Securing the Promenade (Part 3)
Posted on 09 Mar 2021 @ 5:46pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Lieutenant Theodore Winslow & Ensign Zyrra Vehlin
Mission:
M1 - Emergence
Location: Promenade
2242 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure
It did not take a genius to realise something had suddenly changed in the space they were climbing down to. Theodore paused and listened for a moment before frowning at what he heard from the next compartment, the gunfire that was a lot closer than it had been a moment before. The noise had been quiet with strange echoes bouncing around the tubes but now it was louder and insistent.
“Quicker Ensign.” He clutched the ladder tighter as he moved quicker hoping that Zyrra would follow suit hearing what he did. Getting to the bottom he pressed open the access panel climbing through to see what he had suspected from the other side of the bulkhead.
“Yeah because that’s helpful,” Zyrra retorted. Her antennae twitched sharply. “We’re not alone. Those...whatever aliens they are - they stink, but their body odor has a strange chemical imbalance.” She paused. “They’re probably drugged to the eyeballs on stimulants. Explains the crazy.” She added a little human twirl of her finger near her temple for effect. “Just in case, I’d say put them down with a little more force than you normally would.”
Of course, they were high as a kite, he thought to himself. He was impressed that she could smell it in the air but praise was for after this was done. “You act like I would not put a little force than normal with invaders.” The man countered taking a deep breath and rolling his shoulder.
When they came up to the open square, many of the people on the promenade who had run for cover as indicated by the directions were in a good position to be defended by the small number of Security personnel who had also answered the call and set up defensive positions, cutting down the on-rushers with phaser fire from behind dividers.
A Ferengi who hadn’t made the run to safety in time was rolling on the floor, screeching as if he were dying, holding his bloodied head in his hands. Pog saw the two officers and bemoaned his condition. “My ear! They cut off my ear! For the love of the Great Exchequer!” He gasped in pain both physical and emotional, “Find my lobe!”
Theo crouched to the man and frowned at the man’s screaming. He would draw people to them all to do worse if he was not careful. Not everyone had the same flight or fight response but the man needed to move, Theo needed to get him to move “You are fine. It is a flesh wound. Move before you lose more.” The security officer said tugging the man to his feet and pushing him towards the security personnel who looked relieved to see the Security Chief.
Pog squealed in pain and terror as he moved in the direction he was pointed in.
“You are fine,” Theo repeated sternly to keep the man moving.
As the atrocious sound diminished in the distance, there was another more earnest sobbing sound on the opposite side of the square; a dark outline of a silent figure crossed between tall planters of dead trees and suddenly a man— one of the Refugees— was flushed out like a rabbit from its warren, dashing out in long strides towards other cover and protecting a child in his arms.
Theo turned at the sound of sobbing and watching the pair ducking towards cover. “Zyrra… there.” He pointed to the cover that the man had gone behind. They needed to get to better cover and it seemed like a perfect place as a shot flew between them both hitting another planter.
As the Andorian and the Human ran towards him, the Romulan father didn’t immediately recognize them and instinctively back pedaled as if trapped on both sides. The girl in his arms was grade school aged and clutching him with her spindly arms and legs and crying. Once he recognized Winslow, Ayalou’s father started pointing and saying something in earnest, his eyes intense with fear. He repeated it over and over again pointing to the stoop of a shop along the way.
Theo frowned, indicating for the man to slow down as he tried to understand the translations. “Wife? I got you! Your wife is over there with your baby.” He finally said turning to where he was pointing and saw a figure among the smoke and potted plants. He looked around trying to see if he could get across to her.
A toddler’s fussing cry began and, honing in on it, a figure in black leapt from a balcony rail over head, falling like a cat landing on spring loaded feet, and bounded right for the sound; Ayalou’s mother, who had been flattening herself behind a pillar, was pulled out by the hair and yanked in front of the agent in black who started yelling something, his disruptor pressed into her temple. She grimaced, the baby wailed as she clutched the writhing boy.
“We are not here for your wife,” the agent assured in Rihannsu, calling out to Ayalou’s father. “Give yourself up and she goes free. Bring your brother and the baby can live too.”
Believing he needed to confront the man holding his wife, Ayalou’s father whispered something to her and tried to pry the girl off himself. Ayalou had a vice like grip. She was never going to let him go again. Never.
Theodore watched the scene with a sense of horror and cool aloofness as he figured out approaches to get to them. “Why does he want you?” Theodore demanded pulling him back to get some answers. He could not blame the girl for not wanting to let him go. “Why does he want you and your brother? I can help you but I need the truth.”
The translator was still frustrating to work with, the only ungarbled words were “falsehood” “manhunters” and something about “the covering”. The translator further picked out “innocent wife” and “take daughter”. He was clearly fixing to sacrifice himself.
“I am not taking your daughter or letting you sacrifice yourself,” Theodore said simply rubbing his face in frustration at the translator. It was one of the first things he was requesting that was properly fixed after all of this was over. The little girls clinging was clearly the only thing stopping the man from leaving but they were running out of time to do something as he glanced out and saw the woman crying as she clutched the baby close.
The father said something completely lost by the translation while he was spitting in vexation at his impossible situation. If he’d been speaking English it was clear he was asking Theodore what the hell he wanted him to do then, his wife and child were going to die. His bald declaration of the situation caused his distressed daughter to begin her own outpouring of cries for her mother, further cluttering the translation.
“Can you distract him from here? Talk to him?” Theodore wondered, thinking he could use the way the man had gotten the woman to get behind him. It was risky but it felt less so than anything else they had in their arsenal right then and there.
Ayalou’s father was having as much trouble understanding as Theodore was, but the idea of distraction got through. He started calling out loudly, fully in his own dialect, and the agent was responding in kind.
Zyrra tensed as the exchange happened, wishing for a translator or another means of communicating with this guy. Why was he even on the station without means of communicating, anyway? She put the illogical thought to one side and concentrated on working out how they were going to deal with the invaders.
“I’ll flank to the left,” she whispered to Theo. “Once he gets closer we can take him.”
“No. We are going up.” Theo whispered pointing to where a black figure was on the next level up and where he had come from to get so close. “We will never get close enough that way. He will shoot the woman and baby.” Theodore already stripped off the top half of the EVA suit as they moved back the way they had come.
The open stairs were not guarded and the pair soon got onto the next deck up. Theodore looked over the ledge and could still see and hear the yelling below.
As he looked on the chaos below, a new man stepped into the open, holding his hands over his head. He was one of the Romulan refugees, was thickly salt and pepper haired, and was the man named Norrok who had been seen to in medical. Severely underweight from a bad stay in a prison, he bore many injuries and evidences of mal treatment. He was meant to be resting in quarters, but had gone out shopping for necessities with his family. He couldn’t bear to see his younger brother bargaining for his sister in law and nephew’s life and stepped out with his hands over his head screaming in his language for mercy on the children.
The black figure above the railing stood up in view and cut Norrok down with a shot to the chest. Norrok's brother’s protests were fevered now, his voice sounding as if he’d damaged his throat from the yelling.
Theo made a face as he saw the black figure too far in front to reach in time as he fired the shot. It did not take a second for the Security Chief to raise and fire off his shot watching with some satisfaction as the man fell to his knees then slumped to the floor. The noise from the phaser disappearing into the echoes from the fighting all around the base.
He stepped over him and looked down at the situation, it was still the same with now a man slumped on the floor with a chest wound. Theo looked to Zyrra and indicated this was their best spot to jump from behind. “Ever done anything like this before?” He wondered quietly. Their boots had pretty decent shock absorbent and grip so he was pretty happy that it would be a success to help to cushion the force.
“Nope.” Zyrra eyed the drop. It was a little higher than she would have liked.
“Should be an experience either way then. Just do not lock your knees, you get the woman and baby to safety. I will get the man.” Theo muttered remembering what he had been taught and practiced many times, knowing how to properly land a jump could mean the difference between failure and success. He took one last glance down before he swung himself over the ledge giving himself a few more seconds to calculate what was going to happen once they dropped the distance below.
Letting go with a prayer he fell behind the man holding the woman hostage with a lot more ease than he had been expecting holding a rifle. Glancing to his left he was relieved to see Zyrra land barely seconds behind him. With their prepared plan in mind, Theo lifted his rifle and instinctively just as a cry went up from somewhere above about ‘behind you’ hit the Romulan in the temple making him stumble and loosen his grip turning to confront his attacker as Theo made a move to do it again. This time the Romulan was a little more prepared and the shot hit the man's shoulder but it was enough for the crying woman to get away.
Ayalou’s mother spun away, stumbling over herself but not quite falling as she raced toward her husband.
The agent hidden between the planters took that moment to stand and aim for the manhunters’ other intended target: the father with the girl in his arms— Only for a crashing blow to land on the agent’s skull from the young Andorian’s boot.
She didn’t stop to admire her handiwork. Instead she grasped hold of the hostage and pulled her quickly back towards Theo and some makeshift cover before anyone could target them. “That felt far too enjoyable,” she remarked, not sure if the Security Chief could hear her.
With his hostage lost and both his comrades downed, the Romulan agent at the store front reached cross-body and engaged a device on his shoulder; an electric wave of blue light rippled from the miniature tech and he dissolved into thin air.
Theo narrowed his eyes as he tried to see something, he had heard Zyrra but did not comment he had felt the same after all but he now needed to concentrate. It was hard to be cloaked in a smoky compartment especially with the dust and dirt in the air from such a small piece of technology.
“Not so fast.” He muttered as it looked like he was going to rugby tackle thin air but something padded him as he fell to the ground. The blue light rippled revealing the Romulan again as Theo punched the man hard, his rifle forgotten for a moment as he used a bit of brute force, the Romulan’s broken nose erupting in a gruesome green. He struggled against Theo’s pinning move but couldn’t break it. “Anyone have something to secure him with?” He demanded gruffly over his shoulder.
