A blaze of glory

Posted on 30 Mar 2024 @ 5:37pm by Ensign Amanda Turell & Commander Scarlet Blake

2,892 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: Alpha Quadrant- Klingon base
Timeline: October 2395

ON

8 months after the war with the Klingons and Romulans began

The orders had been simple. Shuttle down to the planet, infiltrate a klingon facility, disable a sensor scrambler, plant a targeting beacon so the Galileo can hit the facility with photon torpedoes, extract back to the shuttle before the warhead wipes out the facility and everything within 3 miles.

The first part of the mission had gone well, entering the atmosphere out of sensor range of the facility and skimming the surface for hours, the small team led by Commander Blake and Ensign Turell had landed close enough without being spotted; they had passed through the perimeter detection grid with ease.

From atop a sentry tower; its previous occupant lying dead just out of sight Amanda watched Scarlett and the rest of the team make entry into the facility, if everything went well they would be out again in less than 5 minutes and the Klingons would be non the wiser until the first explosion happened by then they’d be back on the shuttle.

As she looked off to the west Amanda’s expression turned sour in a heartbeat. =/\= Commander we have a problem, I count at least 20 Klingons coming straight towards us. =/\=

Blake swore harshly over the comm, relying totally on Amanda to be her eyes and ears while she was inside with the small covert team. Such missions, more usually the foray of intel in the past, were becoming more and more common place for well placed ship crew throughout the conflict. When this one had landed on her desk, Amanda had been the first to volunteer. =/\= How long do we have? =/\=

=/\= Three minutes at most, better make this quick.=/\= Amanda replied.

"Where the hell did 20 more Klingons come from?" The voice of the teams engineer Ensign Karla asked; surprise definitely evident in her voice. "Intel said only a dozen at most."

"Sometimes intel isn't always accurate Ensign." Ashara; the other security member of the team replied without looking away from watching the corridor ahead of them.

Blake could only agree with Ashara. And either way, it was what it was. And it was a mess. They couldn't do anything but roll with the punches now. =/\= Turell, we're going to need your boots on the ground down here, can you get through before they intercept? =/\=

=/\= I can try, I'll come in the same door you did, if I'm not there in 2 minutes I'm hiding somewhere, out. =/\= Amanda slung her rifle and took off down the stairs of the sentry tower. They'd picked this entry point as it afforded the most concealment from the sentry towers, cargo containers both small and large blocked several lines of sight; and Klingons weren't known for standing around paying attention to their surroundings.

The strike teams youngest member; Nurse Jaal looked to Blake. "Do we sit here and wait for her or keep going?"

"We give her one minute," Blake was already bringing her hand up, checking the chronometer at the inside of her wrist. Clad in special operations black, the skin of her hand looked an even more whiter shade of pale than usual in comparison. But it was steady as it pulled the rifle off her back, lifting it towards the path they'd already travelled. "And then we move..."

Just after the minute passed Scarlets combadge chirped. =/\= No go Commander.=/\= Amanda's deliberately quite voice came over the system. =/\= Looks like they're all stopping right by your entry point, no way I can get to you.=/\=

Blake swore under her breath, but her jaw tightened with determination. =/\= Got it...keep watch for us, and search for alternate exit route, =/\= she glanced around the rest of her small team, made up of veterans and fresh blood alike. "Let's move," she ordered, starting to sprint down the gloomy corridor.

Slowly Amanda crept back towards the sentry tower she had previously occupied, it was considerably harder with 20 more Klingons to avoid. She knew any moment the team would either be detected and all hell would break loose or they'd accomplish their objective and blow up the sensor scrambler.... then all hell would break loose.

In the silence that followed, time seemed to drag ever longer with the radio silence. As the minutes ticked away, no news was good news at least. Eventually, the tension was cut when Turell's commbadge crackled back to life. =/\= The charges are in place and primed, but our way out is blocked...did you find that alternate route? =/\= Blake's voice was tight and her breathing heavier than usual.

=/\= Head for the exit on the south side, the ground is more open but the only Klingon there is the other sentry tower, I've eyes on that side from here... shit, gotta go.=/\= Amanda replied before cutting the com channel, she could hear metallic boots climbing the stairs.

Blake swore under her breath, glancing across to Ashara briefly before pulling her tricorder free. She made an educated guess as to the best route to get to the southern approach, nodding for the rest of her team to fall in line. "Double time..." she started to run, replacing the tricorder in her hands for a rifle. With how many things that had gone wrong so far in this so called simple plan, the ex-marine's instincts were jangling.

Tucking herself in against the border of the sentry tower Amanda slung her rifle and drew a combat knife, in only a few more seconds this new arrival would see the body of the towers previous occupant. She took a deep breath close combat with a Klingon wasn't fun even if you did take them completely by surprise. As the Klingon rounded the corner she leapt forward stabbing with her knife aiming the long blade at a spot just under its ribcage.

The male Klingon gasped in both pain and surprise as the knife slipped under his ribs and sliced into one of his lungs but as Amanda pulled the knife free to stab again he struck her hard in the face with his elbow.

It was Amanda's turn to gasp as the strong strike hit her just below the nose, the knife fell from her grip as her body flinched from the pain. Charging forward she grappled with the Klingon, clawing, kicking and punching, slowly the taller Klingon got the advantage and threw Amanda to the ground. He drew a disruptor pistol but despite hitting the ground with a thud Amanda was quicker, her type II phaser flared and the Klingon hit the ground with a smoking hole in his chest.

A loud wailing klaxon began to sound across the compound

Blake looked upward in sheer instinct, swearing loudly as she shook her head. The small team came to a skidding halt in their attempted escape, confronted by a large, sealed door in the middle of the only corridor that could convey them to safety. "Karla, get that door open!" she ordered, lifting her rifle ready, her knees bracing, her body ready for a fight. Some things never changed.

"I got it." Karla replied, it only took her a few seconds to override the door controls, the door slid open to reveal two Klingons luckily facing away from the team not expecting the source of the alarm to be from inside the building. The first dropped as a phaser blast from Ashara's rifle hit him in the back, the second began to turn to see his comrade but met the same fate a moment later.

"Lets go." Ashara called out.

Blake led the charge, sprinting through the grim, industrial complex, weapon held fast. The ex-sharp-shooter lifted her rifle, firing at the figures threatening on the periphery, but never pausing to watch the results, content with the vague heavy thuds of bodies hitting the ground in the corner of her eye. She called the warning mere seconds before the explosion ripped through the air, sending clouds of dust and deadly shrapnel in its wake. If the Klingons hadn’t known exactly where they were before, they did now.

As the team ran across the compound towards the hole they'd made in the perimeter Amanda's phaser rifle flared from the sentry tower striking Klingons with pinpoint

=/\= Time to move, Turell, now! =/\= Blake ordered across the comm, her voice leaving no room for argument this time.

=/\= On my way =/\= Amanda replied. She sent a few more shots towards the Klingons before starting down the stairs of the tower, ducking and weaving as she ran to join the team at the perimeter disruptor bolts chased her while phaser fire from the team flew back in the other direction. She was less than 5 meters away from them when a disruptor bolt hit her in the hip, yelping in pain she stumbled to the ground but quickly got back to her feet and carried on running only gaining a few more meters before another disruptor bolt hit her higher up her back. She practically fell into cover behind the container the team was using for cover.

"F**k me that hurts." Amanda said, her uniform smoked where the energy blasts had hit her and blood poured from both wounds.

"Amanda!" Blake sprinted to the fallen officer, skidding down onto her knees beside her to try and assess her injuries. She held back the curse that almost came to her lips at seeing just how bad the wounds looked, her mind already whirring with how they were going to get her out.

Jaal ran his medical tricorder over Amanda's wounds; it didn't look good. He pressed a pain hypo to her neck and sat her up.

"Commander we've got to move." Ashara shouted over the whine of phaser fire he and Karla were sending towards the Klingons.

Blake was already getting her arm under Amanda, pulling her arm around her neck to try and sit her up. "On your feet, Turell," she ordered, her voice tight with the effort of trying to force her up.

"F**k me...." Amanda cried out as Scarlet tried to lift her. She got to her feet but the pain all across her body was intense despite the pain killers and the blood kept pouring from the wound. "Put me down, put me down."

Blake shook her head, breathing harder with the effort of trying to keep her upright. "We don't have time for this, you have to move...now!"

"I can't get to the shuttle like this Commander, and you can't carry me that far, not with Klingons behind you all the way." Amanda said, after the second disruptor shot his her she knew her chances of getting out of this alive were very low. "Give me my rifle and the targeting beacon."

Blake buckled onto one knee with her, her jaw clenching as she searched her eyes, a thread of dread knotting her stomach. "There's no way..."

"I told you you many times the only way I'm going down is in a blaze of glory, I think a few kilo's of antimatter will make a great funeral pyre." Amanda said to Scarlet before tuning to Jaal. "Give me the all the painkillers you've got, a shot of tri-ox and two of adrenaline."

"That's enough to kill a whale Amanda." Jaal replied her eyes quite wide at the amount of drugs the woman was asking for.

"I know." Amanda simply replied.

"Commander...." Jaal turned to Blake. "You can't."

Amanda grabbed Scarlet's hand. "Just give it me, and get running."

Scarlet searched her eyes, raw pain in her own as she struggled with the nightmarish predicament. She looked down over the horrific wounds before glancing to the readout on Jaal's tricorder. Turell was barely hanging on, the odds of her surviving being carried back was...well...virtually non-existent.

Blake flinched instinctively as threatening disruptor fire flashed overhead. She felt sick to her stomach as she looked to Jaal, anger on her features and anguish in her chest. "Do it," she ordered sharply, pushing the beacon into Turell's hand, and her rifle in the other. She met the woman's eyes, letting her see her regret and fury. "Make them pay."

"Oh believe me I will." Amanda said after gritting her teeth for a few seconds. "Don't worry Scarlet, I've wanted this since the Tholians took out the Trial"

"This will take effect in a minute or so and with your physiology you'll probably od in less than ten." Jaal told Amanda as he loaded up a pair of hypo's and injected one then the other into her arm.

"Tell the Captain this was my choice and tell Aria I'll keep her a seat at the bar." Amanda chuckled slightly. "Now get running all of you."

Scarlet's throat was tight as she leant forward, gripping the other woman's cheek as she pressed her lips to Amanda's forehead. "Thank you," she breathed before pushing herself away, catching her breath. "Let's move! Now!" she ordered the rest of them, starting off at a fierce pace to try and out run their pursuers. She didn't look back. She couldn't look back.

As the team ran for the shuttle parked a long way away Amanda remained sat down for the moment, while disruptor fire flashed overhead she rest her hands on her phaser rifle feeling the smooth casing of the weapon that had been her constant unfailing companion for the last few years, newer phaser rifles had come and gone but she’d kept this one in perfect condition all this time. “Well girl, one last firefight, don’t let me down.” With the trained swiftness of a true warrior she took out its partially used power cell and quickly replaced it with a fresh one before turning its power setting up all the way to 8.

Looking down at the targeting beacon by her side she reached over and triggered its activation sequence; in a few minutes the Galileo would get the signal that the team had succeeded and warp into the system to recover the away team and wipe the facility off the map.

Her muscles twitched and she flexed her neck as the cocktail of drugs she’d asked for made themselves known more and more in her bloodstream, slowly she stood up, took a deep breath and shouldered her rifle.

She stepped out of cover, the first Klingon she saw dropped; a smoking hole in his chest. A disruptor bolt skimmed inches from her head, another Klingon fell to the floor in agony; his arm severed at the shoulder, she put another shot into him as she passed by.

She ducked under a swinging bat’leth, turned, pressed the barrel of the rifle against its owner's spine and pulled the trigger. From her side another bat’leth was swung at her, her rifle coming around just in time the blade hit its casing cutting a deep gouge into the metal, she kicked him in the balls before her rifle flared and emptied his guts all over the floor. A disruptor shot struck her belly tearing a chunk out of her side but she continued on, another Klingon fell flat on his face; both knees having exploded from blasts of energy.

As she turned to aim at another Klingons a blast struck her phaser rifle splitting the venerable weapon in half, within a moment her type II was in hand and the killing continued. A wide beam blast killed two Klingons charging at her bat’leth in hand, Disruptor blasts kicked up the ground around her as she moved quickly despite her wounds

Grabbing the other arm of a Klingon swinging a mek’leth at her she threw him to the floor and shot him in the chest, a disruptor bolt hit her square in the back tearing the wound already there wider and sending her sprawling over the dead Klingon, landing on her back she burned a hole through another Klingons chest before scrambling to her feet towards a close by cargo container only for a bolt to hit her high in the chest quickly followed by another.

She slumped to the ground a pile of dead bodies all around her, breathing heavily as she rested against the container, blood poured from multiple smoking wounds across her body. Three more Klingons hesitantly approached her disruptor pistols in hand. Looking up she saw 4 orange flashes in the sky falling like blazing meteors towards the compound. She managed a smile before looking at the Klingons and raising her middle finger at them. “F**k all of you.”

As the explosions ripped through the compound, Blake had to shield her eyes against the violent flash of light that pulsed from the burning crater. Right where they'd left Turell. Scarlet breathed harder, her heart thumping in her chest. Amanda had gotten the job done, against the odds, and she'd saved the rest of them, of that she had no doubt. That kind of knowledge was crushing and for a moment...Scarlet couldn't breathe.

She finally sat back in her chair, unable to watch the fallout of their mission any longer. It might have been a success, but she'd never be able to reconcile herself with how much it had cost.

OFF:

Commander Scarlet Blake
Executive Officer
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Amanda Turell
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[Pnpc Mimi]

RSS Feed