Allies. Lies and Regrets.

Posted on Sat Oct 10th, 2020 @ 1:31am by Lieutenant Rachael "Ripcord" Yamaguchi & Lieutenant Xalanth

1,994 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 107 – Recovery
Location: Deck 121 - Starbase 400

Xalanth yet out a slight winch as his head moved to the right. His broken collar bone was almost healed, but it still did hurt when he moved his head to quickly to the right.

Fulvia sure did now how to make a painful injury. His heart's felt sorrow that she was still out there along with the pact team she'd infiltrated. His men had no luck finding any hidden pact areas either. They'd obviously hidden them well which made the lizard what it could be that they were hiding.

His mind also drifted to Captain Yamaguchi who he knew he still had an apology to give. He should have chosen his words more carefully. It's just he recognized the way she was talking. He'd been stuck in the same viewpoint for years after the war with the Yor up until he found T'para who had helped him learn how to live again.

By the ancestors, he missed his mates and children. He just wanted to hold all of them and just tell them everything was alright.

Letting out a sigh he kicked a piece of rubble along the floor. The piece bounced along the wall before with a click vanished into the wall. The lizard blinked as he stared at what had just happened. Had he finally found one of the pact's hidden areas?

His hand went to his combadge. "Xalanth to command. I need an engineering and security team to my location on deck 121. I have what I think is a holo field hiding something. "

A male voice answered. "Understood. Help is on the way..."

Meanwhile in engineering. Lieutenant Rachael Yamaguchi turned her head as she was called to assist with a situation that was brewing on level one twenty-one, she picked up her kit, and off she went.

As he waited for his backup Xalanth began examining the area. Though the markings were faded he could see the faint outline of some heavy equipment having been dragged across the field. Look like Fulvia was right that the pact had made some alterations to the station's superstructure to hide something. Most likely the holo field was hiding the entrance and that problem meant it was booby-trapped.

He looked up as the team arrived and he started giving orders after giving a polite nod to Ripcord. " Okay, people we have a holo field hiding something here." He said indicating the part of the wall. " Looks like the pact wants to hide something from us. I want a way to bring the field down whilst checking for booby traps."

Ripcord stood in silence as the listened to the Lieutenant explain the particular.
She pulled her pack off of her pack, as she drew her tricorder. "Looks like a low-level dampening field." she paused. "El-Tee..." she addressed Xalanth. "I'm getting some strange readings... from whatever that is... But it does not seem to be an overload... Its steady... Its also very faint."

Xalanth looked at the incoming data letting out a slight winch of pain as his head moved slightly to the side. "Sorry about that. Any indications of explosives or some traps behind it? The last thing I'd want is to step through it and get shot in the face by a disrupter. "

Ripcord shook her head. "I have no idea..." she answered. "I might be able to disable the dampening field but if it is booby-trapped... I'll set it off..."

The lizard began clicking his tongue against the side of his mouth as he thought it through. "Okay then. Everyone, pull back down the corridor and let's get a forcefield up. I take it you shut it down remotely ripcord?"

Ripcord nodded. "Its easy enough to arrange... Yeah, once you give the word... I can knock it out." she answered. "Give me a moment to arrange it." as she tapped her tricorder main display and went to work. A minute or so later, it was finished and so was she. "Ready here." Ripcord commented.

Xalanth had moved to a safe distance along with the rest of the team before nodding to let Ripcord know to do it.

With a crackle, the field fell revealing a new passageway leading into the heart of the station. What appeared to be a heavily modified holo projector/cloaking device was sitting in the hallway linked to a tripwire connected to spike trap held to the ceiling. "Clever... You wouldn't have been able to scan for that. " Xalanth said as he carefully moved over and disabled the tripwire making sure to scan for additional traps.

"Interesting bait for a rather primitive trap..." Ripcord commented as she drew her sidearm, she watched the reptilian carefully.

With a heave, Xalanth lifted the spike down before turning to the door behind the generator. Running a scan on it his eyes narrowed. Nothing." Stay back, everyone." He said as he carefully opened the door. A faint layer of dust flowed from the room as the lizard panned his searchlight into the black. It appeared to be some sort of lab though what kind was beyond him. "Okay let's get this place swept for more booby traps. " he said calmly.

Ripcord raised an eyebrow. "That trap was not designed to remain hidden, it was designed to kill as many as possible." she paused as she accessed her PADD which she had brought with her. "Accessing starbase schematics... This room was originally a science lab... Lab Eighteen at one point..." she commented.

" Well, they definitely wanted to keep something hidden. " Xalanth said as his light came to one of the computers. The casing had been cracked open and the guts of the machine had been smashed to bits then shot with a disrupter on the floor. " Think you can salvage anything from the remains? We have intel the pact was working on something that they don't want us to find. " he asked ripcord as he picked up what was left of the motherboards.

Ripcord raised an eyebrow. "I could... If given enough time to try to salvage something..." she commented as she began gathering up the debris.

The lizard nodded before the loud bang even made him jump. The bang echoed again from one of the small offshoots rooms. His phaser was aimed at it as he and the security team took positions. " One lifeform very faint. Looks like a Romu......." he began before the door opened.

A shriveled Romulan woman fell from the doorway with a thump. The tattered remains of a Romulan republic clung to her as she weakly murmured out." please... get this..." before passing out. As the security torch light's eliminated it was clear what she was referring to. A pack bomb vest she was strapped into.

Xalanths mind immediately went into soldier mode. " Okay everyone pull back out the lab." He said calmly as he drew his fang knife. He had a job to do.

Ripcord knew that she had just seconds, she drew her tricorder and ran a quick passive scan. "Don't let her die.. if you do, that warhead goes off..." she called before she uickly resumed gathering the degrees, more or less tossing everything into the empty space in her tookkit. "Ripcord,. come on.. we gotta go!"

Ripcord felt one of the security officers simply grab her and hauil her to her feet, before she simply threw off his grip rather than haul off and smash her psionicly-enhanced fist into the man's face. "I am more then capable." as she went to quickly secure her pack. "Lemme go!" as she was able to grab her pack before the security officer grabbed her and began to drag her out of the science lab

Once outside. Ripcord's eyes suddenly turned a shade of phague white before the man suddenly flew backwards and crashed into the back bulkhead. "I did not require saving..." there was something off in her voice as she snarled at the security officer who slid to the deck, stunned.

Despite hearing the argument outside Xalanth remained quiet as he worked. The bomb was of Tholian design which was a benefit. Those crystalline bugs didn't like shifting from the blueprints. Carefully removing the casing, his fingers gently pushed the wires apart as he began to unscrew the cashing of the detonator. " Ripcord, if this doesn't work, there a package under my bed that's to go to my family. You make sure it gets to them. You hear me." He yelled.

"Yeah." came the response as Ripcord pulled the cover off of the bulkhead outside the science lab. "What are you doing?" one of the security officers asked of her. Ripcord tapped her tricorder and then tapped the display before her, as she began rerouting power away from the area as she began establishing several forcefields, in case Xalanth's gambit failed.

"I'm locking this place down... In case he fails... Get out of my light and let me work hero." Ripcord commented as she pressed ahead with her efforts.

" I heard that." Xalanth yelled as he continued his work. "Please...don't...let..me...die." The romulan murmured slightly as she seemed to pass in and out of conscious. " Just hold on i'm not going to let you die." he replied calmly as his eyes were fixed on the detonator.

With another deep breath, his fingers gripped the detonator and slowly pulled the cylinder from the casing. His heart relaxed as his scanner showed it was dead. " Clear." He yelled. " Pact explosives makers zero, my grandmother's white stick one." he said without thinking before realizing everyone was looking at him." Sorry adrenaline rush," he said his voice returning to his professional tone as he tapped his combadge. " Xalanth to medbay, we have a priority casualty down here. One Romulan female is severely malnourished. "

"On our way sir." came the response from the com system. Ripcord tapped the display as she dropped the forcefield she had established. "Alright." Ripcord secured her gear before she rose to her feet. "Well, that was exciting..." she commented while she moved over to Xalanth. "How is she?" she inquired.

"Very weak. Looks like she's been deprived of food for quite some time." Xalanth said as he did a medical checkup. His yellow eyes noted something in the green blood that had fallen from some of her wounds. It appeared to have some foreign grey material floating with it. " Now what is this?" He said out loud as he turned his tricorder on it.

Ripcord regarded him in silence, she was the wrong Yamaguchi that he needed to be dealing with for this. "What did you find?"

"Look's like they've been injecting her with something. " Xalanth replied thinking was this what the pack had been working on. " The romulan republic didn't tell us that they had any POW's on the station did they?"

"I've not heard anything." Ripcord commented. "If they did then nobody mentioned anything to the Engineers..."

"Well look's like Fulvia intel is correct. " He said standing up as the med team arrived. "Get her to sickbay let me know when she comes around," he said to the med team before he turned back. "Ripcord, can you work on the device they were using to shield this place and find a way to shut anymore down across the station? We likely have more Romulan pow's on the station."

"I'll see what I can do." Ripcord commented evenly as she accepted the item in question.

" Thanks." the lizard replied with a warm smile on his face. " I'll have to get to a security station to check on something." he said his voice showing some concern.

"Okay." and with the items, she needed in hand. Ripcord departed without another word.

tag

anything else you want to add?

Nope... this one is good to go.
Next post will be carrying on from this one...

We also have a romulan republic spy to catch if your up for it.

Go for it, start us off then :)

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