Echo in the Darkness

Posted on Wed Jul 19th, 2023 @ 4:13am by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Ensign Jeffrey Simmons & Private 1st Class Cedrik Feng & Captain Ivan Petrov & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken & Ensign Mika Petrova & Chief Petty Officer Julius Law & Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Alexander & Sergeant Bryana "Bri" Locke
Edited on on Mon Jul 31st, 2023 @ 2:14am

Mission: S1 Episode 5: Ex Post Facto
Location: Vengeance/Unknown
Timeline: Date 2371-08-20 at 0510
7068 words - 14.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

“Here?” Lyra asked.

“Yes.” The woman nodded and indicated the console. “Target coordinates and input here, the message is sent here.”

Lyra made sure she understood the controls before she looked down at the woman and gave a sweet smile. “Thank you. You’ve been very helpful.”

With that, she lifted the rifle and shot the woman point blank in the chest - she died instantly of course, and Lyra had given her a small mercy for her help and obedience. There had never been any true intention to spare her. As she lowered the rifle, Lyra was now acutely aware her body was starting to feel heavy. The adrenaline was wearing off, the pain was becoming harder to ignore, and truthfully she was just exhausted beyond reason. She tapped at the console with her long, delicate fingers and sent the simple message out, hoping it would reach the Vengeance and maybe, just maybe, they would come back and at the very least avenge her.

Her final cry sent, she looked at the rifle and raised it again, aiming it at the door where the two halves met in the middle. She took her time to fuse it just as she heard the voices outside. At least this way they would have to cut through the door or blow it up. She had bought herself a little time, but for what? She bid her tired legs to move once more and positioned herself behind one of the free standing consoles in the back of the room. Finally, she sank down to the floor and placed the rifle next to her. With nothing else to work toward, her mind began to drift again and though she tried to fight it - as much as it disgusted her - a few tears slid from her dark eyes.

Her end should have been better than this. She had been meant for so much more. They had been meant for so much more.

------


Jeffrey Simmons stood in the Captain's ready room holding a PADD in both hands. He was nervous, having never been in here and certainly having never had a one on one talk with the Captain. The fact that the first one he was having was him delivering less than good news made it all the more intimidating. They had dissected the memory engram through the rather brilliant suggestion of Ocara to try and do it on the holodeck, but it had left them with more questions than answers - and the only answers they had were suspicions at best. He had just finished walking Ivan through the methods they had used and continued on.

"With all of this evidence in mind, sir, we believe that several elements of the memory engram have been forged and call into question if Lieutenant Cassiel actually murdered this individual at all. The discovery of the Numiri text embedded in that also seems to indicate some sort of involvement from them. Warrant Officers Ocara and Kasamoto are currently trying to decipher the Numiri text so we can see the contents of the message."

At this point, it made no difference to Ivan, nor to his son, whether or not Lyra had committed the murder in the first place. What truly interested him was where she was and whether or not she was even still alive. He couldn’t rain down hellfire on them or, worse still, release Andrei, until they had pursued every avenue in finding her. It was a nerve wracking process to say the least.

“Is it possible these two sister races are working together to rebuff our attempt to divide them?” the older man asked, his wild hair shifting with his head as he steepled his large fingers. “And, if so, why would they bother with messages like this?”

---

On the bridge, a young woman at Ops was bored playing with her nails when an alert caught her attention. She frowned, seeing a subspace message coming in from a moon nearby. "Uhhh... sir? We are receiving a subspace message though it is text only?"

With the resources and personnel of the Vengeance pulled in so many different directions, Sovas had found himself pulling command duty on the bridge. With the situation of the Baneans coming to light that someone within their ranks had assisted in the abduction of Lieutenant Cassiel, things had become even more fraught with Andrei's presence on the planet and the purges he'd instituted for those who were found or deemed to be responsible for having a part in the abduction.

"What is it, crewman?" He questioned, shifting his attention to the woman as she appeared suddenly more awake and a little perturbed by that.

"I'm not sure, sir. It is a few letters and some numbers." She replied, frowning and staring at them.

Sovas repressed a sigh as he rose from the center chair and made his way over to the Ops station, taking over from his subordinate. At the same time, he focused on the numbers, reaching up to rub his forehead as he ignored the strange floating sensation and sudden ringing in his ears. Though the feelings began to fade, he stood up and slapped his commbadge. It was too organized to be some communications malfunction, but that wasn't what stopped him in his tracks.

No, what he was looking at was a Starfleet Service number.

"Captain, you're needed on the bridge."

It didn’t take long for Ivan to get to his feet and emerge onto the Bridge from his ready room.

“Report,” he said groggily, respecting the early hour of the day.

"Captain, we just received a text-only subspace message containing a Starfleet Service number," He informed Ivan and tapped away at his console to call up the corresponding record for the service number. On screen it displayed the image of Lyra Cassiel, the woman that they had been frantically searching for and it seemed that she had reached out blindly to them for help in coming home. “I believe our lost wolf has reached out for help.”

“Can you locate her exact position?” Ivan asked, jogging his large frame over to the Ops console. “Can you find life signs?”

“I can locate where the message originated from,” The half-Vulcan replied as he took over his station fully from the crewman that had previously been seated there, focused on his work, fingers dancing over the console interface as a star chart of the local systems came up on the main viewscreen. “It appears to be on the surface of the Numiri homeworld’s moon, though there is some sort of interference that’s preventing our sensors from getting much more than the location, any efforts we make to rescue Cassiel will be operating blind.”

Ivan looked at the screen, his mind working quickly. After a second or two, he turned back to Sovas.

“Contact the Away Team and let them know we’re pursuing a lead. Let them know I want them to remain where they are for now. We don’t need to add any..unpredictable elements to this situation. It’s bad enough as it is.”


“Yes sir.” Sovas replied while pulling up a secure channel to Andrei. “Commander Petrov, the Captain has ordered you and the Away Team to remain on station with the Baneans while we break orbit in order to pursue a lead.”

“A lead?”Andrei said, turning away from the Banean he was speaking to. His voice was agitated with the idea that some headway was being made. “What kind of lead? What does he need me here for?”

“We received a signal we are leaving to investigate, and as for why the Captain needs you to remain on Banea he didn’t elaborate but I would suspect that it would have to do with maintaining security there.” Sovas replied, he didn’t really think that was the reason since even at the best of time Andrei was…volatile and with Lyra missing, taken by aliens he’d been a bit extra.

The half-Vulcan looked the elder Petrov while he spoke with the man’s son. “Do you need clarification of his orders?”

“I understand the orders just fine.” Andrei said, his voice full of tension. He held his tongue, knowing the crew of the Vengeance were capable enough without him being there. Yet still, he felt compelled to go anyway. “That’s fine. Get back to work and stay focused on the rescue. Petrov out.”

—

“Bridge to Shadow Squad. Rise and shine, soldiers.” came the voice of the Captain as he lowered himself into his chair.

“This is Law, Captain.” Came Jules’ voice. He didn’t sound tired at all, as they had already woken, finished their run, and started getting ready for their morning training. They were the hardest workers on the ship, a fact he wasn’t shy about repeating.

“Gather your people, Law. You beam down to the Numiri moon in fifteen minutes. Full combat gear. I’m inserting you into the compound where we believe you’ll find Lieutenant Cassiel.” Ivan ordered. “And be careful, dammit. I want her found and returned alive.”

“What shall we do with the rest of them, sir?” Jules asked, all business as he gave a signal to the other members that they should start getting suited up. “Those who captured her.”

“Capture them in return, Sergeant. Petrov out.”

As soon as the comm cut out, Law turned to his teammates and smashed his fist into his palm.

“You heard the Captain, folks. We’re going in, and the Lieutenant’s life is on the line. Get dressed and prepare for beam-out in thirteen. I want zero fuck-ups. Zero.”

“She’s really alive?” Cedrik asked, though mostly rhetorically given the situation. He moved with the others and began to get geared up without delay. “Wonder how they found her? And Numiri? I thought it was the Baneans.”

“We’re killing machines, not fucking scientists. They’ll explain the shit when we get back.” Jules said off hand, not attempting to silence Cedrik so much as respond to something which was said in the room.

Brandon didn’t say anything at first. He focused instead on getting ready to deploy. He put on all of his combat gear, including an engineering tricorder, and checked his phaser rifle twice. Only then did he say something. “Let’s quit talking and go and do our goddamn job. Rescue our secuity chief and kill as many bastards as we can along the way.”

Bryana smirked as she listened to Brandon while she geared up almost ritualistically, ensuring everything went on in order as she looked to the rest of the squad. “Brandon’s got the right of it, less talk, more action!”

Once she’d finished with her armor and gear, Bri grabbed her rifle and checked the settings before looking at the rest of the squad. “While I’d love to see all of the filthy aliens turned to so many atoms, Captain ordered us to capture them; set your weapons to stun but make it the highest setting so they can get a taste of our hospitality.”

Seeing that everyone was ready, Jules approached the door. He didn’t pay any attention to conversations about a desire to hurry. Things would happen on the schedule set by him and the Captain, assuming the XO didn’t involve himself in the process.

“Alright, let’s move out. This is our chance to prove that the Shadow Squad project is worthwhile and to save the Lieutenant. Keep your heads in the game!”

—--


As the blue light of the transporter cleared their vision, the Shadow Squad found themselves in darkness broken only by slow, pulsating orange lights that likely signaled some sort of alert status. There was nothing in their immediate area of interest and they had a beat to acclimate and adjust. They were able to beam in, but they would need to use the pattern enhancers they had brought with them to be able to beam out of the complex as the dampening field around it thoroughly obscured lifesigns and by extension, accurate transporter locks. Now that they were inside, they would have an easier time locating Cassiel, but there was no clear path for them to take to her.

Jules was in the lead, as was the custom phaser rifle held calmly in his gloved hands. Their identities were obscured by black helmets with large glass visors of complete darkness. Inside, however, a display screen was provided for their needs, showing vitals and other scanned information from the area around them. The suits were sound proof, leaving them silent-running capable with the use of comms unless they wanted to be heard. With an exoskeleton and a blast resistant surface, these suits were made to turn good soldiers into super soldiers.

“Alright, Shadow Squad. We’ve got a general location on the Lieutenant and nothing else. Set weapons to high stun so they’ll feel the shit before they pass out and we can pick them up later.” He said. “We want to make sure we don’t shoot the Lieutenant, since she is probably in a weakened state already. But if you see someone else; drop ‘em.”

“Right.” Cedrik replied with a nod, checking his rifle once more then looking around the area. Though he was a medic, he was still a trained and competent soldier. He was Terran after all.

Brandon didn’t need to check his rifle anymore. He was sure it would work. He did however make sure that he had selected the highest stun level. He wasn’t in the mood for taking prisoners and really wanted to set it on stun, but orders were orders.

Bri was scanning her surroundings, looking for lifesigns or any signs of what the situation beyond their entry point was. She used the enhanced audio sensors of her suit to try and locate anything that might display as activity or give her an indication of where they might encounter resistance, though she did know a black site when one reared up, having escorted prisoner’s to ones maintained by the Empire.

“Chief,” Bri spoke up, addressing Jules as she moved up and linked her suit’s systems with his, specifically sharing the audio pick up. What came over was distorted but there were the sounds of banging and the distinctive whine of a high energy beam. The indicators pointed forward from their position. “Picked this up on an audio scan, while the Lieutenant could murder a mugato on a good day, I think this might indicate where she’s holed up and she’s either sealing herself in or the Numiri are trying to breach.”

“Alright, let’s head that way and see what we find.” Julius said, as he turned and resumed the lead toward the sound of weapons fire.

As the team moved forward, they were met with no resistance. It seemed the main focus of the Numiri was whatever they were heading toward. As they passed by hallway junctions and doors, two at a time would turn and quickly assess for danger. Ahead, they could see and hear the sound of an automatic door attempting to close, hitting something, opening again, then attempting to close only for the same process to repeat over and over. They couldn’t immediately make out what it was, but as they moved closer their visors identified the body as a Numiri male. When they were near enough, they could tell this man had tried to crawl into the hallway from inside of the room. They could also see that the man’s lower jaw was missing and he stared up into nothingness with vacant eyes while the door continued to hit him in the shoulder.

Jules put his hand in the air, indicating that the group should halt where they stood. Since their suits were soundproof, he could be certain he could only be heard by his team on comms and command aboard ship.

“What the…” he began, watching the dead Numiri for some sudden movement that would never come again.

Cedrik sucked in a startled gasp through his nose at the sight. While he was a medic and had done a great deal of studying and practicum, this was something he was not used to and found horrifying. The others may not have been able to identify it, but he could see by the damage of the surrounding tissue that this hadn’t been surgically removed nor had it been removed by some sort of weapon. He blanched slightly, thankful his team couldn’t see it. Instead he broke his fixation by lifting his rifle and pointing it in the room. Given his role on the team, his was slightly modified to provide him with more detailed biological readings. He didn’t need light to see more bodies inside nor did he need it to see the Jackson Pollock pattern of blood on the walls and floor complete with a long smear that ended at the mutilated man at their feet. Another one of them had nearly been blasted into two pieces, only sinews holding him together around the gaping hole in his core. This room was obviously some sort of medical suite, and just as that thought fully formed, something else caught his attention.

“Sir, I’m reading Terran DNA. There’s blood on the walls and remnants… on the bed.”

“Steady on,” Bri commented gently to Cedrik upon hearing the gasp he’d made over comms, she’d paused for a moment to examine the body, while she wasn’t a medic, she was familiar with violence and this was a brutal attack and she doubted that he was the victim of one of his own people. She reached down to drag the body out of the doorway so it could finally close, not a necessity but it could have covered the sound of approaching enemies as she scanned room, weapon at the ready as her HUD highlighted the areas that Cedrik had found and matched Terran DNA. While her reaction might have been read as disgust, Bryana actually found herself admiring what she was certain was Lyra’s handiwork as she returned to examining the room, scanning for any clearer signs of where their Lieutenant might have gone. “Chief, once we find the LT, permission to go to the bridge and turn this little shop of horrors into the moon’s newest crater.”

“If I know her, she’ll want to come back.” Jules said, the subtle sound of something disturbed in his voice. He was tough as nails, but he wasn’t crazy. “Let’s keep moving people.”

He stepped forward again, turning his attention from the horrible sight of the jawless man and back to the dimly lit hallway once again. They walked in pursuit of that sound again, and it was getting slowly louder and louder.

Brandon, like the rest of his squad members, had been sickened by the site. He didn’t have a great deal of sympathy for the Numri, but still it was a horrible way to die, and he had to wonder who was capable of such carnage. Orders, or no orders, if they found whoever it was, he wouldn’t hold anything back.

Unlike Bri, he hadn’t heard Cedrick’s reaction, but he had heard hers and made the connection. “Bri’s right Cedrick, I’ve got your back.”

“Yeah. Right.” Cedrik replied, steadying himself and moving to follow in formation behind Julius.

The group took a turn down a nearby junction and started down the corridor there, however they did not get far when those who had the outside audio enabled in their helmets heard footsteps coming toward them and their visors lit up an approaching two column formation of eight armed Numiri. They had not seemed to have seen the approaching Shadow Squad yet, but the advantage would only last seconds with the pace they were moving forward.

Jules’ eyes narrowed in his helmet. He didn’t want to lose a single man, and his mind raced on how he could do just that. In front of them was another junction where a large hallway met with theirs. He gestured with his hands subtly.

“Bri, Fiona, Ced, go right. The rest, with me.” He said, his low voice clipped and quick as he moved left into the crossed hallway, then, halting on one knee, he trained his rifle to prepare for the Numiri to pass.

Brandon did as he was told following behind the Squad Commander.

“Copy Chief,” She replied while leading her section of the team to their ambush point as she considered their approaching targets and she felt that inner thrill at the prospect of combat, that excitement that started as tingling in her limbs before moving through her body like a heady rush as she took a knee and set herself up in a shooting position.

Fiona and Cedrik moved with Bri quickly while Patrick fell in behind Brandon. Cedrik set up between the two women, taking the high position given his height and watching with bated breath as the Numiri drew closer to them. Hopefully, this would be over quickly; they had surprise on their side.

The Numiri were quite focused on getting to their destination which seemed to be away from where the Shadow Squad was moving toward. They moved like men without fear or worry that something might be amiss, comfortable in their home environment. Without even casting a glance down the split in the hallway, the reptilian Numiri marched by in a crisp formation.

Jules was the first to discharge his weapon, waiting until the group had passed and hitting the nearest one to him in the back. As the Numiri man went down with an excruciating thud of agonizer-induced pain, he trained his rifle on another before the group had a chance to turn fully around and dropped him too.

Brandon, not wanting to be left out, and perhaps wanting to show Jules how much of a team player and loyal he was, fired off a shot. It hit the Numri on the back of his right shoulder. The man let out a brief whimper before collapsing to the ground. He’d been aiming for the man’s neck but had been just a little off. He didn’t let on in any way about his near miss, he didn’t think it would be prudent or career advancing.

The Numiri turned and immediately began to return fire, shifting closer to the walls so they weren’t just standing targets in the middle of the hallway. They were soldiers not guards and despite the moment of foolishness in being too comfortable in their surroundings, it showed.

“Grenade out!” Bri shouted, pulling one of the photon grenades from her belt after she’d sent a burst phaser fire into the group of guards, aiming farther back as she saw a trajectory arc appear in her HUD as she aimed for it and felt the suit assisting before the device went flying through the air. It bounced off the wall and then fell down into the midst of the Numiri soldiers who seemed to recognize the grenade for what it was as he dove for it, scrambling to try and either throw it further down the hall before tucking his body around it. The resulting explosion and expulsion of energy caused his body to violently start seizing as he absorbed most of it, but a couple of the other soldiers were hit by the energy, groaning as they slumped against the wall but didn’t completely go down.

With the explosion concluded and the remaining Numiri leaning against the walls, Jules stood up from his position and let the team around the junction all that was left was for them to stun the staggered soldiers and be on there way. He released several blasts from his rifle himself, ignoring the aim assist his helmet provided.

Cedrik was relieved that the fight had been quick and that they had worked together perfectly. Training was one thing, in practice was another. It reflected well on the squad as a whole and Julius as their leader.

Bri took particular pleasure in stunning a few of the still conscious Numiri, even kicking one in the face when he tried to weakly paw at her leg. She gave a growl that was amplified to sound much more animalistic by her helmet before she shot the alien. She did the same to two others before looking back to the squad. They’d finally been blooded and none of them had been injured or disabled, a fine little feather in their caps and she felt a swell of pride in her chest since she’d helped mold them into this unit.

Brandon too was feeling good about what they’d accomplished so far, though he was a bit more cautious and leery about what might be coming next than Bri was.

Jules cleared his throat, looking down at the unconscious Numiri soldiers. Something terrible would happen to them soon, of that he was certain. But he wasn’t going to be there when it did.

“Alright, people, good work. Let’s keep moving on.” he said, turning and leading the team in the same direction in which they had been going before.

For the moment, the squad found no more resistance, but the sounds up ahead had changed. There was much less noise now in fact outside of one steady sound - some sort of beam weapon. They made their way to the junction that would lead them to the place where the action was, but as they approached it was clear that they were expected. Their scans revealed at least a dozen Numiri were now set up in positions to cover both avenues of approach. Among them were three other armed Numiri who were standing by the large doors they were obviously trying to get through, but their focus was on the cutting beam.

Their skirmish hadn’t been silent, and now the rest were on high alert waiting on the attack they knew would be coming.

“Alright, people. If you look at your scans, you already know what’s up.” Jules stated, slowing his pace and, therefore, that of the group. “We’ve got a dozen Numiri waiting to smoke our asses, and we can only assume they know we’re coming. No element of surprise. Patrick, I’m looking for some munitions that might even the playing-field for us. What have you got?”

“Yes, yes! I have things for this!” Patrick declared in a much more enthusiastic tone than was appropriate to the situation. He knelt down and pulled off the large pack he was carrying and began to rifle through it. It was a mess. Suddenly he started pulling out small hand held objects. “I have flash grenades, smoke grenades, plasma grenades, ooo! I forgot I had this!” He pulled out a small box and opened it, lifting it up toward Julius with both hands as if he were making an offering to a king.

“Seeker bombs!”

“Easy, man. Be careful with that shit. You might have a death wish, but I sure as fuck don’t.” Jules said, leaning back from the erratic man. “Pick your poison and give it to them.”

“O-o-oh, okay.” Patrick looked down, crestfallen, but immediately perked back up and proceeded to pick up the smoke grenades.

“Here, take this.” He shoved a couple into Cedrik’s hands and the young man was mortified, immediately holding them out in front of him because how could he be sure what they were? Without waiting, Patrick peered around the corner and started throwing and the hallway where the Numiri were started filling with smoke that spread quickly. Once it was full, Patrick couldn’t help himself. Unthinking, he leapt out into the opening of the hall and let out an excited whoop which immediately turned into a grunt of pain as several pulses of energy weapon hit him in his chest. He staggered back, hit the wall, and immediately dropped. Fiona gave a slight sound of distress and Cedrik immediately cursed.

“Shit.”

“Godsdamnit, Pat!” Julius said loudly over comms. “Go go go!”

And the man charged first into the dense smoke of the hallway, using the technology in his helmet to see far more effectively than the Numiri would be able to. It was time to finish this mission and pick up the pieces, and they couldn’t check on Patrick until the Numiri were dead. He opened fire.

“Fucking moron!” Bri hissed as she watched Patrick jump out from cover before he was taken down by several blasts from their waiting enemy. She was going to personally ring his bell when they got back from the mission and make certain he understood that kind of move wasn’t something he could do. Demolitions genius or not. She moved to to try and find a spot that wouldn’t leave her a sitting duck like their demo man had stupidly made himself, though there wasn’t much there as she reached to her belt again and produced another photon grenade, syncing up with it via her suit and setting it to the highest stun setting and letting the suit do the work again as it calculated the best trajectory and assisted her with the throw.

“Imperial care package outgoing!” She used Marine slang for a hot grenade as it flew through the air as she started to return fire through the smoke. She heard the building whine of the grenade before it detonated with a bright red-orange flash followed by the heavy thump of several bodies hitting the ground as she continued to fire into the smoke.

Brandon cursed under his breath at Patrick’s foolishness. He could appreciate the other Squad member’s enthusiasm, but he was not only over zealous, but he was putting the entire Squad in danger by his actions and lack of thinking.

But, he wasn’t going to dwell on it. He’d let the powers that be deal with him. He had different priorities, like living, taking down as many of the enemy as possible and making a name for himself.

He stepped into the smoke filled hall hugging the wall. A beam came from a crouched figure he hadn’t noticed and he was slammed into the wall by a beam that struck him in the shoulder blade. It stung like hell, but he didn’t think his armor had been pierced.

He was tempted to switch to kill, who would know, but he maintained his discipline and returned fire. The Numri collapsed to the ground. Brandon continued to move forward.

Over the sound of fire being exchanged, a distinct sound of metallic groaning followed by a loud clang of metal hitting metal echoed down the hall. The sound of the cutting beam immediately stopped, and one of the Numiri could be heard barking orders. Three figures disappeared into the next room, then suddenly the squad's HUDs lit up with a sudden bright burst of heat and light. The explosion caused the Numiri to stop firing due to the unexpected shock for a few beats and then they started again, though there were decidedly less beams originating from their side now. The smoke was clearing and they could see two more Numiri disappear into the room they had broken into.

Jules and the squad pushed forward after the men who had retreated into the room. He could hear the breathing of his colleagues over comms, but all else was focus and drive until they achieved their mission.

Lyra pushed herself up off of the floor and supported herself on slightly shaking arms so she wasn't completely down as she had been a moment ago. Her ears were ringing and she couldn't hear a damn thing going on around her outside of the most muffled of sounds. She had been well aware of the consequences that would ensue when she overloaded the Numiri rifle to use as a makeshift bomb once they breached the door she had been hiding behind, but that didn't exactly make any of it better. Everything in her - all of the voices - screamed to stand and fight, but she simply couldn't physically do it anymore. When the Numiri rounded the console and looked down at her, it was all she could do to push herself back against the console so she was at least sitting up tall. She grit her teeth and growled at him like an animal as he leveled his rifle at her. Not even the pleasure of dying on her own two feet. She continued to stare up at him and watched as suddenly a bright orange beam impacted him in the chest, though she didn't get a chance to wonder about it given he had also been in the process of firing. The impact had caught the Numiri just as he had pulled the trigger and when his body jerked back so did his weapon. Instead of being caught point blank in the chest, she had been caught in the shoulder; a pained cry escaped her lips and her hand came up to cover it while her teeth gritted against the pain.

Jules stepped through the smoke, lowering his rifle as the rest of the squad came further into the room. His eyes rested on Lyra where she sat. His helmet told her nothing about who he was, but his name plate and size would.

“Fuck, Lieutenant. You look like shit.” He said, having turned the suit's external speaker on. “Fan out, everybody and search the room. We are going to start gathering Numiri soldiers in the next few minutes. Cedrik, check on the Lieutenant. Bri, get out there and take a look at Patrick.”

“Yes, sir.” Cedrik replied, already making his way down to where Lyra was sitting.

“Copy that Chief.” Bri replied before she looked over to Brandon and tapped his arm with his fist. “On me Tex, we’re checking the dumb fuck.”

Though no one could see him, but himself inside the suit, Brandon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I hope the bastard is okay, but that was stupid as hell.”

“Yeah, well if he’s living I’m going to make sure he wishes he was dead.” The last part of that sentence came out as a growl as she checked the hallways, scanning the area as she made her way back down to the body of their comrade. While it seemed like they had mopped up the Numiri resistance, they were still in an enemy base and she wanted to make sure there weren’t any other surprises. Once she reached the body, she wasn’t sanguine about his chances of being little more than a corpse by the seared holes riddling his armor, though she still had to check his vitals. She placed her fingers on the chest plate and it just confirmed the truth.

He was dead as everything was running flat.

“Chief, Patrick is dead, looks like weapons fire penetrated his chest plate, suggest talking with the engineers about double checking the plates to make sure its a one off.”

Brandon was tempted to double check, just to make sure Bri had got it right, but one glance at the prone figure quickly changed his mind. There was no doubt she was 100% right. The man was dead.

“I want to be part of the team that looks into that,” he said over the coms. “I’ve got a professional and personal interest in the outcome.” He did stop himself from saying anything derogatory about the corpse.

“Roger that Tex, I’ll make sure it happens.” Bri replied, her attention turning to Brandon as she began to gather up what needed to be on a living team member before standing and moving to check the unconscious Numiri, taking a moment to stun a couple that seemed to be coming back to the world around them.

“Fucking Skinks.” She growled, referring derogatorily to the Numiri by the name of a species of lizards from Earth.

Lyra was aware of something happening around her. When Julius had knelt down, she had been alarmed and hadn’t recognized him, but something about the voice even through her ringing ears had made her hesitate from giving any sort of reaction; it was familiar but she couldn’t place it, and she hadn’t even considered looking for any sort of name plate. When he left and the second individual knelt down before her, her anxiety spiked again and she started to try and move away.

“Lieutenant? Lieutenant Cassiel, it’s alright.” Cedrik tried to reason with her and reached out toward her only to have her strike out with her hand at him and nearly fall back to the floor in the process. He caught her and she fought his grip, but she simply didn’t have it in her to be effective at all. He touched the side of his helmet with one hand to activate the medical scanner embedded there; it would feed the same information to him as a medical tricorder. Immediately, he frowned behind his helmet.

“Julius, we need to get her back to the ship right now! I need the pattern enhancers here on the double.”

Between the Lieutenant being in critical condition and Patrick having gotten himself killed, Jules was more than a bit irritated. He was, however, a soldier and a fighter, and he knew how to work under pressure. He went to the pack at his back and removed the pattern enhancer. Fiona saw him moving and got the hint quickly, reaching into her back and getting the other two. They placed them on the outside of the room quickly. When it was finished, Jules spoke to Vengeance.

“Shadow Squad to Vengeance. We have Lieutenant Cassiel and she needs immediate medical attention. We have one dead man, Patrick O’Conner. We need an immediate beam up and a clean up team to be sent down to take control of the base.”

“Shadow Squad, this is Vengeance.” Came the voice of an operations officer. “Prepare for beam-out.”

“Beam Lieutenant Cassiel, Corporal O’Conner, and myself to sickbay immediately.”

“Copy that, Chief.” Bryana had come back to the room where they’d found Lyra in, carrying Patrick’s corpse with her as she laid it down outside of the Lieutenant’s view, she knew their commander was a strong, capable woman. But she didn’t know what the Skinks had done to her here but seeing a corpse likely wouldn’t he a good thing for her in her current condition from what she could tell, there was already enough trauma.

She’d seen enough Terran women who’d been taken by the Orions, which only made her want to find more of the Numiri and take out her rage on them so they could understand the enormity of their mistake. She set up the pattern enhancer next, looking to make sure that the others had done.

The rest of the enhancers placed, it was only seconds later that the blue light engulfed the Terran officers to see them swiftly home.

----

Cedrik appeared in sickbay with the body of Patrick at his feet and still holding onto Lyra. The medical staff was all gathered to tend to their officers both fallen and living, but as one of the nurses stepped forward, Lyra began to squirm and fight again. “Lieutenant, calm down. You’re alright.”

Cedrik’s attempt to comfort and calm her fell on deaf ears. Everything was blurring together in an amalgamation of light and noise and that smell that she hated. Lyra saw some familiar faces, but then they would shift or move and be strangers again. Her anxiety and adrenaline spiked again, her heart was flying. She was so tired; her heart was tired. She looked terrifying; all over her hands and around her mouth and chin were covered in black Numiri blood while the left side of her face and head were washed in the red of her own blood. Her eyes were wide with alarm and fight. She pulled against Cedrik, still looking around until finally her eyes fell on a familiar face that didn’t immediately shift to something else.

“Mika…” Lyra breathed out hoarsely and tried to move toward the younger woman but was stopped by Cedrik. A pained look crossed her face and she spoke again with a slight note of desperation. “Mika, where is Andrei?”

Mika Petrova had been managing the handling of Patrick’s lifeless body, yet another tragic happening in this quadrant. When she heard her voice called in a strained voice, she turned around and set her eyes on Lyra’s shocking presence. She managed to fall back on her training as a doctor and to keep the look of horror off her face, but just barely. She was sensitive and could hardly hide it. Stepping toward Lyra, she put her hand gently on the woman’s shoulder.

“We’ll get you fixed up, Lyra, don’t worry.” she reassured, even though it hadn’t been asked of her. “Andrei is still on Banea. I’m not sure why he didn’t beam up, but there probably wasn’t time. We broke orbit as soon as we got your signal.”

Mika could see that Lyra was focusing very hard on her words as if she were having to do that to understand what she was saying. After a beat, Lyra’s features suddenly relaxed and she swayed dangerously then collapsed against Cedrik who scooped her up with ease in his arms. He held her against his chest and then turned his attention to Brasken for where to go.

Daniel’s fingers worked his tricorder to get as basic a triage as possible before looking to Cedrik with a nod. “Surgical bay two, now.”

Without more acknowledgement than a nod, Cedrik moved quickly to the appointed area.

Now, it was up to the doctors.

OFF