Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jun 21, 2018 22:55:55 GMT
"You heard the lady..." Lynch added, as he sensed the oncoming movement. "Kimpor... fuck them the fuck up."
Kimpor lowered his rifle with a smile. "I thought you'd never ask." He rolled the isomorphic disintergrator over his shoulder, lining up the shot down the corridor; slowly falling back with the others, whilst Lynch covered him.
Further up ahead, Soule had turned the corner to the weapons lab, and was now engaged in a firefight with a seperate security team that had been dispatched. Taking a number of shots, ducking back against the wall, and repeating. His focus was disrupted by the sound of a large explosion.
"Yeeeee-haaaaaaaahahahaha!" Kimpor's voice sounded over the comm.
"Someone's having fun..." Soule said, as the twins joined him. "His relaxed demeanour belays the heart of a warrior." Tholl chuckled, as he and Groll opened fire. "Doesn't this make you long for the old days?" Groll reminisced, bolts of phaser fire whipping passed him. "A little bit. We could of used the Tholian!" Tholl replied, returning fire. "Maybe a few of the insects."
Izzy had to grin at Kimpor’s enthusiasm. Battle was not her forte, but at least someone was having fun…She followed in line with the others, ducking back behind bulkheads and occasionally returning fire as they went, even admitting to herself that she was beginning to enjoy herself, maybe a little bit.
Soule and the Twins advanced slowly against the guards, even though that cropped up as fast as they were being taken down, eventually clearing a path to the weapons bay; and hopefully some answers finally. "Your up again, Zig..." Soule ordered, setting up a formation in front of the door, with the Twins just ahead of him.
"On it." Zigzy ran up and immediately got to work on the door panel. After pulling it open and entering a number of inputs into the isolinear circuitry, his face dropped. "Uhhh... guys...." He still attempted to unlock the door despite his shock.
"What is it Zigzy? Can you not open it?" Soule inquired, angrily, as he was still firing on targets coming from the end of the corridor.
"No... it ... uh... It has a Borg alphanumeric interface... I think I can..." Zigzy paused in horror as the door opened, but not by his own doing. "Uh oh..."
Soule turned at the word 'Borg', sharing Zigzy's look of horror at the sight of an assimilated Klingon, in the form of a heavy tactical drone. "Oh... shit." It looked down at Zigzy crouched besides it, before reaching in to grab him, Soule launching himself at its arm to stop it, as it extended it's assimilation tendrils. "Guys we have another problem!" He screamed over the comm, unable to shoot his rifle before it can get Zigzy, but his exertions meaning nothing to the drone's immense strength. He reached for a knife, and began stabbing at it, in it's arm and back, as it was all he could reach, until the blade snapped in it's armour plating; and then it turn its attention to Soule, effortlessly throwing him into the opposite bulkhead, and bearing down on him.
As Soule struggled to his feet, the drone grabbed him by the shoulder to hold him still, closing its other hand in on his neck, even as he resisted; it's tendrils deploying again. The Twins fired at it with their disruptors, damaging its side a number of times before a green shield shimmered in defense; adapting quickly to their assault. Groll charged at it, readying his baton to strike, only to be tossed aside like a ragdoll; his helmet damaged in the the strike. As the drone returned it's attention to Soule, though, the subtle sound of a click could be heard.
"Adapt to this..." With the crack of a gun, the drone slumped to the floor; Klara, wasted no time, with a point blank shot to the head.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jun 22, 2018 16:07:54 GMT
Time had stopped. It was a moment that would be forever etched into Isabelle’s nightmares. Her Imzadi, her beloved Soule down, the borg drone standing over him. Isabelle stared at the scene in abject terror, frozen and unable to move. She tried to scream but couldn’t, her voice and heart caught in her throat.
And then after what seemed like an age, she pushed aside her fear and broke through the ice holding her back, lifting her weapon to join the battle, fury rushing through her like a pillar of fire.
And when Klara’s shot finally dropped it, she rushed forward to his side. “Soule..Soule, are you alright?” A mix of concern and relief trembled around the edges of her voice; she grabbed out her tricorder from its pocket on her EV suit, scanning him for injuries.
Soule grimaced a moment, going to clutch his shoulder in pain, but stopping himself. "I'm fine..." He smiled at her, knowing full well she wouldn't buy it. "I am... I promise."
Izzy gave him a relieved smile. But she didn’t buy it, especially since she had a tricorder scan to prove otherwise. “I’m just glad you’re alive.. and you’re mostly fine.. Aside from the mild concussion and dislocated shoulder.” She went about dosing him with medication for the concussion and pain, and easing his shoulder back into its socket.
"I'm fine too... by the way. Just a little shaken, s'all." Zigzy called, slumped against the door frame, a hollow look in his eyes.
"Come on Zig... up ya get." Klara held out her hand. "We still gotta clear that room..."
"Oh shit..." Soule exclaimed, his senses coming back. "Groll..." He looked to the Breen, splayed on the floor. "Izzy..."
She turned to look, finally seeing Groll laying nearby with Tholl kneeling next to him; “Oh no.. I.. I should have seen..” She felt a wave of guilt; she hadn’t even noticed him or Zigzy go down in the heat of the battle, as focused as she was on the Borg drone and Soule.
”Tholl, help me out please...I’ve never treated a Breen.” She knelt beside the downed warrior, scanning him. His vitals seemed to be weak, but she had no baseline to compare it to. There was so little federation data on breen physiology that, before now, she didn’t even know what one looked like inside of the suit. She examined the crack in Groll’s helmet; a cold white mist was hissing out of it.
"You got sloppy. Your concern for others has made you weak , Brother." Tholl said dismissively, placing his hand over the crack, trying to hold in the cryogenic atmosphere. "How do you feel?" A quiver of his own concern could be heard.
"It feels good, to not be the bad guys for a change." Groll rolled his head a little. "But my head hurts... and it's.... so hot... feel dizzy... can't feel the air in my pores."
"He has vented atmosphere. He is entering hyperthermia, and I believe he has... what you would call a concussion." He tilted his head, looking down at his fallen brethren, before leaning into Izzy and whispering. "I can tell you more of our biology..." He looked around; Soule standing close covering them, as Issac and Kimpor caught up. "But not amongst this and... I do not want the others to hear."
“Thank you for your trust.“ Isabelle replied to Tholl. She felt honoured to be one of the few doctors in the federation to learn about the Breen directly from another of their kind.
“For right now, I can at least do something about the atmosphere venting, and then we can move him.” She unclasped her medkit and took out a syringe filled with a thick clear substance. “It’s a sterile gel meant for keeping someone from bleeding out. But it should also plug the hole in his helmet.” she injected the gel into the crack, which expanded and solidified almost instantly, sealing the cryogenic gas back inside. She could see that Groll started to breathe easier after a minute or two.
“We’re ready to move..” she informed Soule.
"What the fuck happened here? And... WHAT... THE... FUCK... is that thing?" Issac shouted, over his own covering shots, pointing at the dead drone on the floor.
"Long story... tell ya later. Gotta get Groll to cover." Soule replied. "Klara, what do you see in there..."
In the next room - the weapon research bay - Klara and a slightly dazed Zigzy scanned around them for more hostiles, sharing uneasy looks with each other a what they saw. Numerous computer panels, displays, workbenches and areas were scattered across the bay, with rack after rack of rifles, phasers and grenades of unknown specification taking up much of the rest of the free space. But it was none of that that had them worried, it was the four empty alcoves at the end of bay.
"Uhm.... its clear... but that will be on no comfort at all." Klara finally spoke up.
"Thank you for your discretion, Doctor." Tholl took Groll's arm and slung it over his shoulder, before easing him up, slowly moving him into the weapons bay. "One step at a time."
As Izzy and the Twins entered the bay, Soule took a hold of the drone and started dragging it into the bay. "Kimpor... g'is a hand."
"Sure..." Kimpor said, confused, but doing as Soule asked, heaving the drone back. "Why... though?"
"To grab it's neural processor. Needa find out what it's doing here... how do Section 31 have a Borg drone, what were they doing with it, why this place isn't a hive by now..." Soule replied morbidly.
"They have more than one drone." Klara added. "At least three."
"Shit...." Soule exclaimed, before he and Kimpor dropped the drone. He took a deep breath, to collect his thoughts. "Issac, get the door. Zig, start tearing into those consoles... and get me some intel on this place that isn't absolute horseshit. And Kimp... I'd look away if I were you." Soule pulled out another knife, gave some moments of silence for the once Klingon warrior, and started the removal procedure.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jun 23, 2018 13:35:59 GMT
Izzy followed Tholl and Groll to one corner of the weapons bay whilst Soule began his grisly but necessary autopsy. She helped Tholl lay his brother down on the floor and removed her helmet so that she could see the readouts better. “Tholl, If I’m reading this right, there appears to be a pooling of excess fluid here...and a rupture in this structure here..” She pointed to something resembling a crystalline sponge that encased what she assumed to be the brain; the structure seeming to take the place of a skull.
"A colloidal leak, coming from his cranial pneumatocysts. We have neither bones, nor blood; we are supported by a complex network of gas-filled sacs and self-healing enzymatic hydrogels. This is more severe than I first believed." Tholl examined the scans fastidiously. "Our pneumatocysts redistribute the striking force... in the head, instead of the brain colliding with the skull, a sufficient blow, can compress the pneumatocysts around an area of the brain, and with greater pressure still... burst them."
"It makes us more resistant to blunt trauma than you osteoforms." Groll grumbled in pain. "That Drone was strong."
"I believe it is comparable to your concussions, yes? You can repair this damage, can't you?" Tholl asked, trying sound less worried than he actually was.
"And you say I've become weak." Groll gave a pained laugh. "It's ok to worry about others, brother. I think it makes us stronger."
Isabelle nodded, though she didn’t feel as confident as she would have liked, given the difficulties involved. “I will try. It’s going to take some microsuturing.. I have a portable sterile field generator, which I can modify to hold in the cryogenic gas long enough to work on him. The problem is, the anesthetic I have would freeze solid in the temperatures necessary to keep Groll alive..”
"Then you should perform the procedure without it, doctor." Groll replied, steadfastly. "I will have to manage."
Across the room, Soule could be heard straining. The drone's chest was more thickly armoured than normal; even though he had managed to slice into it's tissue, he had to wrench it's plating apart before he could gain access to it's chest cavity. As he reached in to feel around for neural processor, Klara and Zigzy couldn't help but look on nauseously, Kimpor had to take his helmet off, before he threw up in the corner.
"That... is... that is not right." Kimpor groaned.
"I know." Klara patted him on the back, to help comfort him. "He has to do it though..."
Soule growled to himself, again straining as he contorted the arm the drone had dislocated. "Ah ha!" He jerked, pulling back, before finally retracting his arm out of the cavity, processor in hand. He took out his tricorder and connected the two devices together, setting the tricorder to decrypt the borg neural data. "How are things looking on your end, Zig?"
"We are definitely on the secure network now... it'll take me a few minutes to break through the security subroutines." Zigzy replied. "Some of it's in Borg alphanumerics, there's some high level Section 31 code, obviously... and..." He shook his head. "I don’t even know what that is... Reman... maybe..."
"Why would it be Reman?" Soule asked curiously, waiting for the tricorder results.
"Reman is one of the more complex Alpha Quadrant languages, so security code written in it, is pretty fucking secure." Zigzy shook his head some more. "But... I'm starting to think that it isn't Reman. God damn, it looks so familiar..."
Back in the corner, Isabelle looked worriedly at Groll, considering what to do next. She was impressed by his bravery, but she couldn’t imagine putting anyone through a surgery without anesthetic, no matter how much they said they were prepared for it. “I’d rather try a delta wave inducer first.. “
“Or.. “ she snapped her fingers. “There must be some kind of antifreeze property in the enzymatic gel, correct?” she asked Tholl. “What if I added some of that to the anesthetic first before injecting it?”
Tholl silently pondered for a moment, the green light of his visor shimmying side to side, hiding the processes going on in his head. "The El-aurian..." He started thinking aloud. "He treated us for years... he must have done something like that."
"I have faith in the doctor. I believe it will work." Groll croaked.
"Then you will need a sample." Tholl tilted his neck. "There is a large cluster, in what you would call the jugular. Take what you require, doctor."
She nodded in assent. “Then I will begin..there’s no more time to waste.”
She removed a small device from her medkit, placing it at Groll’s head and activating it. It formed a sterile force field bubble around his head, which she adjusted to full strength so that the gases would not escape when she removed Groll’s helmet. Taking the offered sample of enzymatic gel was a little bit of a challenge due to Tholl’s suit, but she was able to accomplish it through imaging on the tricorder to find the cluster that he was referring to.
After that, a simple prick with the syringe through the flexible neck membrane of the suit sufficed to get the amount she needed to add to the anesthetic pouch. Once she had the drip set up; the adapted anesthetic flowed through the tube, through the cryogenic atmosphere in the bubble to cool it to the correct temperature, and into Groll, sending him off to sleep.
Isabelle tensely chewed her lip as she worked; she had to force herself to remain calm and steady while she knitted together the ruptured pneumatocysts. It was slow going, due to the unfamiliar breen cell architecture, and her stomach was clenched the entire time; wondering if they would be discovered by more guards or the remaining borg drones…
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Post by spacedaisy on Jun 23, 2018 18:52:01 GMT
Freaking awesome!
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jun 25, 2018 3:30:27 GMT
Soule leaned against the console next to Zigzy, idling by, as they both tried to crack their respective codes. Soule seemed confused by the results he was seeing; he did the Borg classes at the academy, then he brushed up when Hyperion encountered them on that planet they promised to never speak of, and he did see the odd bit of Borg code at Daystrom; but this wasn't right.
"What's wrong, Douglas?" Zig asked.
"I dunno... you're better at this Borg code than I am, but this should have a record of everything this drone has been ordered, and a list of it's previous designations, right?"
"Yeah... it essentially has it's entire biographical history in there?" Zig narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"'Cuz I'm not seeing an assimilation date, or adjunct reassignments, or a designation." Soule tweaked the tricorder, doing more analysis on the results. His eye twitched, and he gasped suddenly, seeing something that shocked him to the core. "Oh my god..."
"Soule...? Buddy...?"
"They weren't assimilated by the Borg..." He turned the tricorder to show Zigzy. Behind all the Borg alphanumerics and encryption codes, layered deep in the drone's core programming, coding that was not Borg at all.
"That's..." Zigzy slumped on the console. "That's Starfleet code."
"Zigzy... get inside that database now!" Soule ordered decisively.
"Yes sir." Zigzy put his head down and got to work, finding this last anomalous code language challenging, but he was determined to crack it, despite the fear at what he was going to find.
Meanwhile, as yet unaware of the terrible discovery that Soule and Zigzy were in the process of finding, Isabelle finally reached the last of Groll’s injured pneumatocysts, suctioning out the remaining excess hydrogel and closing up the final rupture. She didn’t know if it was a complete success, having no other breen surgeries to compare it to; but the obvious damage was repaired and his vitals had not worsened. She removed the anesthetic tube and then carefully replaced his helmet back onto his suit before she shut down the sterile forcefield.
“I don’t know for sure how long it will take him to wake up.. But it seems to have worked,” she reported to Groll.
"Kim, get your helmet on, and pull yer shit together... we've got a long way to go down this rabbit hole yet." Soule nodded comfortingly. "I want you and Klara to do another sweep of this room, keep an eye on Izzy, but try to give her and the Twins their privacy."
"Aye man." Kimpor said before wiping his mouth and swinging his helmet back on; Klara nodding in agreement.
"And take this." Soule took unslung his rifle, swapping it with Kimpor's. "If you see any Borg... aim for the head. We don't have a lot of intel on how they react to projectile weapons; they seem unable to adapt to them... but we don't wanna give them the chance." They both gave Soule a final nod, before moving off and complying with his orders, leaving Soule and Issac alone at the door.
Soule slowly wandered over to him, tapping his fingers and sighing, putting his tricorder away after a final look over. Out of the blue, Soule grabbed Lynch by his chest plates, suddenly and violently slamming him into the wall. "Alright Lynch..." He snarled. "What the fuck is this place?"
Lynch just chuckled. "Y'know... getting fed up of you manhandling me, Douglas." "I want answers now." "You either got some massive balls, or you're really fuckin' stupid... to be barking demands at me..." "I ain't afraid of you, Issac..." "And that's you're problem... you should be." "Issac! Enough of the pissing contest, I want to know, what you know. Because I know you know something that you're not telling us."
Lynch squinted his eyes. "I know alot of things, Soule. That's my job." "But it's not a coincidence that our paths crossed is it?" "No." "Why are we here?" Soule breathed deeply. "To rescue your hologram friend." "Then why are you here?" "Because...." Lynch was cut off by Zigzy cheering.
"Guys I'm in." Zigzy breathed a sigh of relief. "The script looked like Zibalian, although my tricorder analysis seemed to think it was something called Dewan. But I don't think that's important, just weird."
"Did you say Dewan?" Lynch turned. "Soule, we don't have time for this. We need to look over that database, and find what we're here for."
"Why? Who are the Dewan?" Soule growled.
"Nothing, it's not important."
"Yes it is!" Soule started to shout. "We have an underground facility, armed to the teeth with defensive systems and a fleet in orbit. We have an unknown starship parked two miles beneath the surface, holographic slaves, and Borg drones that were made here... by Section 31. And now we have the security programming of this facility being written in a language of a seemingly, completely random race." Soule pulled his tricorder back out. "And the Drone's standing directives... they don't make any sense."
Zigzy felt uncomfortable, slowly moving towards the pair, with the idea to break them up. "What do they say, Soule?"
"Secure 0-1-0 at all costs."
Lynch went uncharacteristically pale. "What did you just say?
Annie suddenly piped into the comms. "What did he just say?"
"This has just gone beyond your rank Soule. Get your goddamn hands off me, and fall in line; I am taking over." Lynch pushed Soule off him, and strode to the middle of the room. "Zigellmen, get on that database, get us the full layout and find us a route to where the power is coming from. Then I want to come up with a way to fry their entire network." He looked around, aware that Soule and Zigzy just stood there, staring him. "I wasn't fucking asking."
"Fuck you." Soule replied.
"I'm with him." Zigzy added. "What the hell is 010?"
"Something that needs to be destroyed at all costs." He cracked his knuckles, breathing deep, to centre himself. "And you will do as I have ordered."
"This isn't your mission."
"Like hell it is. You're just a lowly lieutenant, Douglas. You're a fuck up, who's just about sabotaged any chance of career progression, cuz you can't keep your mouth shut, because you're a self righteous prick. You're only on this mission because your mummy dearest ordered it of me, after you went and stumbled on one of Section 31's darkest secrets." Issac stepped toward the pair again, rolling his fingers in the air by his waist. "And I am not gonna jeopardise the safety of the entire galaxy, to save your pet."
"Issac..." Annie growled over the comm.
"No... Annie, this has gone far enough. I want that Breen either ready to go, or that wife of Soule's to put him out of his misery."
Tholl nodded his thanks to the doctor. "We do not usually sleep long... or often..." Tholl turned around, distracted by the sound of the raised voices. "...But I am confident he'll wake up...soon..." Then he heard Lynch's last remark; his bloodless cryogenic body heating up with rage. "Excuse me doctor..."
Tholl marched unwaveringly at Issac, fire in his eyes. Issac sensed him coming, turning and raising his weapon on the Breen. Tholl slapped the gun aside, grabbing Lynch by the throat, and hoisting him into the air. "You... dare..." He constricted his hand tighter.
"Thank you, Tholl." Soule nodded, looking up at Lynch dangling there with just the slightest bit of enjoyment. "Since you won't tell us... Annie can..."
"I... I can't, Soule." She replied apologetically. "Why not?" "Because..." She was cut off by Lynch. "Don't you fucking dare, Annie." Issac croaked, before the Breen tightened his grip yet again.
"Annie?" Soule begged. "What is this place?"
"It was always believed to be some kind of fear inducing propaganda. But the rumours always said it was a fringe science facility, working on all the things Starfleet have suppressed knowledge of or tried to destroy over the centuries, things too dangerous even for us to possess." She made a sad whincing noise.
"Is Vitro even here then, or has this all been a lie?"
"Yes. He's here... you found him, and in doing so, managed to do something our best agents had failed to do for years. You not only confirmed the existence of the Forge, you actually located it. " She sighed. "And it's looking to be much worse than Starfleet Intelligence ever imagined."
"And 010?"
"That... changes everything. But... I can't tell you any more than that Soule. You have to believe me, knowledge of it, is restricted to those with Level 10 clearance and above. Telling you about it, would have us all arrested under the highest levels of authority. But you have to believe me..." She pleaded. "Section 31 cannot be allowed to have it... no one can."
Soule stared up at Lynch, quietly processing Annie's words. "Get the schematic Zig... then try to find anything in this place that's useful for us. Appears we have two objectives, now." He walked over to Tholl, patting him on the shoulder, signalling him to release Lynch. "Because I am not leaving Vitro here... you understand me?" Tholl slowly put the intelligence officer down, albeit hesitantly.
Lynch massaged his neck, whilst gritting his teeth at Soule and the others. "Crystal clear."
"What do we need to know about it, Annie? Why is it so dangerous? How do we destroy it?" Soule asked.
"You'll need gravimetric charges or something similar to destroy it... and that's all I can tell you. Just know, it would tip the balance of power in the entire galaxy, for whoever could obtain it. It makes Thalaron radiation, the Doomsday machine and the Xindi superweapon, look like children's toys.
Soule absorbed what little she could tell him, finding her summary of how dangerous it was, compelling. "Hopefully Zig can find something like that..." He sighed. "What about the Dewan language? How does that figure in to all of this?" '"I have no idea. I've never heard of them before... but, be careful. They could have discovered technology or artifacts or something, that we simply don't know about yet."
"Thank you, Annie. We'll see what we can find." He gazed around the room; a sense of dread growing deep within him, only growing as he looked at Lynch. He decided to check in with Izzy, under the hopes that she has better news for him.
Izzy had thankfully been mostly finished with taking care of Groll before the shouting started, at which point she had to turn and look, staring wide-eyed as Lynch attempted to take over.
After it was all over, at Soule’s approach she got to her feet and stretched with a grimace, after having been crouched for so long doing the emergency surgery.
She offered her update, answering Soule’s questioning look. “Well, it’s over at least." She sighed exhaustedly. "I think Groll will recover, he seems to have come through the surgery fine so far anyway.. And if Tholl hadn’t marched over to Issac and lifted him up by the throat just now, I’d have gladly dropped him with a sedative-charged hypospray that would have left him asleep for a month.” She glared at Lynch with narrowed eyes and and an expression of disgust, and took Soule’s hand in support.
“But.. what happened over there? I only heard bits and pieces since I was trying to concentrate, and then I’m not even sure I understood that... Something about an 010, and code language, and... section 31 borg drones. Did I hear that right.. The drones have starfleet code in them?” Her face held an expression of horror as that fact burrowed into her knowledge of everything she thought she knew about Starfleet, like a trojan virus, leaving nothing but black gaping destruction in its wake. This was far worse than she could have imagined.
"I..." He shook his head, running his hand along his helmet, as if it were his hair. "I have no idea... I am so out of my depth, Izz... I thought I had to worry about a team, with a simple get-in and get-out objective. But the more we learn about this place the worse it gets, and Annie and Lynch are telling us this could be threat to the entire quadrant... the galaxy... what the fuck am I supposed to do with that?"
He rested his helmet on her forehead for a moment, taking a drawn out breath. "I'm not some Starfleet legend. I'm not a Kirk, and I'm certainly no Picard. I'm just a Leftenant, and a junior one at that." He squeezed her hand for comfort. "I don't understand how it all pieces together, what it all means."
"Whatever 010 is, it has Annie and Lynch spooked. Zig does languages and codebreaking, he's that kind of intel officer; but he doesn't know what significance this Dewan language has, if any." He paused, struggling to find sense in any of this. "And the Borg? Nobody seems to know, but I think they may be just one of the many experiments they're doing in this place."
She planted a kiss on his helmet, gazing into his eyes through the visor. “We may not be legends, but you.. and I.. and the rest of us.. are here now. And we have to try to stop these experiments, and we have to get Vee out of here so the ninth fleet can come in and raze this place to the ground like it deserves to be. We have to try..” she said with resolve, squeezing his hand for courage. What they had just experienced with the drone, seemed to be only the tip of the iceberg.. And she didn’t want to know how much worse it was going to get.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 10, 2018 20:58:13 GMT
Soule couldn't help but crack a smile. "You're right." He mimed her a kiss back, before focusing on the situation. He stepped over and knelt down beside Groll, placing his hand on the Breen's chest. "It's time to wake up."
Groll started twitching, his body undulating, before sitting bolt upright, like a vampire rising in a crypt. He shook his head, before staring at the Douglases. "Did I hear someone threaten to kill me?" "Lynch." Soule replied simply. "Ok. That is good to know." He replied, turning to Izzy. "And thank you, doctor, for saving my life, and preparing me for battle once more." He sluggishly attempted to stand, being less prepared to fight than a warrior of his prowess would ever care to admit. Placing his hand on Soule's shoulder, he pushed himself to his feet, staggering somewhat but not toppling. He surveyed the room, eyeing up Lynch for a moment, before turning to the weapons racks. "Request permission to reallocate some hostile ordinance?" Soule looked to Izzy, waiting for her medical assent before granting the Breen's request.
“Well…” She looked to Groll, considering. “You seem to be coherent enough.. But wobbly. Do you feel any dizziness, confusion, nausea or headache?” She gave him a once-over with the tricorder, comparing the vitals she’d gotten from him earlier with the ones she had now. They seemed to be improving.. And his temperature was colder than earlier, which she assumed was better.
"I will be fine, but, yes, I do have a headache." He nodded at her, slowly inching his way toward the racks.
“Of course you have a headache, you’ve just had cranial surgery.” she smirked, grinning at him. “Actually, I’m quite impressed at how fast you recovered. Usually it takes days for an osteoform, at minimum.. But If you feel up to fighting shape, then I give you permission, especially since we can’t sit around here all day to wait. And I’m here if something goes wrong again.”
"It will take time for me to fully recover, but I can stand; and a Breen that can stand, is a Breen that can fight." He cupped his hands and nodded, in a gesture of thanks. "I shall be forever in your debt, Doctor." He turned to Soule. "I will find something of worth, that we can use to do battle with our foe's escalating force."
Soule simply nodded, knowing there was very little he could do, to dissuade the will of a Breen; Groll obliging, quickly setting off, and ripping his way into the various weapon containers. "We'll have to keep an eye on him; I think I'm finally starting to understand them." He whispered to Izzy, before turning towards Zigzy and gesturing Izzy to follow; so she can see what he may have found.
“I have to say, the Breen are much less of a mystery to me now then they used to be..but I still have a lot to learn.” she chuckled in reply to Soule, as she finished packing up the last of the accoutrements from the surgery into her medkit, and then followed beside him and Zigzy to see what they wanted to show her.
Soule smiled at Izzy, for the brief moment of comfort they could hope to find in this place. "What’d you find out, Zig?"
Zigzy humphed. "That I'm gonna need therapy after this." He transferred lists of research projects, to displays either side of him. "They have a collection of technologies from all over the galaxy; this Polaron stuff here..." He pointed to the screen on his left. "Obviously courtesy of the Dominion. Cloaking technology from the Romulans, energy dissipation devices..."
Tholl looked over his shoulder, away from Lynch. "They have Breen technology..."
"Tip of the fucking iceberg, my friend." He continued, turning to his right. "But it's the biomedical stuff... we've already met Project X-375γ." He turned around to look pointedly at the drone on the floor, before turning back to the display. "But... uhm... Doc... you'll understand all of this better than I will..."
“I’m not sure I want to know..” Isabelle slid up next to Zigzy and paged through the display anyway, still a little afraid of what she might find. “Ok.. so there’s alot of standard medical reports.. And a series of experiments.. Standard bioengineered viruses, various types of implant tech from the borg, and.. Oh crap, this isn’t good. Well.. I mean, none of it is good, but this is worse..” She brought up a series of reports from a specific set of experiments. “Recombinant DNA experiments from borg, and changelings.. And a quantum transport implant..?”
She looked up to Soule and Zigzy. “The borg were just the first step.. they seem to be trying to create some kind of super soldier. Borg, changeling dna for infiltration.. And a built-in quantum transporter to send them halfway across the galaxy without the need for ships.”
“But.. they’re nowhere near where they want to be yet. The changeling-humanoid experiments have had 100% mortality so far due to lack of cellular cohesion, though they’re making a new batch as we speak... And the quantum transport implants have so far been unstable; causing brain damage to the point where they required termination.”
"That quantum teleportation tech, is flakey as fuck." Lynch chimed in. "There's no way they could they could get it working the way they want it."
"He's right..." Soule relented, no matter much it pained him; his glance darting between the displays, speed reading through everything as fast as he could. "They're doing experiments on just about everything... not all successfully."
"Small miracles." Zigzy whispered to himself, giving him some hope.
"But...they're trying to make servitor races; the holograms, the borg, those abominations. They're conducting Human augmentation experiments... to make a literal master race." Soule shook his head in despair. "To what end? Even with all of this, they can't win a war against all the powers of the Alpha quadrant, let alone the galaxy."
"They have 010." Lynch stated angrily. "I don’t know what that is, Issac, because you wont tell me. But I'm having a hard time believing that if its as powerful as you say it is, then they'd need any of this. No." Soule barked back. "Why would they need to amass an armoury to fight an interstellar war, they could win with a single shot." "Whatever 010 is... they don't know how to control it." Soule started to to grin,. "Or maybe it can't leave this planet. That leaves the question of how they're gonna propagate all of this to the four corners. There's still a piece to the puzzle missing."
"How do you conquer the galaxy?" He threw the question to the team.
“A net?” Isabelle offered, thinking of 31’s propensity for infiltration. “If they infiltrate enough governments.. like what’s been happening in the Federation, all they have to do is pull the strings from within to tighten the net around everyone..”
"But there are so many different governments, even just here." Zigzy thought aloud. "How the hell are they gonna mobilise it, without getting spotted?" He pointed at another group of files. "They've done a bunch of research on Quantum slipstream, and some really basic experiments on transwarp, but they're not exactly the stealthy option."
"What about that ship?" Soule asked.
"Hang on." Zig typed away, finding necessary files. "Its... Dauntless class? Not familiar with it." "That's where quantum slipstream technology comes from..." Soule clicked his fingers. "I knew I recognised it from somewhere..." "So they built a ship; designed in the delta quadrant to mimic Federation architecture, to entrap a certain crew." Issac grumbled. "Why?" "It's size and slipstream profile, would make it hard to spot... like Argonaut, only vastly better equipped."
"Eh... don't talk shit about my ship."
Soule ignored Isaac and continued. "Still doesn't answer all the questions, probably a flatbed for new tech; the cloaking stuff, the QSD, these weapon systems... but it's not exactly a warship." He sighed. "As for your earlier orders...." Zigzy typed away. "Getting the full schematics of this place... it's way bigger than we thought it was. But the command centre and the holomatrix core are located in the same place..." "The shielded area..." Soule guessed. "Yeah, but... thats where its getting really weird. The more I try to learn about that area, the more of that Dewan code keeps showing up." Zig continued. "I'm starting to find it hard to get through it all..." He started finding his command inputs being resisted. "Shit... they know we're in their system."
"Zig, get everything you can on padd. I'll see if I can slow them down." Soule leant in closer, typing away himself. "I'll try something I did at Sigma Rho... create a cascade failure in their EPS conduits."
"Downloading now."
"Everyone else form up." Soule ordered over the comm. "We're finally getting to the heart of all of this shit."
Isabelle placed her helmet back on her head, and shouldered her medkit once more, putting herself near Soule and the Twins. In doing so, she gave Groll another once-over, mostly only able to identify which one of the two he was due to the sealed crack in his helmet and because he still seemed to be unsteady on his feet. She also put herself as far from Lynch as possible, still not trusting him.
Tholl looked to his kinsman; who now sported a new weapon, and stared at him in that Breen way. "What's that?" "Not sure. Its bulky." It was similar to one of the isomorphic disintergrators in overall size, but it looked very much like a chunky rifle, with two massively oversized batteries running the length of the barrel either side. "Hopefully, it's useful." "Where's mine?" Groll chuckled. "I'm doing well. Thank you for asking." Tholl turned to the door, raising his weapon up and readying himself; shaking his head "Me... me... me.... I save your life, and this is the thanks I get." "The doctor saved my life, you merely assisted." Groll stood beside his brother, and raised the exotic weapon, and waited on Soule's orders; shaking his head back.
Meanwhile Kimpor and Klara quickly returned to the group; Klara seeming on edge, looking around suspiciously. "Its too friggin quiet." "Why'd ya have to say that K..." Kimpor sighed. "You just blew a bunch of them up with a plasma launcher... what are you worried about?" "You saw the Borg right? The alcoves? This place is giving me the creeps, and it's damn well creeping you out too..." The Rigellian retorted, feeling more paranoid the more Klara did. "I'm a Maco... we don't get creeped out." She gave a very Risan smile in reply. "I'll watch your back." "Better, bitch... or I'll haunt your ass."
"Guys... please..." Soule said sternly, hoping to get everyone's focus; before looking to Zig briefly, as they both typed away. "This system is way better than Sigma Rho." "Isn't it just..." Zig replied, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. "I'm almost done with the transfer." "Good... almost ready with a cascade overload. Should badly damage a bunch of their systems... cause havoc." Zig’s eye twitched. "Well that's really good?" "Why?" Soule cautiously asked... before quickly being alerted to the sound of cutting beams on the door. "Oh... for fuck sake." "So not that way then." Lynch stated coyly. Soule glared at him, returning his attention to the task at hand. "K&K... did you see another way out of here? A Jeffrey's tube hatch, or something?"
They shook their heads in response.
"Doesn't mean we can't make one though..." Kimpor suggested. "They got stuff in here they dont want damaged, so they aren't using charges." He raised up an antimatter charge. "I don't think we have that same consideration."
"Wouldn't it all be blast resistant material?" Klara asked.
"Nothing... can resist my booms!" Kimpor looked back to Soule.
"Quickly." Soule gave the order. "Izzy, Klara... help him."
Izzy looked towards the door in trepidation, and gave a panicked glance around the room before remembering the tricorder on her belt. She removed it, scanning the walls as quickly as she could for a room or a hollow space behind that would work as an escape route. "Uhh.. there," she replied, as the tricorder beeped in response. "I hope you’ve gotten all the weapons you wanted, ‘cause we’re gonna have to blow up those lockers.” She pointed towards an area ninety degrees to the left of the door, behind one of the weapons storage bays.
“But.. that dampening field isn’t letting me see where the hollow space leads to..” She shot a glance back to the door; the rectangular section that the guards were cutting open was only a few centimeters from being complete.. They had only a few seconds left. She raised her rifle. “I’ll back you up Kimpor. Set the charge.”
"Well... these charges should make whatever power cells are in the weapons go up too..." Kimpor replied, hurriedly placing them where Izzy indicated.
"I hope what's on the other side is a happy place." Klara added optimistically. "You and me both, sister." He planted the last charge, and ran back to cover with the others. "Waiting on you Douglas!"
”Maybe we’ll find a lamp post back there. Or a White rabbit….” Izzy quipped back to Klara, trying to cut the tension. She crouched next to a bulkhead and nervously trained her weapon on the door.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 11, 2018 13:45:45 GMT
Soule was still typing away furiously, setting this up was a lot harder than last time, there were more redundancies and backups, and he was finding intergration of holographic systems all over the base, that he simply couldn't factor in. He looked to Zigzy.
"I'm done, boss." Zig quickly got up and ran to Kimpor and others.
Soule looked to the Twins and Lynch, as the beam slowly came to the end of it's cut. "I need you to give me 30 more seconds..." He ordered, returning to the work at hand.
As two chunks of metal were ripped from the doors, Lynch and Tholl fired on the opening; Groll’s cannon not activating. "Damn... it... come on..." The Breen shouted at the gun. For a moment, the other two halted their fire, to see through the smoke at their targets, only to be met by three thin red lasers focused on them.
Lynch and Tholl looked at each other, before continuing their fire; which, like the first borg drone, hit successfully a few times, before being met with an adaptive shield. As they approached the Breen and Lynch, Klara and Kimpor turning and fired with their rifles on the Borg; doing far more damage, but only taking out one.
Groll fiddled with his weapon in the face of another Borg bearing down on him, before finally settling on punching it. With that, the power cells lit up, and the weapon came to life, he raised it up and fired immediately. An intense beam of light was fired from the reinforced muzzle - with massive kickback that had the Breen struggling to fight against - ploughing straight through the remaining drones, vaporising a whole side of their body each, before passing through the door opening.
"I like this gun..." No sooner had Groll said that, did weapons fire return from the other side of the door.
"Looks like time's up Soule." Lynch shouted dodging phaser and disruptor beams. "Couldn't agree with you more, Lynch." Soule entered the final command, sprinting away from the console. "Kimpor... blow it!"
Simultaneously; the console Soule and Zigzy worked on exploded, Kimpor's handy work also detonated, blowing a hole in the wall; the sounds of other smaller explosion rumbling and echoing through the base. There was a room wide shimmer, the floor and some of the walls changed for a moment to a different architectural style, before reverting back the Starfleet-esque style.
There wasn't enough time to mention it as the team quickly made way for their backdoor. Klara and Kimpor moved up first, Kimpor noticing something else strange, in the way the wall crumbled, but he also didn't have time for that. Soule grabbed Groll by the shoulder, signalling he was going through with him, and Lynch and Tholl will cover their rear, all the while waving Izzy and Zig through.
Sheltered behind the bulkhead when the charge blew, Izzy dashed through the opening created by the explosion, glancing back for a brief second to see the dead drones lying in twitching heaps on the floor. A thought briefly crossed her mind of who they had been and how they might have ended up here, more victims of section 31’s endless quest for power. But there wasn’t time to dwell on that either as she plunged forward with the others through the dust and smoke, leaving the weapons bay behind them.
The hole led to an adjacent corridor, smokey and charred from both the charges, and the overloading consoles, terminals and door panels. Klara and Kimpor were able to deal with the small resistance on the other, the 31 officers disoriented as they were, clearing the way for Izzy, Zig and the others.
"Which way?" Klara asked, uncomfortable with their position.
Soule took up a defensive position with Groll. "Zigzy..."
"On it..." He replied, typing a command into his padd. "There... full schematics, and the quickest path to everyone's HUD."
"Tholl, Lynch... come on." Soule ordered, looking to the others. "Go... go... go..."
"Aye, boss." Klara took point, leading Kimpor, Izzy and Zigzy ahead, with expediency.
Lynch and the Breen slowly backed away from the door, firing all the way to the opening, Tholl taking the liberty of going through first; the Romulans say 'Never turn your back on a Breen', but he himself had learnt never to turn his back on Lynch. Coming through they were met with renewed resistance, as more 31 forces rounded the corner, as well as the sight of Soule and Groll more manageably firing the particle cannon, with Soule shooting off his rifle from his right hand.
"Let’s go, already!" Soule shouted over the sound of the beam, before letting the cannon go, focussing back on his rifle, as the four of them centre peeled out of there; covering each others withdrawal.
Up ahead, the others were meeting heavier resistance pushing through the corridor. By the time they had made it to the indicated turn off, Klara had been tagged in the shoulder, and Zigzy had taken one to his chest plating.
"I don't think we're gonna get through that way." Kimpor shouted, throwing a grenade around the corner."
"Recalculating route..." Zigzy paused for a moment taking a deep breath, rubbing at the char in his armour. "Straight ahead, 50 metres, then blow another hole in the wall, then through... bio-medical..."
Izzy wasn’t unscathed either; when they pushed through the resistance, she gained a fresh char mark on her right leg and hip, but managed to drop three of the 31 soldiers in the process. And her previously injured left shoulder had started to ache again, though she was doing her best to ignore it. She winced as she raised her HUD to look at the display. “Biomedical huh.. Maybe the explosion will destroy one of those experiments while we’re at it...”
Zigzy leant into to corner and gave suppressing fire with Klara, whilst Kimpor took the the opportunity to get passed with Izzy, and plant another set of charges on the wall ahead. "We're not gonna have the same cover from the blast, so when I go to blow it, hit the deck." He nodded at the doctor sympathetically.
Soule and his half of the group, finally drew back to the others, laying down their own suppression and covering fire. "So I take it not that way?" "Nope." Zigzy replied. "Guessing they're far not behind you?" "Nope." Soule responded in kind. "We have to keep moving." "No shit..." Zigzy slowly crossed the gap with Klara, the sound of the charges going off echoing down the corridor.
"That'll be them creating our new shortcut..." Klara quipped, as the others crossed the gap, and they assumed peel formation.
The smoke from the blast cleared. Kimpor wiping away at some dust and debris on his visor, he checked over the doctor, before inspecting the hole. He stared at it shocked, the hole itself was half the size it should of been, as it shimmered over holographically. "What the hell..." He gasped. "I think we have a problem, doc..."
She slowly picked herself off of the ground and dusted the debris off of her suit, staring in confusion at the wall. “It’s holographic? Oh..shit, the extra holo-emitters..” she realised. “And that hole’s not gonna fit all of us..” She gave a worried glance behind them at the corridor, the 31 guards were thinned out for the moment, but there could be more coming at any time. “Can you make the hole bigger?”
"It’s not just that..." He scanned the hole with his tricorder. "Its some kind of holographic overlay, the cascade overload must have disrupted the system, but what it's over..." His mind boggled as he tried to work out a material that could resist a direct blast from a shaped antimatter charge, like this. "Neutronium..."
"That's why the floor in the weapons bay was only lightly toasted, instead of more hole-y." He grumbled. " But... Not all the walls must be made of it, else we wouldn't have made it out here, or done that damage. "
"Soule." Kimpor shouted over the comm. "I don’t think Section 31 built this place..."
"What?" Soule shared a look with Klara and Zigzy. "Then who?"
"Someone who can work Neutronium..." Kimpor replied, placing the rest of the charges he'd brought, and all of his disintegrator ammo in the hole; catching a small glance of large specimen tanks on the other side. "This is about as big as we're gonna get it, Doc..."
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 12, 2018 13:21:03 GMT
Made of Neutronium. It was something Soule used to say to her, meaning stay strong, don’t worry… It was one of the strongest substances in the galaxy, stronger than diamonds. And almost as impossible to destroy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ”Kimpor, who’s gonna fit through there? I mean, I think I could, and maybe Klara..” she looked to the rest of the team, comparing each person’s body size to the opening. “One of us could go in and try to open a door maybe?” She peered into the hole, trying to get a better look at the holding tank and the room beyond, its contents still hidden in the darkness.
"Well..." Kimpor looked up, removed his phaser and shot at the ceiling; wishing he had Soule's eyesight, as he tried to see if there was a holographic distortion. "I was kinda thinking, maybe this new explosion might take out... a wider radius, lets say." He gave the doctor a reassuring smile.
"Something must have damaged the walls before, by my guess, else there wouldn't be any of this non-neutronium bulkhead... so... we may vaporise more wall, make some rubble, might be able to climb over... or make a bigger hole down the way." He shrugged. "This is going to be a very big explosion."
Soule, who had still been listening over the comm, had to ask. "How big an explosion?"
"You may wanna stay where you guys are, we'll fall back to you." Kimpor looked to the doctor.
"Kim... we're gonna need those charges. Can you get in at all, can you see through. If a couple of you guys can get through, and maybe even behind them... then thats what needs to happen." Soule looked at Klara and Zigzy specifically, thinking he, Lynch, and the Breen were going to be too big to fit through anything described as too small. "The rest of us will have to clear another path..."
Kimpor gave out a dejected sigh, starting to reclaim his ordinance. "The Doc can fit, I might be able to, just... means we'll be split up."
Soule took a deep breath, analysing the situation, trying to omit his personal feelings; before looking to Klara and Zig again. "You two... go." He sighed. "We'll find another way. Klara you know what to do if we can't."
"I'll keep 'er safe." Klara nodded, before she and Zigzy ran off ahead to join Kimpor and Izzy.
Lynch piped up. "And our route takes us that way, anyway; just, we keep going, and turn a couple more times."
"It’s twice as long. So we're giving them a headstart." Soule turned back and fired at just the right moment, taking down a 31. "Make these bastards question how many of us there are, and where we're at. And what we're doing."
"Such a tactical genius..." Lynch snorted, starting to move down the corridor.
“I… ok.” Isabelle took a deep breath. She didn’t like splitting up, but she had to accept the necessity of it. “We’ll manage..we’ll keep in touch via comms. Soule.. Imzadi, stay safe...Tholl, Groll, keep an eye on him please?”
"We shall keep him out of trouble." They said in unison, as they marched along.
As Klara and Zig caught up with Izzy and Kim, they looked at the hole; marvelling at the lack of damage. "It'll be a hard squeeze, but Zigzy can go first." Klara chuckled.
"Thaaanks." Zig scratched at the damage to his armour again, before venturing through the small hole, rifle first. The plating around his legs and shoulders, scraped and lodged into the blasted wall, before he popped out the other side.
"What you see?" Klara called in, as she made her own way in.
"A goddamn horror movie." He went quiet, as he surveyed what he saw.
This research bay was filled with genetic experiments; ranging from foetal sample containers, to full adult sized tanks. Many of them were occupied, specimens at various level of alive or dead, all probably serving some purpose. Other parts of the vast room, had the operating and work tables you would imagine in such a facility.
"Therapy... is so on the cards..." Zigzy croaked.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 12, 2018 13:24:32 GMT
Izzy gave a last look back to Soule and the others before she followed Zigzy and Klara into the hole. She squeezed through a little more easily than Zigzy had, but it was still tight; she winced as her hip passed through the opening, due to the fresh phaser burn there. Once through, she straightened and took in their surroundings, the various specimens illuminated in the darkened room’s ambient lighting, and the spotlights of their suits.
She involuntarily lifted her hand to cover her mouth in horror, clunking her hand against her helmet; trying not to let the sudden nausea get the better of her. “Oh god..those must be the changeling hybrids. How could they do this... to anyone? This is just.. wrong.”
In the largest tank, a massive blob of a humanoid figure floated in one of them, turning towards them with a face shifting between human features and featureless flesh. Occasionally a part of its body would melt off and drift away in the clear liquid that it floated in, only to merge with another part of itself like a drop of mercury. On one of the operating tables, an autopsy seemed to have been left in progress, as if the scientist had stepped out for a break in the middle of it. It bore more of a resemblance to an out of control malignant tumor rather than any kind of humanoid shape; a lumpy body with teeth and hair in odd places, and flesh melting away from the bones in a gelatinous mass.
Isabelle turned away from the abominations as quickly as possible, trying to forget what she’d just seen, a nearly impossible task. She directed her suit’s beam towards the far end of the room to where she thought the door was, and moved in that direction, trading the tanks and their resident horrors for what looked more like a normal office area with consoles and displays. “I really hope the exit is this way.. I don’t want to go back through that lab again.”
The rest of them didn't say much as they followed along through the medical bay, if it could even be called that, just scanning through covering their angles, waiting to see the door at the other end.
"Do you want me to get anything I can from any of those terminals, Doctor?" Zigzy hesitantly asked. "Do you want me to blow those terminals up?" Kimpor added.
Meanwhile Soule and his team, strafed through the corridor, as 31 forces started to pick up again; chasing them down, and slowing their progress.
"Jesus christ, they just never end..." Soule shouted. "With the ships they have in orbit... there are probably have thousands of them at the ready." Lynch replied, shooting down the corridor; a barely contained smile on his face. "And we are gonna kill them all." "Excellent plan Lynch..." Groll quipped, covering with the cannon. "And I am quite fond of doing battle and killing my enemy..." "But a battle of attrition, is a battle we will lose against numbers." Tholl continued his brother's sentence. "We need to move faster."
"Annie..." Soule called over the comm. "What's the Werple up to?" Annie's response took a little longer to come over than normal. "I've got it searching the base, checking on enemy movements... seen a few odd things..." She reported. "What kind of odd things, Annie? I think everything in the bowels of hell is up for oddness consideration." Souled sighed, really wishing he didn't have to pull teeth with her and Lynch. "I was at the mines... there's nothing super valuable, boronite ore... but... you guys definitely didn't go that way did you?" She asked curiously, before clearing her throat and realising she should get to the point. "Bodies. Definitely 31 officers...."
Soule and Lynch looked at each other. "What the fuck...?"
“Yes, blow up the terminals.” Isabelle replied to Kimpor without a moment’s hesitation. “None of this stuff should leave this place. And I have no idea what I’d do with it if you downloaded it..” she added to Zigzy. Her attention was drawn to the sounds of battle over the comms. “Hurry though..” She stopped for a second, still listening. “Oh.. crap, what did they just say? The werple found bodies?” she repeated, trying to clarify what she’d just heard.
Yes, ma'am." Both Kimpor and Zigzy replied, as they salted the earth of this room; Zigzy used his rifle to melt the consoles into slag, whilst Kimpor threw down grenades and a number of isomorphic shells near the specimen tanks. "Ready to move out, and turn this entire room into a furnace, on your order Doc." Kimpor called out.
Meanwhile Annie continued going over her report. "Some of them are deffo victims of that cascade overload, but some of them have phaser injuries... I think a couple of them have broken necks. In fighting?"
"'I'm sure it’s just part of yet another surprise in store for us." Soule sighed, as he and his team made little progress through the corridor. "Follow the bodies, Annie. "I am." Annie manoeuvred the Werple through the base, following the stream of bodies. "I was having to dodge 31 forces, but obviously they're focused on you... and being thinned out by whoever's making these extra ones." She thought aloud. "At this rate the Werple will be meeting up with you..."
"That really doesn't sound good..." Lynch groaned. "I'll keep you advised..." She replied stressfully, as she turned the Werple around a corner.
A figure loomed out of the shadows, smiling to themself as the Werple went out of sight, and down the corridor. "Excellent..."
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 13, 2018 17:39:33 GMT
”Yes, let’s get the hell out of here.. We’ve probably set off a few alarms. But it was worth it..” Izzy waved aside the smoke from the melted consoles, doubly glad for the air filtration systems in their armoured suits. She and Klara moved to the front of the room to cover the door, pausing to wait as the two men caught up with them after setting the charges. She closed her eyes and huffed a breath, as if in an attempt to expel the memory of the horrors within the room, then opened them again, her light blue eyes grim with determination. “Mark, Kimpor. Blow it..”
Kimpor didn't say anything in response, simply detonating the explosives as the four of them strode out of the door, not looking back, as the experiments were turned to vapour.
"That way..." Zig pointed, turning around to cover the rear. "All the way, then it should be on your left."
Klara lead the way, keeping her eyes peeled, as they slowly advanced down the corridor. It had gone quiet again, and now that emergency lighting had kicked in, this place looked creepier than ever. "So if Soule blew the major systems... how come this holographic overlay is still working? Why does it look Starfleet-ish."
"Soule and I both saw the holographic systems in this place; there are more holoemitters and subsystems than I've ever seen in one facility. I'm guessing they were able to withstand the cascade, just because of the sheer amount of power going through them normally. But door panels and consoles... not really designed to withstand a massive power discharge."
"Alright... Clever clogs." Klara shook her head. "You don't get a biscuit."
As they turned the corner to the entrance to the shielded section, they were met with a massive volley of phaser and disruptor fire; Kimpor taking three in the exchange, falling to the deck. As Klara peeked around and gave covering fire, Zigzy grabbed ahold of Kimpor's shoulder, and dragged him back into cover; taking another blast to the chest, in the same spot as the last one.
"Shit." Zigzy exclaimed, pushing up against the wall. "Kim... you alright."
"Ahhhh....ha...ha....ha...." Kimpor groaned. "That hurt..."
"Doc...?" Zig looked to Izzy concerned, before crouching down beside Klara, and peeking around the corner to cover.
Isabelle could see by Kimpor’s breathing pattern that he wasn’t doing well, and a scan confirmed it. He was going into shock. She grabbed out a hypo of lectrazine to try to stabilise his vitals, and a dose of ketolane to counteract the third and fourth degree burns on his abdomen and chest; also not forgetting a dose of triptacederine for the pain. “Kimpor.. I have to remove your chestplate to get at this, and apply a dermaline patch. There’s internal bleeding, and..Aaagh!” She stopped short, crying out as a disruptor burst flew past Klara and glanced her in the ribs as she crouched next to Kimpor.
“Damnit!.. Can’t they see I’m trying to work here..” she growled, unclasping Kimpor’s chestplate and helmet as quickly as she could so she could see the damage, and so he could breathe unimpeded. The disruptor shots had melted a hole in his armor, at his upper chest, the skin layers beneath were blackened and burned almost to the bone. She worked quickly, placing the patch over the burns. Even as she did so, his eyes rolled back in his head as he started to pass out. “Oh.. shit. Stay with me Kimpor.. ” She pulled out a dose of inaprovaline and dosed him with it, looking anxiously to Klara and Zig. “Come on.. We need you to be awake.”
"All these year with explosives..." He groaned. "And I get shot..."
"Soule, we're gonna need you to hurry." Zig called out over the comm, as the 31 forces started to advance on their position. "We can't hold them off for much longer."
"Having our own trouble." Soule replied, as he, Lynch and the Twins had gotten much more physical with 31; they had been jumped from around the corner, and the were fighting hand-to-hand against them. The Breen made easy work at them with their batons, a single touch able to partially incapacitate a Klingon, and they were clubbing away with them, and jabbing them into their opponents torso. Soule, found himself having to wrestle with them, throwing them into the bulkheads and into the ground, before he was able to get ahold of his knife, to deal with them more swiftly. Lynch, on the otherhand, showed his training and expertise, aiming his blows for pressure points to open them up, before either crushing larynges or simply breaking their necks.
"Kim's down... they're moving in on us..." As Zigzy raised up his rifle to return fire again, he took another shot, this time to the hand; launching his rifle into the bulkhead behind them. "Aaahhhhh." He fell back into the wall cradling his hand. "Shit... shit... shit fuck."
"Zig I need you back." Klara shouted at him.
"Ach... alright." He looked to Izzy and Kimpor, unholstering his phaser. "You better make it you bellend." He peaked around the corner again, firing, his injured hand tucked under his arm.
"None of us are gonna make it at this rate... Soule... hurry..." The stress of the situation finally starting to come out in her voice.
"We'll be there in five minutes..." Soule shouted back.
"We don't have five minutes! They're almost on us..." Klara took a deep breath, ducking behind the wall with Zigzy; the 31 mere feet from them now.
“Just... keep covering us while the stim takes effect...” Izzy placed Kim’s chestplate back over his chest, the magnetic clasps sealing it back onto the rest of his armour. She did likewise with his helmet; at least he'd be protected if worse came to worse..
At the same time, she glanced around for a place that they could run to for better cover, but the only way out was through the pack of 31s or back the way they came. “Soule, we’re backed into a corner here...” Her voice held an edge of panic as she looked over to Klara and Zig, who were fighting desperately, trying to keep them all from being reduced to charred spots on the floor.
“I.. wait. Kim, do you have any grenades left?”
Kimpor strenuously shook his head, reeling in pain. "All out." He reached for his phaser, aiming it up from his hip to the corner.
Klara and Zigzy continued to fire potshots, no longer able to peek around any more.
Soule and his team were battling through the corridors, but they were being slowed up too much. Images of Izzy in peril flashed through his mind, and they were overwhelming; and he started to fall into blind rage, set on by the panic of losing her. But it still wouldn't be enough to make it in time.
A disruptor bolt hit the bulkhead, dispersing it's energy in an area Klara's head had occupied on a few moments before. Using it as cover, a pair of 31 officers took their opportunity to turn the corner; with weapons raised they looked down on the team as they prepared to fire...
Suddenly they were hit by phaser fire from within their own ranks, the sound of panic down the corridor; blood curdling screams and bloodlusted roars, all the while weapons crossfire impacting the walls.
"What the hell is that...?" Klara looked down on the dead pair of 31ers at her feet, daring to crane her neck around the corner again
She had nearly lost hope when Kimpor said he was out of grenades, and the rising sense of panic gave way to terror as Izzy looked up to see the officers with rifles trained on them. Without thinking, she placed herself in front of Kimpor to protect him; and nearly collapsed with relief when their aggressors toppled to the floor.
“Oh god.. " Izzy froze as the roars echoed down the corridor, followed by the screams of the 31 officers. "What fresh hell..” she repeated Klara’s sentiment, cautiously peering around the corner her rifle at the ready.
One officer was thrown into the bulkhead behind her, head first, snapping their neck and killing them instantly. Izzy was then knocked the floor, as a surge of them attempted to flee; no longer noticing the doctor and the team. They themselves were then pounced on, by some kind of creature; a giant insect, 4ft tall, tearing into their flesh and slamming them repeatedly into the ground.
It then turned to the team, on all sixes, gazing at them rabidly, fixating on Izzy, almost as if it was staring into the depths of her soul. Its stridulated a screech, bunking.
"Gr'nx'ygt..." A familiar voice, as tall figure turned the corner, standing high above Izzy, looking down. A smile. "Isabelle..."
Laying flat on the floor, she could only stare in shock for several long seconds at the tall figure and the insect, unable to speak as she came to the slow realisation that she and the others were not being shot at or eaten. Then she finally found her voice, stuttering as the shock slowly gave way. “I.. w-w-what...? H-how..?” Tears of relief and recognition began to form in her eyes.
“Vee??” Her voice echoed over the comms to the rest of the team.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 14, 2018 20:16:55 GMT
The Hirogen helped her get to her feet, before almost engulfing her in a hug, and starting to cry with joy. "I knew you were alive. I knew they were lying all those times... all those times they said Hyperion had been destroyed." He took a deep breath, regardless of whether he respired, and collected himself; holding her by the shoulders, and smiling.
"So that's the hologram?" Klara asked. "Then who's that?" "He is also a hologram." Vitro replied. "A Xindi. He is quite harmless." "He just just turned like six dudes into bongo drums..." Zigzy quipped.
"Does this mean Soule got my message?" Vitro asked Izzy, over the sound of weapons fire down the corridor still.
“I am so happy to see you..” Isabelle's face lit up into a broad smile of joy in return. She tried to quickly respond to Vitro, her words tumbling over themselves. “Yes, we’re alive, the Hyperion was destroyed, but we made it out in time..I.. um, I’ll tell you about it later, as soon as there’s a better time.. Soule did get your message, and we’ve just gone through about five hells to get to you.” She took a breath, giving a worried glance towards the phaser fire.
“Vee, the group got separated back there. Soule’s still in trouble, we have to get to him, and Kimpor here is injured.. And we’re probably still not safe here.” She gave another glance down the other corridor, wondering if another pack of soldiers would discover them.
The insectoid hologram clicked, and stridulated and whined at the Hirogen, shaking his head; before clambering onto the ceiling.
"Gr'nx'ygt is correct... we must gain access to the command centre." Vitro looked over the team, focussing on the injured Kimpor, before peering around the corner. He and the Xindi were accompanied with holographic simulacra of a number of races; Tzenkethi, Cardassian, Reman, even a Tellarite. "Volcarn, Fa'mor..." Vitro called to them; the Tzenk and the Reman looking up. "I need you and Gr'nx'ygt to assist the others that are here."
"But we need to open this door..." Volcarn roared back, holding a 31er in each of his four hands. "They have come to rescue us... we can finally escape this place." Vitro replied firmly. "Seems like we're rescuing them..." The Tzenkethi crushed the 31ers skulls in his hands, and dropped them unceremoniously on the floor. "But if I can rip into more of these Kvag, I will gladly do it." The Tzenk and Reman charged off down the corridor, with the Xindi in tow above them.
"We do not have much time Isabelle..."
Isabelle stared in wonder at the holographic creatures, being very glad that they were on their side. “I agree..” The sounds of the other group battling it out came through her comms, and she gave Vitro an anxious look, then turned to Kimpor. “Can you stand?” She knelt, offering an arm to help him up. "I want to be ready if we have to move quickly."
"Nnngggg..." He groaned, those pain meds really starting to kick in. "I think so..." He gladly took the arm, slowly attempting to stand; but he wasn't going to be able to walk on his own. He held out the rest of the charges he had, hoping someone could find better use for them.
"I gotta ask..." Zig started, cautiously, taking the charges from Kimpor. "How are you guys running amok?"
Vitro tapped at the metal belt around his waist. "The mines were always expanding, and the emitters have a range limit... so they made us these so some of us could go deeper, without the risk of decompiling."
"How many more of you are there?" Klara asked. "With mobile emitters; just us." He replied sombrely. "We knew they would disable our matrices as soon as they suspected an escape attempt, they have done this before... but we took our chance when we heard there was an attack." He moved down the corridor to the heavily reinforced door. "We lost many... but they are still in the holocore." "Yeah but... how many." Zig reiterated.
"They attempted to copy my program several hundred times." He paused examining the panel. "To varying degrees of failure and success."
“You mean.. there are several hundred you’s in there?” Isabelle asked, listening to the tall holographic hirogen in amazement as she helped Kimpor to his feet. “Lean on me, Kimpor..” she supported him around his shoulders, helping him to stand.
“How did you get the mobile emitters?” she asked of Vitro.
"There are maybe two dozen with comparable cognitive abilities to my own, a few dozen more with the potential to grow, as I was allowed to on Hyperion. But most of them had are..."
"Just say it..." The Tellarite spoke up. "By Section 31 standards we're all failed experiments, so the others are just automatons, without free will or capacity to do more than simple task... like mining."
"But like Gronnet and Sinkat over there... they have different physical and psychographic profiles to me... I think it made them feel powerful, not making any of them human..."
The Cardassian; Sinkat, nodded before whispering to Izzy timidly. "We... we stole them. Hoarded them. Hid them." She shimmered holographically, as she twitched nervously. "It took many months... and some tried to escape before... but we will escape this time, won’t we? And... and... and... the creator can fix us can't he?"
Vitro rested his hand on the Cardassian's shoulder. "We will escape, and Soule will repair you, if that is what you require." He told her defiantly, before turning to Gronnet and Zigzy. "Can you get it open?"
"Well we sure as hell ain't blowing it open..." Gronnet replied, thinking for a moment, before plunging his hand through. "I can... I can feel air on the other side... but..." "You can't phase through the wall with the belt..." Zigzy stated. "No... don't fancy my chances being reintegrated with the system either... I'd probably decompile instantly, let alone be deleted or deactivated by them."
Zig cradled his hand. "If I didn't have this, I might've maybe, been able to increase the field of your belt... which means..."
"Which means we must have faith that Soule and the others make it to us soon." Vitro answered, before looking back to Kimpor. "Is there anything I can do to help, Doctor?"
“Yes, please.” She nodded, glancing between Kimpor who was slumping off her shoulders, and Zigzy who cradled his hand. “Keep an eye on Kimpor, and I’ll fix Zig’s hand.” She said, passing Kimpor over to Vitro. “Ok Zig, let’s see it…” She removed another hypo of painkillers from her medkit, and gently looked over his injured hand.
Vitro took a firm hold of Kimpor, and held him close. "You must be a friend of Soule." He smiled down. "I am pleased to meet you. I will try to keep you safe." "Thaaaanks..." Kimpor replied lackadaisically, the meds now in full gear. "It's like cuddling a bear... good boy."
Zig shook his head at the display, before removing his glove. His wasn't badly burnt, but it was discoloured and swollen. "Whatya think, Doc? Do I get one like your husband?"
“It’s not that bad, Zig..” she gently turned his hand whilst going over it with the tricorder. “That blast hit hard though, you’ve got a hairline fracture of your second metacarpal.. Along with some skin damage from the blast,” she added as his eyes seemed to glaze over with the medical jargon. She went over it with an osteoregenerator after giving him a dosage of analgesic, and then went over it with a protoplaser to get rid of the bruising and skin damage. “Ok, you’re good to go, just don’t flip anyone off for a few days..” she quipped.
"Wouldn't think of it, doc." He chuckled, before getting back to his feet, and having a proper look at the door panel, grumbling to himself as he did. "That cascade didn't half cause some damage." He shrugged. "That might be a good thing... their encryptions should mean nothing now."
"What about expanding the field of the belt?" Gronnet inquired aggressively.
"Holographics is Soule's jam... I'm a hobbyist at best... but I know door panels, and isolinear chips..." He twiddled around, hoping to create a successful opening circuit. "And language and cryptography... those are my callings."
"And if you can't open it?" Klara asked, as equally concerned as the Tellarite.
"The last of the anitmatter charges will damage it... I don’t think it's neutronium, like the walls around it... but it'll still take it, even with ideal placement." Kimpor groaned.
"Then how?" The Tellarite snorted.
More roars, screams and weapons fire echoed up the corridor; a sign that the others were close, and occupied. "Holy shit..." Soule paused, as he dealt with a 31 officer in close quarters; dropping them with his knife, and seeing what was coming toward them.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 17, 2018 3:48:18 GMT
Volcarn ploughing through the 31 forces like bowling pins, with Fa'mor covering him with a phaser rifle. Gr'nx'ygt suddenly dropping down upon them, and skittering around, throwing their attention off balance, leaving them open to be shot or cleaved down from either side of the corridor.
As the last one was torn in half by the Tzenkethi, the Twins moved to face off against him, staring ardently at it. The insectoid crab walked, screeching at them, exposing it's claws, starting to circle.
"You are correct Xindi... we are the ones you have come for." Groll replied to the noises incomprehensible to most humanoids.
"We must hurry..." The Tzenk growled, bearing his teeth at the Breen. "The command centre is this way." He turned and started making his way back.
"Chatty..." Lynch quipped to Soule, before following behind the giant lizard and the grasshopper.
“So, Vee,” Isabelle asked curiously whilst Zig and the others were trying to get into the door, “Do you remember how you ended up here? All we knew from our end is that you disappeared off of the Hyperion and at first Soule thought you had been decompiled until he figured out that your code might have been stolen. He spent over a year searching for you before he got your message...”
"I was doing a patrol in the lowers decks one day, then... I reactivated in one of the labs here." He had a sad look in his eyes. "But I do not like to think about it. The first few months here were... unpleasant." He continued to hold Kimpor, who had by this point passed out for a moment.
"They..." Vitro went quiet , looking down the corridor and seeing the other's approaching, the sadness giving way to some joy. "Soule..."
"Vee..." Soule looked back, rushing ahead.
“Soule! I am so glad to see you.. And look who showed up..." Izzy beamed a smile at him in relief, then looked over in alarm at the passed out Kimpor. “Vee, let Kim down ok? Soule.. Kim’s not doing well..” As she spoke, he stirred again, groaning. “He took three disruptor hits to the chest and abdomen. Ideally he’d need surgery with skin and muscle grafts; I could patch him together with a protoplaser, but I’m gonna need a more sheltered area than this. We’ve gotta get him out of here.”
Vitro gently and slowly, rested Kimpor against the wall, patting him on the shoulder as he did so.
Soule's smile was brief, soured by Kimpor's condition, but he still managed to flash Izzy one; before giving way to the serious dilemma they were in. "I'm glad you're both alright." He placed his hand on the back of Izzy's, holding it for a moment, looking up at Vitro. "Both of you..."
"Touching reunion Douglas, be we really need to get in there and end all this." Lynch stated, unflinchingly.
"He's right Soule." Zig added, gasping, as he worked the door panel. "We have two plans... either we get this thing working again, or you have to increase the projection field of a mobile holoemitter."
"What do you need for the door?"
Zig pulled out his tricorder, in an attempt to ascertain whether he was making any progress. "A secondary power supply, so extra tools, and... about two hours maybe..."
"Shit..." Soule took his own tricorder out, kneeling down beside the Tellarite hologram and scanning his emitter.
"So you... are the creator..." Gronnet snorted. "Wha... I created Vitro's holomatrix yes..." Soule replied hesitantly. "So it is you who is responsible for our existence?" "I... I guess so..." The Tellarite frowned. "I thought you would be taller."
"I'm... so sorry..."
"Don't." He looked away from Soule. "Existence is what you make of it, I suppose. We have been mistreated here, but that was not your fault. And you have come... to rescue us as Vitro always said you would."
"Can you do it Soule?" Zig butted in. "I think so... we, were working on units like this at Daystrom..." "And how successful were you with it?" "We were trying to reverse engineer 29th century technology... how do you think?" Soule shrugged as he got the full layout of the device, so was now trying to piece together how it worked. "These aren't exactly The Doctor's mobile emitter, but they're at least three times more compact than anything we've been working on.
"Can it be done?" Gronnet asked firmly. "I'll have to deactivate your program first." "Then do it."
Soule looked to Kimpor, then up at Izzy. "How much longer can you keep him stable?"
She sighed, assessing Kim’s condition. “The hypo that I gave him should last two to three hours. But the longer we wait, the more risk there is of swelling and dehydration from edema and leakage of fluids.. And I don’t want to think what would happen if we wait too long.“ She looked to Soule and the others, her voice filled with concern. "Do you think that we can get out of here in that amount of time?”
Soule paused silently for a long moment; another clock ticking down on them, before deactivating Gronnet's program. He sat down bunching up his knees, with his back against the wall, using a throwing needle as a simple tool. Whilst he did that, the rest of the group formed up covering either side of him, ready to take down anything that moved.
"You think you can do it." Zigzy whispered.
"Have to." He looked up briefly to answer both of them, quickly getting back to work. Whilst the mobile emitter had a small external interface that could be used to activate and modulate the device, he had to get inside to override it's core settings; which would have been a fiddly job under ideal circumstances.
Fa'mor was the first to fire, hitting someone far down the corridor; everyone in his rank staring at him, unable to see the target before he hit it. "Nice shot..." Klara croaked. He made a number of hand signals in response, then smiled and nodded at her.
"What was that about?" Klara cautious whispered to Sinkat. She frowned sadly. "H...h.... he can't talk. They removed his vocal subprocessing algorithms, so they could make room for visual enhancements." "But he said 'Thank you' and..." Sikat nervously tugged at her neck ridges, and gave an uncomfortable scowl at Fa'mor. "Then he complimented you on how pretty you are." Klara looked shocked, before shaking her head. "Thanks? I guess..."
More of them started to fire at the odd target that appeared at the far ends of the corridor, as they slowly started to trickle in. All the while Soule worked away at the mobile emitter; twiddling connections, hard coding replacement settings and adjusting the actual emitters to function outwardly... the exact opposite of how it's supposed to function. As more and more Section 31 officers made their way down the corridor, Soule couldn't help but feel the strain; his heart racing, and his breathing erratic.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 17, 2018 21:48:40 GMT
The door to the command centre was set into a forty-five degree angle in the corner of two corridors stretching at right angles to either side of it; they were trapped in the middle with nowhere to shelter, the guards coming from both directions now. Both Izzy and Soule were in the center of the group next to the door with half of the rest of the team on either side, defending each leg of the corridor.
Izzy tensed as the 31’s came closer, placing herself in front of Kimpor who was unable to do much more than lean against the wall; She raised her weapon in defense, taking shots at the enemy when they came close enough. Bursts of phaser and disruptor fire illuminated the half-lit corridor like flashes of lightning. A shot exploded on the wall close to Izzy, another one grazed the door as the battle heated up.
Soule worked frantically, being pushed further to the edge as the pressure from 31 continued to mount; and he could do nothing to stop it, unless he could get this thing to work as they needed it.
Lynch's head was suddenly thrown back to with incredible force, as a disruptor bolt burst into his helmet. He stumbled for a moment, before righting himself and ripping his off; throwing it at the bulkhead beside him. He stared down at Soule, a cut across his eye mirroring Soule's.
"If you gonna do something... do it now, Douglas!" He shouted angrily, before turning back a returning fire.
"I'm..." He paused,making one final adjustment, then slamming the emitter up against the door, and activating it. "Done."
Gronnet materialised on the other side of the door, alone, surrounded by distinctly non-starfleet architecture. The walls were pinkish-white, and looked like some kind of metallic stone, with two staircases either side leading up, and some kind of foyer up ahead, leading beyond.
The hologram didn't have time to ponder on it though, his program was unstable, he could feel it; little motor glitches all over his body. He stepped closer to the door, hoping the holographic field would be stronger there. As he did so, he let out a relieved breath, his holographic lungs no longer glitching, which meant he could get under way with the panel.
"Did it work?" Zig called to Soule.
"I don't know... we won’t know until he can get the door open." Soule replied, pressing the device to the door, as he raised up his phaser with the other.
"And what if he can't?" Lynch interrupted.
Soule looked to Izzy trying to find his strength. "He will get it open... because we need him to. Have faith."
"Been there... done that." Lynch replied, fire on more hostiles.
"That's the first genuinely true thing you've ever said me, isn't it?" Soule poked. "What religion did you follow?"
"None of your goddamn business is what!" Lynch puffed up more defensively than he already was. "We're gonna join our respective gods soon if we don't get the fucking fuck out here. And the holograms get to die there."
"He is not, my god!" Volcarn roared.
"No... but he is my friend... as is Gronnet." Vitro interjected. "So I have faith."
Zigzy just shook his head at this talk of gods and religions... and dying. "We are going to die here!"
"Shut up Zigzy, and just shoot the bastards..." Klara elbowed him in the ribs, whispering at him. "For Kim.."
As the enemy forces further advanced on them, they also started to dig in, moving defensive shields into place to fortify their positions; the team being pushed closer and closer into the walls, the two ranks, now becoming a ring. While the phaser and disruptor bolts went through the holograms, they continued to graze or hit close to the others, slowly wearing away at their armour.
Then a bolt came past, hitting Volcarn, decompiling his shoulder. "Aaaargh... they have isomorphic rifles." Harmless to organics, but deadly to holograms, now even they started to panic.
Soule looked at Izzy, his face dropping as he saw her cradling an injured Kimpor, unable to breathe as the blasts of weapons fire peppered passed him. The world went quiet and still, as he continued to look at his beloved; to find his strength, to find some hope that they would make it. "Izzy..."
To Isabelle, it seemed suddenly as if the phaser shots were moving infinitesimally slowly towards her, glowing as they flew past her face, illuminating the expression in her eyes of abject terror mixed with strength of will to survive. She watched as the bolt exploded into Lynch’s helmet, and as Volcarn’s arm and shoulder decompiled in slow motion, dissolving into a million tiny flecks of light. The cries of the team echoed in her ears, and she crouched over Kimpor’s body trying desperately to protect him.
She raised her head and met Soule’s eyes, and a thousand images of their lives together flashed through her mind; when they’d met on the Hyperion, their developing friendship, and love, and their wedding day. “Imzadi...”
Then a disruptor bolt slammed into her back and she gasped as it hit, and crumpled against the wall reeling in pain as her nerves caught fire.
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Babs
Lore Committee
Posts: 210
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Post by Babs on Jul 19, 2018 13:23:42 GMT
"Izzy!" Soule watched helplessly as she was hit; he reached out to her, but knew that if he let the emitter go, so did their chances of getting out of here. The others just kept firing on their targets, sharing the odd look between themselves, as every moment brought more dread.
But then, just when all hope was lost, the door rumbled, with the gears and mechanisms inside whirring to life; finally it opened. The Tellarite hologram stumbled through, taking ahold of his emitter.
"Everyone move!" Soule screamed, immediately bending down and slinging Izzy's arm over his shoulder, grabbing Kimpor’s neck armour, and pulling both of them inside.
"Don't need to tell me twice..." Zigzy chirped, dashing inside with Klara, the rest of them slowly piling in behind; with Lynch, Volcarn and the Breen taking up the rear, continuing to vent their fury before finally ducking inside.
Gronnet typed a command into the door panel, and it closed behind them, sealing them inside and Section 31 out; before slumping up against the wall, and sliding down, holding his emitter tight. His matrix shimmered, as he gasped exhaustedly. "I... I need to be deactivated..."
Vitro knelt down beside him obliged, typing the deactivation command into his emitter without question. "I promise... you will see my face again."
"You better..." Gronnet chuckled, a bead of sweat rolling down his head. "I'll hold you to it..." He then dematerialised, leaving Vitro holding his emitter.
Soule rested Kimpor down against the wall, before slowly letting Izzy down, holding her by the shoulder. "Izzy.... Izzy... what do I do... what..." He couldn't focus, his heart stopping in his chest. He took her helmet off and cupped her face in his hand. "Tell me what to do..."
“.. are.. Are we safe..did we make it..” she gasped "I.. I tried to protect..” Her head begin to dip downwards as the pain started to take over her senses. “Too many.." she mumbled, her voice faltering.
Despite being right in front of her, Soule seemed far away and his and the other voices in the room seemed muffled; she had to force herself to concentrate. “Um....” It was an effort to gather her thoughts, she was barely able to do the calculations in her head. “15..no. 17.. milligrams.. Lectrazine...12 ccs ..triptacederine..” her voice faltered again and her eyes drooped closed for several long heartbeats before she finally opened them again, filled with pain. “Tricorder.. tricorder’s.. on belt.. Scan.. ” She groaned, shifting her back so he could see. The disruptor had hit below her heart, in the left center of her back; her armour was blackened and charred where the bolt had struck.
“How bad... is it?"
Soule went through the kit, taking out the meds she told him; 17 mgs lectrazine and 12 ccs triptacederine, placing the hypospray to her neck. "It's ok..." He stroked her cheek, whilst removing her tricorder to scan her. "The armour took most of the blast... but it says there's still burns, and some blunt force trauma damage." He felt so useless in that moment.
The others took the brief respite to take stock of the situation. Klara checked her ammo, reloading her rifle. "Mag and a half left." "That's why we stopped using ballistic weapons, Klar..." Zig counted over the explosive ordinance they had. "But our charges are low too..." The Twins conversed with each other in their native tongue, before joining to the conversation. "Our weapons are nearly out of charge." "Same." Added Lynch.
The holograms on the other hand were crowded around Volcarn, who was propped up against the wall cradling his missing arm. "L...look. It's coming back." Sikat stated, the area slowly regenerating. "Too slow." The Tzenkethi growled."Damn those Section 31..." Fa'mor gestured a few things as he examined the decompiled section. "That's not nice Fa'mor..." Sikat said. "I am not whimpering like a wounded animal." The Tzenkethi snarled, before being playfully patted on the face by the silent Reman.
Vitro knelt there clutching Gronnet's emitter, keeping it close, whilst he surveyed the team; battered and bruised as they were; before walking over to Soule. "Is she ok...?" He asked concerned. "I... I... don't know." Soule replied, holding the tricorder up to Izzy, hoping she can tell him what to do next.
The pain medication was beginning to kick in, and Izzy was able to breathe a little easier now. She managed a look through the readouts, swiping through the various screens with a finger; it felt strange to be assessing her own condition. “..third.. degree burn wound.. through epidermal layers... swelling.. Two.. bruised ribs.. minor.. pulmonary contusion.. blood pressure and oxygen levels are.. ok.. so far. ..Nothing broken.. And it’s missed the heart.” she let her hand fall from the tricorder and rested her head against Soule’s arm. “The.. protoplaser should regenerate it enough.. to keep me going..”
“Hurts like hell." she groaned. "But it’s not as bad as Kim.” she looked to Kimpor, who was laying against the wall nearby.
“Vee..” she looked to the Hirogen, who was still hovering anxiously. “Get an emergency blanket from my medkit. Kim needs to stay warm.. Elevate his legs. And he needs fluids.. There.” she managed to point out a canister of liquid with a syringe attachment and tubing with a small telescoping stand, tucked under the cartridges of medication. "Until I can start a proper IV on the Argonaut.."
"Thank Kahless..." Soule breathed a sigh of relief, taking off his own helmet and resting his head on her's; just to soothe the feeling in his gut. After a few solemn moments, he removed her chestplate, in order to apply the protoplaser. "You might end up with a scar... it'd be an excuse to get that tattoo..." He chuckled trying to lighten the mood.
Vitro just nodded and got to work, covering the injured Rigellian over. It took longer for him to fit the field IV; even though he had watched Izzy place them numerous times, that was over a year ago, and doing it was different to watching it. But he finally got it in, and proceeded to lay Kimpor down on the floor, and put his legs up; Kimpor only exhaustedly groaning in response.
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Post by spacedaisy on Jul 19, 2018 13:38:50 GMT
It was worth the wait
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