Snatch and Grab

Posted on Sun May 21st, 2023 @ 9:18pm by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Endia

Mission: S1 Episode 5: Ex Post Facto
Location: Banea
Timeline: Date 2371-08-16 at 0200
2069 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

Sleep had come quickly but rest hadn't followed it.

Her dreams were full of shadows and phantoms, pleasure and pain. It was a confusing, disjointed mix that did not allow her body to relax, though how could she have relaxed given the situation she was in? The only thing that had brought her any sort of solace was the fact that Andrei would come for her and there was excitement in the thought of the great pleasure they would take in utterly destroying the Baneans for this offense. He was there too in her dreams. The lover, the ally, the enemy, the betrayer - Andrei had many faces; she had always known that fact, and while she knew it would be a difficult dance with him, it hadn’t dissuaded her… yet. The potential prize was too great.

He was there with her at that moment. They were on the freshly claimed bed of the former Jarl as they had been in their holodeck program a little over a week ago. She was sitting up naked and leaning against the headboard with a blanket covering her legs and hips, and Andrei was lying perpendicular to her with his head in her lap. He was reading aloud a scroll and she was simply playing with his hair and massaging his scalp while he spoke. It was a quiet, private moment between them not completely unlike the ones they shared behind closed doors. Her eyes closed, and then in an instant she felt his weight and presence vanish. Her eyes opened quickly and she saw him stalking out of the room.

“Andrei?” She called after him and got up to follow. He ignored her with purpose, as if he were looking for something and didn’t even hear her.

“Andrei, where are you going?” Lyra tried again, still ignored. He was wearing clothes now appropriate to the setting while she was still naked with the blanket around her.

“Andrei!” She was frustrated now, and yet he still didn’t stop. He strode out of the longhouse and when she opened the door to look after him, he was gone. Her anger started to build in the dream and that anger was eventually what roused her. In the twilight between sleep and wakefulness, one fleeting thought crossed her mind.

Why had he left her?

Her eyes closed tightly for a brief second and then opened the same time she gave an uncomfortable sigh and pushed herself up. It was dark in her little box with the only light being provided a very dim glow from above the toilet. The eerie silence was broken only by the sound of the rain pouring outside and the occasional squeak of the bed when she shifted her weight and the springs protested. It had to be very early in the morning - she couldn’t have been sleeping for too long. She became aware of the dull, lingering headache plaguing her and immediately scowled.

These animals had violated her.

Before she could begin to seethe, however, she heard the sound of tapping outside. Tapping that was getting closer and closer. Footsteps. Was it Andrei? With a bit of effort, her body still sluggish from lack of sleep and the drugs in her system, she pulled herself to her feet and waited impatiently.

The armed group of six moved quickly, quietly down the hall seeking their target. They only had a limited time to retrieve her and get out before the Banean security systems came back online. If they failed this would all be for naught. They appeared like Baneans, but the weapons they carried were most certainly not.

“You read the reports and you know what this Terran can do. Last time, she killed nine, including several with her bare hands.” said the man in front. He was wearing the face of a Banean where, before the surgery he had undergone nearly a year before, was the reptile-like features of a Numiri man. “That means we don’t underestimate her under any circumstances. Do you understand?”

The five male figures standing around him nodded their assent, but said nothing to his reminder.

“Good, I’ll head in at the front and we’ll grab her. Hopefully she’s still asleep.” he said, and then pointed to a dark-blue glove. “You and you hang back in the room. Stun her if she does anything stupid.”

“Alright, open that door in three…two…one!” the leader said, and as the door slid open, he was the first to charge in, weapon raised.

Lyra was still standing next to the cot at the side of the room when the door opened. She wasn’t alarmed to see the weapons at first, but then she noticed the make of the weapons. A flash of a memory fired in her mind - men with similar weapons pouring through a door coming toward her with ill intent. Her eyes moved up to the Banean holding the weapon and his friends that filed in behind him.

“Where is Commander Petrov?” She demanded coolly.

“Your crew mate had fled the planet without you, I’m afraid. And in a hurry too.” The disguised Numiri said as he stepped slightly closer. “Now, we can take you the easy way or the hard way, but take you we will, Lieutenant Casiel.”

If she were to entertain even for a moment that Andrei had left her, Lyra knew that it had to be because he had no other choice and he had left to get the Vengeance.

Right?

She lifted her hands in a non threatening gesture. “I was told I would be waiting here until the Commander arrived then I would be released to him. What has changed?”

“What has changed is the Commander isn’t coming.” The lead man said. “We are here to take you away from this place and put you on a transport ourselves.”

“A transport to where?” Lyra asked, her eyes settled on the leader though she focused a bit more on her peripheral to assess the others with him. She took a few steps closer, her posture was relaxed and she gave the impression of hesitant compliance. She would have to be closer to do anything about this, but she was quite sure something was off here. The Baneans were stupid but not suicidal, and changing their initial plan seemed suicidal.

“Stop there, put your hands on the back of your pretty head, and get down on your knees.” the man ordered with a resigned command in his voice. His weapon was lowered, but the five other men had her squarely in their sights. “We are fully aware of what you did to the last men who tried to apprehend you. You murdered a Banean official, but the power of your ship has convinced this weak government to bow to pressure and hand you over to your superiors. You’re going home. But, if you make a wrong move, you will go home in a body bag.”

“You know, you could at least buy me dinner first before you ask me to get on my knees for you.” Lyra joked with a smirk, but as she spoke she took two slightly longer steps forward to cover more distance between them given he had lowered his weapon. The others shifted in reaction, but by the time they raised their weapons again she had stopped and was slowly moving her hands up to the back of her head.

“You have some pretty unique weapons… for Baneans.”

The innuendo was lost on the man. The Numiri didn’t practice the sexual act she was referencing, so he only looked slightly confused.

“And you’re very observant.” he said, taking a step back himself to match the one she had taken forward. He wasn’t going to be a casualty to stupidity. “I said hands on the back of your head on down on your knees. I’m not an idiot. I can see what you’re doing, Terran.”

Lyra could not have possibly cared less if the man understood the innuendo or not, she had moved to where she wanted. She moved her hands behind the back of her head but didn’t lace her fingers and they wouldn’t be able to tell from where they were.

“No, you’re the smart one. I can tell.” She said and started to lower herself down, her dark eyes on the leader. His threat of a body bag obviously wasn’t real, and for whatever reason they wanted to take her while she was conscious. Easier to move than dead weight, but why would it matter? Perhaps they were under a time constraint of some sort. The leader was intelligent, but she could tell that his lackeys were just that - lackeys. Not bright, but armed. Both could be an advantage to her.

A glint showing in her eye was the only clue he got that Lyra was up to something. She had a plan and he knew it. He took several quick steps back and watched as she moved to the ground. He holstered and clipped his weapon to prevent any changes of operator and then he moved quickly around her. Walking up behind her, he placed electronic restraints on her hands quickly, then moved to quickly clasp rings around her feet that would bind them in the same way.

“Whatever.” He said as he worked.

Smart, but not nearly smart enough.

Lyra had sat calmly and seemingly obediently where she was with her hands on the back of her head and she didn't protest as he put the restraints on her wrists there. It would be easier than she had thought. As he moved behind her to bind her ankles, her body tensed slightly in anticipation. She waited until he was focused on maneuvering one of her legs and putting the brace around it, and then she moved.

She was damn fast. Her body pivoted off of the leg he was holding and she spun around him, her bound hands coming up from her head as she did so. The movements were fluid and full of deadly grace. She was behind him and her bound hands went down to the holster of his rifle in a blink of an eye. In the next blink, she had pushed down to bring the bottom of the holster and the tip of the rifle up; the trigger was uncovered, and so she fired two shots from the rifle - one to break the holster and the other landed square in one of the "Banean's" chests. She didn't leave her hands there, so when he tried to grab for her hands or his rifle they were already gone. Instead, her bound hands went around his head and settled his throat on the bindings; she began to pull back with her arms while simultaneously shoving her knee into his back and pushing forward.

His men were panicked. They wanted to take a shot, but with Lyra behind their leader in the position she was in, they had no clear shot and one of them had dropped down to tend to their fallen comrade.

"When I get out of here, I am going to send your entire species into the void." She growled into the man's ear as she continued to choke him, knowing he would have a very difficult time maneuvering from her with how she had their bodies positioned together.

Then the man in the hold was alarmed at the stupidity of his men. How could they allow this woman to get the best of him on high alert? Sometimes he despaired at the incompetence of their agents; it had allowed the Baneans to thrive despite their difference in power.

“Shoot her!” he bellowed through the choke. “Shoot her now, you fucking idiots!”

A moment’s hesitation, and then the men complied, and beams of energy speared toward Lyra. Most of them hit him given he was in front of her and she was using his body as a shield while she strangled him, but several landed on Lyra as well. Since they were set on low stun, both of them collapsed to the floor, unconscious. From now on, this Terran woman would be restrained; at least until her purpose was served.

END