Allies, lies and regrets. part three

Posted on Fri Dec 25th, 2020 @ 6:51pm by Lieutenant Xalanth

1,834 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 108 – Tragedies, Fortunes, and an Endgame

Xalanth patched in his combat armour in ops. He and as many security officers he could spare were all ready for action needing only the pulse that would take down the pact cloaking field.

All of them were now waiting on Ripcord to give the word and the operation would be a go.

Ripcord turned to Xalanth and she nodded. "The pulse is ready to go," she reported with a soft smile.

" Okay do it." he said as he looked at the holo image of the station. He felt a slight vibration as the pulse ran through the station. Computers began to light up as hidden rooms and chambers appeared and medical warning after medical warning erupted as new life signs appeared.

As the pulse reached the bottom of the station an ugly looking strange mixture of pact ships appeared to have been welded onto the station's lower hull crept out of existance.

" Well, that explains where they've been hiding.?" Xalanth said before turning to his men. " Okay people i want a security team to every revealed area along with a bomb disposal team and medical team. Zeta squad are with me were going after the big boys. I want phasers set on heavy stun as I want these assholed alive if possible. "

As the security personnel began to beam to their assigned positions the lizards combadge bleeped. =^= Sir three Romulans have just been beamed into the sanitation tanks.=^= The report brought a smile to the lizard's face. Fulvia was dealing with the pact rescue team in her own unique way. Turning to the team of security personnel with ripcord in tow he spoke calmly."

" Okay boys and girls. We have them corned and no help's coming for them. Everyone watches each other backs and let's get the POW's back. "

Ripcord had her pack on her back and her tricorder in hand. She followed along after Xalanth. "Energy source, distance sixty meters. End of the hall, turn left," she commented.

Xalanth lead the way scanning with his TR-116 as he did so. His eyes came across two starved and beaten Romulans clad in rags that had been uniforms of the Romulan republic who had been wired into pact bomb collars looking absolutely terrified. " Guess they are desperate there sending out the POW's in bomb collars." he informed his team as he fired two jammer rounds from his 116 the bolts jamming the destination signal for the collars. " T'shainuth
get the collars off." He indicated to one of his team as a look of relief spread over the two prisoners' faces. " Please they have the others." Xalanth heard as the team passed into the parasdic structure.

It was clearly a pact ship most likely Thorlian the lizard thought as the alien architecture replaced that of the starbase. Romulan life signs were everywhere but none of the bugs life signs. " Stay alert and keep away from the walls. Ripcord which way to the power source?" he asked.

"Down this hall, turn left." Ripcord answered. "As you turn left, it'll be a set of double doors leading to science lab sixty-one." she added.

Xalanth nodded as he kept scanning for targets. As his team were about to enter the room a disruptor blast shot down the corridor. It harmless slammed into the wall behind them as te lizard aimed and fired at the armour-clad bug. " Sloppy trigger discipline," he muttered to himself as his own stun shot slammed into it's head sending it reeling to the ground.

Ripcord came to a stop as she looked over the stunned Tholian. She turned to one of the follow-up security troopers. "Get him to a detention cell. Make sure you remove all armour and tech... and keep them on suicide watch," she explained. "I have questions for these clowns..."

To his credit. The Security officers didn't argue with Ripcord as she turned and followed Xalanth.

With a slight kick from his rifle Xalanth dropped another Thorlian from the ceiling. " Be on alert everyone this is to easy." he said scanning the room.

Ripcord nodded her head. "I'm reading a power surge on the construct, that... thing they attached to the outer plating," she explained. "I think they triggered a self-destruct." she expolained. "The trouble is... it requires a certain amount of power to build up before detonation..." Ripcord reported. "When is goes nova, it'll erase itself and take a good portion of the Starbase with it." she paused. "The shockpulse will then destroy the rest of the base and us along with it... Except we will never feel it..." she added. "I estimate we have fifteen minutes to detonation."

" Well let's find the power source and shut it down." the lizard said wheeling around and firing right oast ripcord at the Tholian which was starting to emerge from the wall behind her. It let out a screech as it partially fell from the wall with half of it still wedged in the grey wall before it slumped over dead. " Looks like they're not that skilled with suits."

"Or they are field-testing them." Ripcord answered evenly. "But why would they be still here... What else are they after?" she asked aloud.

" Most likely Thorlian high command didn't want to pull them out due to their weird astrology fascination. Now we've found them before their rides here." The lizard replied as he lead the way towards the power supply.

"Build up increasing. we're now thirteen minutes to detonation." Ripcord explained. "The effects to Kaleb IV will be extreme... To say the least," she explained.

" Well, we'd better hurry. " The lizard said as he fired again dropping another thorlian as they made their way through prison cell's. Some were still filled with half starved POW's other's were empty other than some dried green blood stains. They'd have to leave them for the team bringing up the rear.

" Right power source up ahead." The lizard said as he gave it a scan with his visor. "Looks like they're overloading the power supply, but the room looks empty. I smell an ambush ahead."

"I don't smell anything." Ripcord answered. "I am reading several power signatures present..." she sighed. "Tholians must think I'm just a soccer mom who fell of the star freighter yesterday..." Ripcord sighed. "Iriots really need to learn..." she tapped her tricorder several times. "That I'm a lot scarier then they are..."

She grinned as she tapped the display once. "Something I learned from history..." as a half dozen Tholians became visible. Judging from their reactions, this was a surprise.

Ripcord dove for the deck as the entire place exploded with the fire from phasers and disruptors.

Xalanth dived for cover his gun kicking as he fired several stun rounds into the nearest group of bugs dropping one of them. " Ripcord. If i can keep these assholes down, can you get to the power source," he yelled over the coms.

Ripcord nodded. "I'll need a couple of minutes to unjam the mess they made..." she responded as she hauled herself to her feet. "Take care of them... While I take care of this." as she went to work, tapping away at the displays before her. "Come on guys... This isn't a spectator sport!" she added as a disruptor blast passed between her and the display. "Guys... Really!" she shouted. "Some cover here!" she yelled.

Xalanth said nothing as he aimed and fired into a few of the bugs as he put himself between Ripcord and the Tholians. Their suits were more powerful, but the firepower of the federation team was starting to bring them down. " How long." He yelled to ripcord as he blew a disrupter off one of the Throlians suits.

Ripcord was busy working at the displays before her, she didn't have a good answer. "Working on it. Wait one..." she tossed back at him.

Ripcord noted that the Starbase computer system had been infiltrated but the Tholians didn't have full access to the main system. "These guys CANNOT be allowed to escape!" Ripcord reported. "They were able to gain access to the Starbase mainframe."

How the.... Xalanth thought before his brain slapped back into combat mode as he opened fire at another of the suited warriors.

Ripcord tapped the displays. "I got it..." and with that, she was able to shut down the overload and then she turned off the destruct system.

With the power levels fading the last of the thorlians seemed to realize the game was up. It's plasma launcher dropped to the floor with a clang as it raised it's arms over it's head. A smile spread over Xalanths face as his team reported no casualties. " Good..." he began before he noticed a stabbing arm rise from the ground as a phased Thorlian aimed to stab Ripcord through the chest. Shoving the lieutenant out of the way the appendage stabbed down through Xalanths armored foot. letting out a cry of pain Xalnth emptied his gun into the phased creature beneath the floor until it stopped trying to pull itself up and attack him. Letting out a few swear words in his own people's tongue which didn't translate he looked over at Ripcord. " You okay." He said through his gritted teeth.

Ripcord found herself flying thrugh the air before crashing into a bulkhead and then landing on the deck plating, in a heap. She slowly untangled herself as she tried to stand up but the impact had left her shaken. "I'll live..." she answered quietly. "Nice save through... You'd get along with my daughter..." she paused. "What say we don't share this little adventure with my mother?" she paused. "I'll explain it to her later."

" May be a little hard to explain, it's gone through my middle toe." The lizard said through clenched teeth as his team medic got to work.

Ripcord looked down as she noticed the injury. "The destruct system is disabled. They could try reactivating it... But I was able to disable the subroutine connecting the command pathway to the bomb... So.. I wish em luck if they do."

" A good job Ripcore. Can you check the computer to see if they got into any of the databases and inform anyone who may be compromised?" he added with a pained yet warm grin through his helmet.

"Yeah. I can... But since the main access is disabled. I will need to go through one of the alternate command pathways to do it." the young woman explained. "That's if I'm careful and don't frag anything else in here..." she let out a sigh. "Otherwise I will need to brute-force it... and what's worse is I might need to look at the program code again. Line by line... This Starbase's firmware was never that great, to begin with... Considering what mom told me about her time being assigned here."

" Do it let me know if you find anything." The lizard said as he was lead off to the medbay.

Lieutenant Xalanth
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant Rachael "Ripcord" Yamaguchi

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