Healthy Flesh
Posted on Mon Aug 15th, 2022 @ 3:27am by Lieutenant Christoph Ivers & Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Captain Ivan Petrov & Lieutenant Commander Troy Marshall & Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Captain Fergus Williams & Lieutenant JG Taina M'Tras & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth & Callie Marshall
Edited on on Tue Oct 18th, 2022 @ 6:48am
Mission:
S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: Various Locations
Timeline: Mission Day 7 at 1400
1984 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure
ON
Shuttlebay
Remm’s screams of agony and terror still echoed through shuttlebay even though he had met his rather violent end over five seconds ago. Blood still streamed from his corpse wetting Madeline’s knees as they stood up with the man’s head in her hands. Her expression was tinged with apprehension and she didn’t look at the horror etched onto the man’s face. For any who looked at her, they would see a Terran officer who had followed orders, though perhaps didn’t have a taste for the grisliest of moments. She moved to put the head down and slightly away from the body and pressed the transceiver to the mangled back of the man’s neck so the transporter could get an easy lock. Stepping back, she looked to Jonathan with a smile that communicated satisfaction of a job well done and nothing more. Her deep pleasure was hidden, shared only to those she found capable. Her hand twitched slightly as her mind drifted to a few days ago, but she brought herself back to the moment.
“You should inform the captain.” She prompted him, giving him the honor as second officer.
Johnathan stood, wiping the alien blood from the tool he had used to sever its head. While he had certainly let out more of his inner demons and rage during the slaughter, he actually felt a bit better, in his core, having vented some of that same rage.
He gave Madeline a soft grin and nod of his head, silently thanking her. Reaching up, he tapped his commbadge. "Anderson to Captain Petrov. Sir, Lieutenant Cassiel and I have finished, per your orders. You message is ready to be transported."
"Glorious." Ivan said from his seat on the Bridge. "Lieutenant Jones, you make take the remains, save the skull, and do with them what you will. Anderson...Cassiel, get back up here. Petrov out."
Madeline let a drawn out sigh, rubbing a bloody hand on the back of her neck but not really caring. She let her shoulders slouch a bit and her lips fall into a tired frown. "Well, I guess we'll be getting back then. Have fun, Lieutenant. Can't wait to see what you come up with." She said as she nodded to Melissa then headed for the exit, walking slow until Jonathan joined her.
Johnathan quickly closed the distance to walk on Madeline’s right side. "So," he asked honestly, "What do you like doing when you aren't dismembering an alien, Lieutenant?"
It seemed to take Madeline a beat to notice Jonathan was talking to her and not someone else, but there was no one else nearby so that was silly of her. She turned her head to look at him and gave a small, sheepish smile. “Sorry. I ah… well, I like to paint. I’m not great at it, but that’s not really the point. What about you?” She asked as they stepped onto the lift. “Bridge.”
The young pilot considered the question. "Well, when I'm not flying or tinkering on something, I really enjoy cooking, especially for Kassandra." A soft, loving smile crossed his face at the mention of his love.
“How nice of you.” She said and smiled warmly, even managing an approving coo to go along with the words. It was nice enough she supposed. It wasn’t displayed in her expression, but she was quite amused by the puppy love on his boyish face. There wasn’t time to say more as the lift began to slow on arrival to the bridge.
Bridge
On the Bridge, Ivan turned to his XO and nodded.
Troy smiled maliciously as he tapped his commbadge. "Transporter room. Beam our [i]guest's head to the Bridge of the Vidiian ship."
"Aye Commander." Once the signal of the transceiver was pulsing steadily on his console, Sovas engaged the transporter to deliver their surprise to the Vidiians as a smirk worked its way onto his lips though he kept it small since he needed to focus on the business at hand, not an example being made to aliens that thought themselves better than Terrans.
Once it was confirmed that transport was complete, Ivan struggled to his feed, the joints in his legs screaming as he got up. He looked at the viewscreen which displayed the Vidiian ship sitting on the ground in front of them.
"Open hailing frequencies." Ivan said.
"Hailing frequencies open, sir." Christoph replied.
"Vidiian ship, this is the Captain Ivan Petrov of the Terran Empire's Shadow Fleet. We have received your message and we send you back this one. He died screaming as my soldiers ripped him apart piece by piece." The Captain said, ignoring the pain he was experiencing and the itchiness that was starting in his arm. "The same fate awaits all those who stand in defiance of the reign of Antonius VI. We reject your deal. You will send us the cure immediately, or you will suffer quite intensely."
There was a pause of several moments before the viewscreen changed to the face of a Vidiian woman with dark red lips. She was clearly upset.
"Captain Petrov, you have murdered my officer, and now you dare to threaten a vessel of the Sodality?" she asked rhetorically.
"Yes, I do dare it." Ivan answered.
"We will give you nothing, Captain. In fact, we are the ones who will make you suffer. You will be consumed, inside and out!"
The screen returned to the sun-lit view of the Vidiian ship.
"I was hoping this would be easy." Ivan said, frowning and turning around. "It's never easy with these people."
"If they want to be target practice, let them." Christoph replied with a shrug.
"At least arrogant stupidity isn't a commodity that the Cardassian's have cornered the market on." Sovas spoke up as he continued to scan the ship trying to make sure that there weren't any surprises.
The turbolift doors opened, Jonathan and Madeline inside. Madeline stepped out first, her face still having a few smears of the Vidiian's blood that hadn't quite come off and her gloves hiding anything that was left on her hands. She started to head over to the security station with Christoph since there seemed to be some sort of problem given the tension in the air.
Johnathan could feel the tension on the bridge as soon as he and Madeline stepped off the turbolift. After giving Kassandra a brief smile, he moved back to his station, relieving Saundra from the position.
"We need to prepare to board them." Ivan said, looking to Ivers. "Just as we discussed. Read-"
"Captain, I'm detecting 41 Vidiian life signs aboard the ship, it appear they have transported to various portions of the ship." Sovas called out, his voice sharp but calm since panicking would do little good and this far from the first time he'd experienced an enemy boarding action, as he readied his phaser and to take cover behind his station.
"Intruder alert! All crew, repel borders!" Ivan said, moving as quickly as he could back to the command console and pulling up the readings. "Senior Staff, stay here. Mr. Ivers, check your readings. Where the hell are they?"
Ivers looked to his display, frowning as he tapped the controls quickly. "Three on deck one, three on deck two, nine on deck five, fifteen on deck eight and eleven on deck eleven."
On hearing there were three on deck one, Ivan couldn't help but look around. Seeing no one he wondered for just a second before the doors to the conference room opened with a swish and a terrible disgusting creature lumbered out at a moderate pace. It looked like nothing he'd ever seen before and the stench could be smelled immediately. It was covered all over in horrid rotting flesh and it squealed like an animal, moving as if it had no mind but for attack. There were two more behind him, emerging from the conference room.
A crewman who happened to be standing next to the open door screamed as she was seized by the first of the creatures. He held her tight, despite her shake and struggle, and burred his brown teeth into the side of her face. She screamed bloody murder and fought even harder, but to no avail. The rest attempted to circle around her.
"AHHHHHHA!!!!" The woman shouted, feeling his teeth and smelling his wretched breath before being surrounded.
Both of the security officers reacted nearly immediately. Cassiel shot the one with its teeth in the woman's flesh and Ivers took another, but neither of them had a clear shot at the third that was at an odd angle from both of them. Christoph moved to advance on it, but knew someone else would take the shot and at least he could see if the woman who had been attacked was still alive.
As soon as the creatures stormed onto the bridge, Johnathan spun up from his seat. When he saw the first two go down after being shot, he drew his phaser and vaporized the third. He then stood at the ready, his eyes looking for any more dangers.
Engineering
Four of these creatures materialized directly in Engineering, immediately moving for the nearest crew. They were mindless, not concerned with technology or anything else except sinking their teeth in people.
Taina instinctively slashed at one with her claws as it appeared close to her. She brought up one booted foot and kicked back hard, propelling herself back from the creature. "Phasers on high stun! Maintain tight fire control! Neutralize intruders!" she shouted as she fired on it. Hopefully, no engineer needed to be given those orders since all knew what loose fire on a high setting could mean in close quarters so near ship's core systems, but a little redundancy never hurt anyone. Sometimes people panicked in the heat of battle.
Marine Berth
Eight of the aliens materialized inside the marine's quarters sinking their teeth into one of the rookies who had been to occupied with her lunch and her music. Hearing the commotion the chief devil dog came out guns blazing the old earth dragnoz pistol in his hand. The 12.7mm cartridge fired with a kick like a mule yet the bullet flew sending brain chunks across the berth. " Marines repel borders." He yelled as he fired at two more of the creatures.
Bridge
"What the fuck is that?" Ivan asked, his eyes wide as he gestured toward the dead creatures. "Are those Vidiians?"
The man was asking questions of no one, but his mind was working quickly. He tapped his commbadge.
"All hands, this is the Captain. Disregard repel borders. Repeat: disregard. Report to a secure location and do what you can to stay safe. Security personnel and marines report to emergency locations and respond to orders from your commanders."
Callie was in hers & Troy’s Quarters resting when Ivan’s voice came over the comms. Wondering what was going on she hit her comm badge. “Marshall to bridge, What’s going on?”
Troy responded to Callie's query in a rushed voice. "We've been boarded by a contingent of cannibalistic aliens that are attacking crew. Stay where you are and erect a security force field at all the entrances."
Christoph stood from where he was kneeling and looked to Ivan. "Sir, permission for Lieutenant Cassiel and I to depart the bridge and deal with this incursion?"
“Go. Lead your teams.” Ivan said with a nod.
As soon as The Captain gave the order, Johnathan returned to his helm and started to bring the flight controls online. He would wait for Ivan's order to lift off. He just wanted to be ready, incase those filthy aliens tried to escape the wrath of the Terran Empire.
OFF
