herself a Phaser Rifle, she intended to make herself useful.

Scarlet raised an eyebrow as Anya began getting her kit together. "Doc, I don't mind you coming along. But you're going to be treated like everyone else and expected to follow orders. Rank or no rank."

"I was imprisoned in a Romulan mine for a decade Lieutenant... I know how to take orders!" she barked back, the first time she had felt genuinely offended in many years. Her expression softened instantly. "I'm sorry... I will follow orders and I will help fight if needed but I will be there to treat the Captain should it be needed!"

Scarlet's nostrils flared and his eyes widened. He was about to respond to what he believed was her childish outburst but managed to calm himself enough to keep from having an outburst of his own.

"Just stay out of the way until you're needed." Scarlet finally responded through gritted teeth. The captain. This was about getting her back. He'd figure out how to deal with the doc and her attitude later.

Mathias tapped on his commbadge, "Scarlet, Richards, I've got some more information for you. What's your 20?"

Scarlet tapped his comm badge. "We'll be there shortly. Getting the team prepped for an extraction."

"Richards, you see what you can get out of the Klingon prisoner, I'll gather the troops. We're working against the clock on this one." Scarlet said with a sigh.

Mathias answered, "That is the thing, I've got more information that will help out in the extraction." then the chief of operations found his way to where the others were.

"Scarlet, Richards." holding up the padd MU Fox gave him. "I was provided with some more in depth information. Which should make getting to the Captain more easier so to speak." he looked at Anya giving a nod. "Hello Doctor."

Pearl looked at McPhee. "Where is the person whom you got this information from?"

"She's gone." Mathias simply stated, a bit of a frown appearing, and not saying anything more.

"Apologies for interrupting... Can you give us a description of this individual? If we have more to go on then we might have more chance of apprehending her in the future".
The Doctor interjected once more, her curiosity getting the better of her and a sneaking suspicion entering the field of play... Was this the same person who had attempted to dupe her not but a few hours previous?

Scarlet took the PADD and began to go through the information on it right then and there. It was pretty much a backdoor key and gave up every trick the kidnappers had. "Can we trust it?"

With the Captain on the line, he wasn't sure if it mattered. He'd walk to the gates of hell for some people, and she was one of them.

"She stood this high" Mathias indicating her height 5'5" "very pregnant, dark brown hair, green eyes. She looked like Lieutenant Amelia Fox from the USS Andromeda. The woman thinks she is all sexy and has her finger on the pulse of everything." a frown appearing. Mathias was certainly out of sorts. "I didn't find her that way at all, her personality was certainly ugly. "However she acted like she didn't care about those who she worked with. No loyalty to anyone but herself. However, I feel we can trust this, as she got what she wanted, a runabout with gold pressed latinum."

"Very pregnant you say?" Anya rounded the table, stuffing the last few items into her medical kit. "I met this woman when we first arrived. She was worried about her baby and asked if I could scan her. One thing led to another and she threatened to kill me. I reported it to Commander Godding, not wanting to hinder the Marines but given everything that has happened I would doubt Commander Godding has made much head way in tracking her down!"

"Well, it seems I have made it even more difficult to track her down as well. I procured a runabout and 1,000 gold pressed latinum bars in order to get information to rescue Captain Jones. Ransa was agreeable to said exchange. I did what I did to save our Captain." Mathias replied, then said, "I've still got one good arm, and I intend on going after our Captain."

"No." Scarlet said firmly. " you can't properly hold a phaser rifle. Which means you're no go to us in a fire fight and at worse could be a hindrance if we need to cover each other."

"We'll get her back McPhee." Scarlet continued as he stopped looking over the padd. "I need people staying here and keeping the defences up for when we get back."

Turning to Bijoux, Anya, and Richards, Scarlet spoke solemnly. "With this information a small group should be able to sneak in and out with minimum disruption or open conflict. We'll brief in 5."

Mathias wasn't about to argue the point with Scarlet as he knew the man was right. "Okay I'll do that. All of you be safe." and he looked also at Anya. "You definitely be extra careful. I know you are really capable, just... be careful."

"You and I will be having a discussion once we are back on Merlin!" Anya looked at Mathias pointedly. She could see where he had been coming from but at the same time she could not understand why he had done what he had. She also knew that she was angry so she would give her wrath time to cool before letting the Operations Chief have it.

Pearl gave a nod to Scarlet and went to get kitted out, returning shortly. This was going to be her chance to in some aspect apologize to Scarlet and hopefully prove herself to him. She really wanted that, after all she has a lot of penance to do for her earlier stupidity.

The volunteers came back together in the command post just as Scarlet was finishing his final checks on his rifle. He looked up and nodded before tossing a marine issue hud to Anya. "We use these for updates in the field. It's been uploaded with the information we have and will help pick out points of interest."

Scarlet adjusted his own hud and turned it on. "Alright, listen up. There is only one entrance to the cave system and it will be defended. However, with the information we've been given we can modulate our rifles to match their shields. We also know the layout of their base."

As he spoke, a 3D representation of the mountain base and cave system projected from the table in front of him. He pointed out several areas and rotated it around slowly. "Because of the narrow passageways a small group will work better than an army. We clear it out room by room until we find the captain and extract her. Then we get back to the entrance and back here before we get back to Merlin. Any questions?"

Mathias looked back towards those that were planning the rescue, gave a bit of a frown and left. He wasn't satisfied with what was going on, and with no communication nope wasn't setting well with him. After all like he said to that woman, he was resourceful. He knew where there was another mode of transportation and decided he was going to go take care of some business of his own.

"Throw me in the brig later on. I've got business to attend." And he was gone disappearing into the night like a phantom.

Scarlet shrugged. As long as McPhee didn't do anything to jeopardize this mission he didn't care what the man did.

Anya watched Mathias go, determined she would be having a little conversation with him later on. She turned her focus back to the marines surrounding her.
"I am the novice here with combat... I don't want to get in the way but I also want to be helpful... I will focus on the Captain when we find her but where do you want me during the coming battle?"

Pearl looked at Anya, "Stick by me and we'll get you through to the captain." She said after checking her weapon once more. She gave an encouraging smile to the CMO.

"Alright. Enough chatter. Head out." Scarlet ordered.

The caves

Melody had been left alone for some time now. Mirror Fox had tried to get information out of her but she had told her nothing. She also got the feeling that she wasn't really interested in getting anything, it was more about the power play. She looked around, seeing if there was some weakness to their defence she could exploit.

Mirae had just gotten back to the base when she'd heard they had a visitor. Curiosity got the best of the Orion woman and she had to see.

Keeping her hand on her blaster, she looked through the forcefield at the captive captain and smirked. "A mighty Starfleet captain... captured. Doesn't seem that impressive really."

"You caught me on a bad day." Melody replied nonchalantly, not really paying much attention to her, continuing to look around the holding area. "And you are?"

"Just here to watch." Mirae replied with a sly grin. She brushed a strand of emerald hair back over her ear. She studied Melody for a moment and frowned. "You're not very interesting though, more of a sad day than a bad day."

"Well, I'm not here for your amusement." Melody said, finally turning her attention to her. "How about you bring me some food? I'm starving"

"Oh!" Mirae said in feigned horror. "Of course Captain, right away Captain! I'd hate to get on the wrong side of a mighty and unstoppable Starfleet Captain." She turned to leave, but stopped and turned around. There was a wicked grin spreading across her face.

"Except... you don't exactly appear mighty right now are you? Just a human caught in a situation you can't escape." Mirae chuckled. "You're a joke captain." She all but spat the rank.

Melody just smiled at her and stated calmly. "I may be caught but what I do have is a loyal crew who will be coming to my aid and you, well you have very little time left. If you assist me, I might be able to get your upcoming prison sentence reduced."


Meanwhile Outside

Scarlet laid down against the gravel as he peered over the small embankment toward the cave entrance. "One guard. Not alert. I can see shield emitters five feet into the cave."

Anya stayed back, her phaser in hand ready for anything, waiting for the word to go... What could be awaiting them she started to wonder. She will ill prepared for this but the only one that could help the captain if they had mistreated her.

Pearl was waiting for the order to go inside, she looked over at where the guard was at, "Which target do you want me to take out, the emitters or the guard?"

"Guard." Scarlet said firmly. "Before they can raise an alarm." If things worked out smoothly at least for the time being they could make it so far into the caves before it became a full on fire fight. "Supposedly we have the codes for the shields, we'll find out soon enough."

Pearl nodded, moving her rifle the settings set on heavy stun, aimed carefully and shot. Sure she could have had the setting on kill but the person could have information they could use later on. The guard dropped, and Pearl crawled over the top of the embankment then rose to a crouched position moving towards the guard, checking to make certain the way was clear. She paused took a quick look back towards Scarlet and Anya, motioning for them to advance.

Anya, on her stomach, started to power forward as best she could, the motion feeling clumsy and awkward for someone not accustomed to it especially as the phaser in her hand prevented her from using the palm to huff her frame forward. If anything this proved she needed to spend more time in the ship's gym going forward.

Pearl made it over to where the stunned guard was at, and knocked him out, taking the time to tie him up and gag him. She waited for Scarlet and Anya to get there, before putting the guy over underneath some bushes. She also took the communication device from him as well, to keep tabs on what might be going on with the mercenaries.

Scarlet remained crouched as he rushed to the side of the cave and began accessing the shield generator. He glanced at the HUD information being displayed and then began punching in the codes.

"Set up demolitions on either side of the cave." He commanded. "Rig to blow once we're out and clear with the captain."

A moment later his HUD flashed. He had access to the shield grid inside the cave. He held back a snarl as he quickly set about his sabotage. First and foremost, match the frequency to their phasers so they could shoot through the shields and the mercs couldn't.

Pearl nodded, doing as requested, it was time to take the mercs down who had the audacity of taking their Captain hostage. when she was done she said, "Charges set and ready to go, Sir"

Anya started to follow the Marines as they entered the cave. It was beautiful and had this been an entirely different situation she would have liked to explore a little. It reminded her of the caves that Commander Miller had shown her on earth not so long ago... they were beautiful. Hues of green a violet moss growing on the rock faces. Massive stalactites hanging from the ceiling with water rippling down them collecting in pools carved out of the stone over eons. Living in those pools were small fish of some kind with electric blue fins that were darting around catching the small insects that kept landing on the water surface. She had to keep reminding herself not to get distracted or it could end up with some severe consequences.

She looked down at her tricorder which she had set to passive scan so as not to activate any sensor platforms and sadly because of mineral deposits lacing the cave walls the radios was only a meagre ten meters.
"Lieutenant..." she stopped the group with a whisper. "Nine meters ahead the passage opens into a large cavern. I'm ready multiple life signs... Only two of them seem to be motionless. I can't give you specific numbers not without possible tripping any sensor traps! Wait..." She was regarding the scanning devise again. "We have an incoming reading from the mouth of the cave!"

Several meters down the cave could be seen the silhouette of a humanoid, he was carrying a hand weapon but looked to be creeping in similarly to the small rescue team.
"Wait... I'm a friendly! Lieutenant Oakham. I was assigned here several weeks ago and was in the hills when the raid started. I was laying low when I saw you entering the cave... Wondered if you could use an extra pair of hands".
He was whispering, his features an odd mix of mature Bajoran male and that of a teenager. Perhaps just lucky that he didn't age or perhaps trying to look older than he was hence he had grown a beard.

Pearl nodded after having swung her weapon towards him, she gave him a bit of a once over and then went back to staying alert for possible bogies coming in.

Scarlet brought out his padd and checked the shields layout. There was a shield at either end of the chamber. "Fish in a barrel."

He motioned to Pearl. "Fast and precise on my mark."

Going back to the padd, he tapped in the commands to activate the shields for 20 seconds. "Mark."

Standing up from the crouch, Scarlet rushed forward and stopped inches from the shield before picking targets and shooting. He managed to take down one of the mercs before they reacted. One of their phaser bolts disipated through the shield as it crackled before him. A phaser blast from his own rifle cut through and took that merc down too.

Pearl was right on his heels, and when it was where she could, she moved to the side of Scarlet shooting at the other mercs, hitting them hard and fast. Watching them drop, as their phasers returned fire being nullified by the shields.

Anya had been moving with the group, her phaser in hand and she saw someone rush from the shadows brandishing a knife, swinging it wildly as he came directly towards Scarlet. Without even thinking she pointed and squeezed the trigger, a lance of charged orange energy hit him square in the chest and he went down with a thud and rapidly squeezed off two more shots at mercs further into the chamber, that's when she saw the Captain.

"Follow me!" she ordered the Bajoran who had joined them, Oakham he had called himself.

Oakham fell into step beside the Benzite Doctor, his own phaser rapidly discharging, re-aiming and discharging again and again at they moved, Anya had lost sight of Scarlet but she was set on getting to the Captain and relied on the Marines in doing what they did best.

"Captain... Are you hurt?"

At the sound of her voice Melody’s head snapped up alert. She called out a warning. “Look out!”

Scarlet barely aimed, went off instinct, as he fired his phaser rifle as the Orion woman standing near the Captain.

Mirae wheeled around as phaser fire crackled in the air around her. "Shi-" A phaser bolt hit her square in the chest and took her breath away as she collapsed, stunned.

Pearl moved along another corridor, taking more shots at the mercs, checking for any others that may not have been in the area where the others were. She returned back to Scarlet's side to finish up any of the others who may have escaped. "Clear on the other area."

"Clear here. Get the Captain, arm her, and then we move out." He glanced at Pearl. "Not sure how long we have before they figure out what we've done to their shields."

Melody allowed Anya to untie her and scan her to make sure she was ok. “Its good to see you Lieutenant. How did you manage to find me?”

"I hate to ignore your question Captain but if I may... Rescue first, conversation later... perhaps!" the Benzite looked to Scarlet knowing she had to thank him for the save but also pleading for him to back her up so they could evacuate the cave and be gone.

"Catch up later." Scarlet snapped. He tossed his spare phaser toward the Captain. "Sir, we have to evacuate now."

Melody caught the phaser then looked down at Mirae. “You should have accepted my offer.” she said to the unconscious Orion. She turned back to Scarlet “You're right but bring this one, she might have some information on where Fox has disappeared to. Let's move.”

"Princess, hope your cardio is good." Scarlet said firmly.

The lance corporal nodded towards Scarlet, then she handed the phaser rifle to Oakham, "Here take this, I'll get her." Walking over to Mirae, Pearl tied the woman's hands and then hoisted her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Okay, ready sirs."

Oakham holstered his type two phaser pistol in favour of the rifle that had been handed to him, checked it weight in his hands, flicked the scope up and back down and finally checking the power reserves within the weapon. He was good to go!

Scarlet did a final tweek to the shields and sealed everyone who wasn't already stunned out of their way. Leading the way back out of the cave, he watched as everyone exited and then got to a safe distance. With a glance back at the cave, Scarlet blew the charges and brought down the entrance. He gritted his teeth

"That'll hold them until they can be properly dealt with." He growled as he moved to catch up with the others.

OFF:

●●●● Captain Melody Jones
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin


●● Lieutenant Mathias McPhee
Chief Operations Officer
USS Merlin


Lance Corporal Pearl Bijoux
Marine
USS Merlin


| 1st Lieutenant David Scarlet
Marine Company Commander
USS Merlin


●● Lieutenant Nir’anyar
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin