Boarding Team Alpha: Boomtown Rats | Part II

Posted on Tue Mar 27th, 2018 @ 4:08am by Commander K'Niras Sh'howul & Lieutenant Junior Grade Shras th'Zarath & Lieutenant Junior Grade Ethan O'Donoghue & Chief Petty Officer Alphonso Phillips

Mission: S01E02 D-8 With the Devil
Location: Boreth Klingon Shipyard / D-8 Prototype Battlecruiser

ON:

K'Niras turned down the empty hallway and started to make his way forward, phaser raised. He had stopped looking at his tricorder to be able to focus on the hallway at hand. They were halfway to the room K'Niras had proposed earlier when suddenly several Klingon's came around the corner up ahead of them. The Klingon in the lead was armed with a long, wicked looking knife and probably a disruptor. K'Niras dropped to one knee quickly, so he wasn't in the way of shooters behind him, as the giant Klingon roared in anger.

It was only a split second from the tricorder that Philips had in his left hand detecting the Klingons till the first round was down range. As the Klingon began to yell out, Philips put the first round through his open mouth and out the back of his thick skulled head, catching the second Klingon somewhere around his ear. A mere irritation for Klingon number two, but the first one dropped his blade and grabbed his own throat. The third round rang out and caught the first Klingon in the eye, and he dropped like a bag of dumbbells in the path of the others. Phaser and gunfire rang out in the hallway. Thank God the element of surprise was on our side, thought Philips as he quickly reloaded as the phasers kept them busy! There were other members of the away team following the protocol of using the .45, he just hoped they had become better marksmen than they had been before he arrived!

With his weapon now housing a full clip, he began indiscriminately shooting Klingons that had previously been stunned, but they were still advancing.

EJ Followed K'Niras round the corner, there was an empty hallway. EJ Had his phaser raised. He saw the Klingons coming a mile off. Hearing the yells, EJ stiffened up. Balling his fists to calm himself down. Breathing, he looked up in a dark raging manner. Raising his phaser as he moved, he returned fire, dodging disrupter fire as he did so. He managed to hit one in the shoulder, it dropped with a clunk.

K'Niras moved back a little, under the cover of fire and leveled his phaser rifle. He only got off a few shots before the encounter was over and they were out of Klingons in sight to shoot. The blood in the hallway and the gases in the air from the ship had long overwhelmed the Caitian's sense of smell, so he really wasn't much help predicting if more were soon to follow or not. Either way, when the firing stopped, he quickly made his way to the open doorway leading into the next room and peered around that corner. When he saw no one immedately, he motioned for the team to follow him quickly. "Cover me..." He dropped down almost to all fours and darted into the room, straight towards the nearest computer terminal.

EJ lay down covering fire for K'niras. "Keep going Lieutenant! I got this!" he said, firing off a few more phaser rounds. The klingons moved forward. "Freaking dogs," EJ muttered under his breath as he took some cover. He popped out for a fraction of a second to return to fire, hitting a Klingon directly in the chest. "Guys keep returning fire, we need to give K'niras time to do what he needs to," he said, as he returned fire again, hitting another directly in head.

Shras nodded, leveled his phaser and began to blasting. He drew his Ushaan too, just in case it came to that. In between ducking for cover he laid down the best suppressing fire that he could.

Philips twisted to his left and felt a pain. It would seem he had been grazed by a blast of some sort. But how the hell do you get grazed by a blast? You either get hit or you don't. It was now apparent that his body armour had disrupted the disruptor blast. It wasn't common for them to wear body armour, but using a forty five handgun wasn't normal either, but here he was with gun in hand. He holstered his weapon from his right hand, reached into his pocket and grabbed a kerchief which was big enough to cover the area of the blast. The shooting has slowed to probing fire from his people and finishing off the few Klingons who clung to life. He laughed to himself after thinking it. Klingons clinging to life! "Ha ha he!" he blurted out. Anyone seeing him would, of course, think he had lost his mind.

As Phillips pressed his left arm against his ribbed area to hold the kerchief, he motioned to whoever was behind him to move up beside him and help out. A crewman that he was not real familiar with did so and they reconsolidated their ammo, took stock of the situation and moved forward to be with the rest of the team. As the Caitian did his thing, Philips and the crewman formed a rear guard. "I HAVE OUR SIX. Hurry up!" yelled Philips, the pain in his side starting to grow increasingly more intolerable.

K'Niras growled in frustration, his clawed hands clicking on the surface of the computer interface. "I'm going as fast as I can! Everything is encrypted!" the Caitian yelled back. He was glad that at least they weren't continuing to be under constant fire, although he was on edge, the raised fur along his spine rubbed against the back of his uniform, making him itch. The Klingon's systems weren't complicated, not any more than Starfleet's, but he was being asked to break into the security and weapons system, and the Klingon's, like Starfleet, didn't give that kind of access to just anyone.

In frustration to go faster K'Niras knelt and pulled open a compartment roughly, exposing wires and computer chips. He yanked a few and tried the console again. He repeated this process several times and then made a successful noise in the back of his throat, something between a purr and a growl. "GOT IT! But they're gonna definitely come for us now! Let's move people!" He motioned for them to rally around. "I know the way to the ship." He did a quick, visual sweep of his team.

The Tellarite squealed blissfully pleased with the Klingon carnage around him. They were doing it! They were going to stop this war or at the very least slow it down. Today was a day for the Federation. Crewmen Truff walked up behind Cadet Bartowski and gave him a hoofed hand on the shoulder, a pat on the back. "We did it, Kid!" he proclaimed triumphantly. Though the cadet was not much younger than the Tellarite.

Crewmen Truff eagerly rushed ahead taking point. "Then let's haul ass!" he shouted when K'Niras announced that he knew the way to the prototype battlecruiser. Truff was not too far ahead when the reddish amber color flashed just ahead of him. Klingon transporters. He brought his phaser up instantly, but it was too late to do anything.

The horrific sound of a deathly shriek echoed down the dozens of corridors of the shipyard. It was eerily similar to the sound a pig made in a slaughterhouse. The Crewmen was foolhardy and running off of a euphoric surge of adrenaline. He had rushed right into the beaming site of a bunch of Klingon warriors. One of them acted swiftly with a D'k tahg in hand, thrusting it into the Tellarite's chest and ripping it downward in a curved motion, disemboweling the Tellarite who let out the blood curdling shriek as he met death's cold embrace, his weight and gravity carrying him down to the hard deck plating with a reverberating THUMP of practically dead weight. Somehow, he clung to life long enough to see and feel the pool of hot Tellarite blood touch his cheek. I'm sorry, was all he could think of. Sorry to his family for being a disappointment and sorry to everyone who warned him not to be so hot headed and to think before he acted. He was sorry for so much, but now it was too late for sorry. His eyes began to look stoic and pale as his gaze fell onto to EJ and the others.

K'Niras watched Truff move away from the group sidelong while he gathered his thoughts for a moment. It was only a moment. A deep breath and he looked away from the Tellarite for one moment. "Son of a..." He once again dropped to one knee and slung the phaser rifle up on one shoulder and fired into the group of Klingons. The first shot caught the front Klingon in the head and threw him backwards into his mates.

For Philips in that moment, the pain left him. Adrenaline shot through his body and he lunged forward instinctively drawing his other weapon. He began to engage targets that someone else had already shot with a phaser rifle, this shot from his .45 would ensure they never recovered from either. One fell, then another and another. First a shot from his right hand, then a shot from his left hand and each round hitting its target like a trained assassin would. Though he could not claim that title, Philips was poetry in motion. After the eighth round was gone, his bolt locked to the rear. He smoothly grabbed another mag with two fingers. Placed it in the now empty well of his gun and pushed it home. The slide flew forward. He repeated the action on his second weapon. The same result. Now to find another target. He looked and he waited. Those that had beamed in were wounded dead or in the process of dying. But they had lost the Tellerite, and that was one too many. Instinctively he reached down grabbed his empty mags and shoved them in his pocket. The brass would remain, as there was no time to pick it up. "Regroup!" He yelled out, triggering some mental awareness in the rest of the team he hoped, as they all began to move.

EJ was worried. He kept firing. "GUYS GET MOVING! I'LL HOLD THE REST OF THEM OFF!" he shouted to the rest of the team. He hated leaving the rest of the team behind, but somehow he knew it was the right thing to do, they weren't going to get out of here unless someone stayed behind to give them covering fire.

Surveying the carnage, the team had managed to lose one man and take down four Klingons. All of which who would be missed. They needed to leave this spot immediately! Thought Philips as the pain in his left side returned. He winced in pain but brushed it off! He could hurt properly when he got back to the ship. For now, they needed to get the hell out of here! Find the ships they needed to destroy and teleport out!

K'Niras rose, shouldering the phaser rifle again and headed in the direction of their next target, the ship. "No Ensign O'Donoghue! You will stay with the group, but bring up the rear. We keep moving!" He hated to leave Truff's body where it was, but at the moment he had no choice. He could not overthink it now or it would be over for all of them. He motioned for the team to follow him quickly. "KEEP MOVING! NOW O'DONOGHUE! Make sure we don't get shot in the ass."

Philips was close to EJ, so he called out to him. "EJ, move, I got your back. We bound just like we were trained. No one stays behind, now past me. Take up a good cover spot and cover me whilst I move to you." Philips knew he did not need to tell EJ this, but in moments of high stress we sometimes forget our basic training, and words that made sense brought it all back. Besides, Philips was older than EJ and was not about to let the younger man put his life on the line whilst a salty old dog like him was still around. Philips covered him until he got past him and moving in the right direction!

EJ listened to the Chief. "UNDERSTOOD SIR!" he said, taking up the rear of the group. "Aye Phillips, don't worry I'll get us outta here," he said, moving past Phillips. The Klingons occasionally appeared behind them as they followed the Lieutenant, to try and stop the group. Returning fire, he shot one that was verging on them. "Uhhh... Lieutenant we have a little problem I have one Klingon on my tail wanting hand to hand combat!" he said returning fire as he ran.

"Then shoot him!" K'Niras said over his shoulder. He led the team down a series of hallways and then stopped abruptly in front of a pair of double doors. They seemed to be locked. Fortunately, they had taken care of any Klingons that were following them. He immedately began to work on getting the door open. He glanced at the team, taking stock of who was there and what condition they were in. He could smell blood, but he wasn't sure if it was from his team or from the Klingons.

Philips leaned against the wall applying pressure to his wound. It's wasn't as bad as it looked, but he's was taking no chances. "If you're smelling blood my Catian friend, it's mine. But I'm fine. Let's just get through this and get out of here," replied Philips his hands covered in his own blood.

K'Niras frowned. "It won't do... I have a dermal regenerator and a hypospray with pain killer." He pulled both from his bag on his hip and approached Phillips. "Cover us for a moment... we can't let you just bleed to death. You'll still need medical attention." He tried to push the human's hands away from the wound. "It won't take but a moment."

Philips knew better than to argue with him. After all it was his life force that was seeping down his side and messing up his really cool black Close quarter combat gear. "Ok, but make it quick. We don't have the luxury of time." He grimaced realising that this was as good a place as any to receive first aid. As the team member worked on him, he could fill himself growing weaker. He grabbed the nozzle of his water bottle that was just over his shoulder. The combination of cool water, laced with vitamins and nutrients in this energy producing drink made him feel better. B6, B12, fruit juices and the most up to date stuff he could find to replace electrolytes was in this drink. It gave him the boost he would need to carry on and complete this mission. Now, he was ready for round two. "You done my friend?" He asked as the color came back to his face.

K'Niras was working fast and did the best he could with what he had, but he was not a medic. For a moment, while he worked, he thought that Phillips would lose consciousness, but when he didn't and color returned to his face, K'Niras felt better about his ability to move on. "I can't spare you or I would send you back to the ship now..." he said softly, his large, golden-green eyes staring at Chief. "I'm done... let's move it out! We're close..." He pulled his PaDD and opened what maps he had, orienting himself quickly. "This way..." The Caitian shouldered the phaser rifle and started off. The Chief Petty Officer put one hand on his shoulder. "Don't you worry about me, just don't stop doing what you're doing. I got your back!" The Catian continued forward.

Shras had his phaser leveled, just in case. He was learning more about combat. His attention was divided however regarding how Phillips was doing. His eyes were scanning for Klingons, however.

Philips took a deep breath, a strong pull on his energy drink and unholstered his second weapon. He whispered to no one in particular, "Let's do this." Watching their rear, he took up a position once they came to a halt.

K'Niras led the way down the hallway quickly, with his tricorder out. At the end of the hallway was a blind right turn and he took it carefully. The hallway they turned in to was short, but defendable. It also placed the team directly in front of two large doors. K'Niras checked the door controls. "So this is locked..." he said quietly. "Anyone know how to pick locks?"

"I do," said Philips, and he came forward. He took out his tricorder after holstering his weapons and began scanning the door as the tricorder acted as a X-ray machine. He followed the workings knowing that all locks worked on the same principle. Leverage and interlocking pieces. So once he found the interlocking part he needed, he located what it was next to and began tracing it to were it made contact with the wall. Finding what he was looking for, he took out his phaser put it to the most refined beam possible and turned it up so that it acted like a plasma knife. It took a minute, but it finally cut through the outer shell of the door. Through the smoke, Philips spoke. "When I trip the lever, I don't know what alarms will be tripped or who is on the other side. So weapons at the ready, and watch your immediate front and chose your targets judiciously!" As he looked to each of them in turn, they were ready. He put the phaser away and grabbed his Colt. Checked the mag and reinserted it in the mag well and pushed it forward until it clicked, charged a round and smiled. "It's time to blow shit up!" And he flipped the lever.

EJ was bringing up the rear of the rear of group. The Klingons were still hot on their heels. He laughed to himself "These guys are really thick Huh?" he shouted to the rest of the group as he continued his barrage of suppressing fire. He ran up to back of the group, catching them with ease as Phillips sorted the door. Covering the rest of the team, as he cut through the door with his phaser. "Always good to have a professional lock picker on the team," he said winking at the master of arms, as a barrage of disruptor fire came round the corner, Poking his head round the corner he saw another two Klingons. "Guys keep going we got two more bogies," he said as came round the corner, half with his arm out, firing directly at the Klingons' vital organs.

When the doors opened, klaxons sounded and the team found themselves standing in front of a giant walkway that went almost all the way around the ship that was in space dock. It was a rather impressive sight. Clear force fields kept them from being exposed to open space. There were several docking ramps that went out to the prototype. K'Niras took in the view quickly and swallowed the knot in his stomach that he always felt when he was confronted with open space with no bridge between him and it. He laid his ears back to protect his sensitive hearing from the very loud alarm. He picked the closest docking ramp. "This way!"

As K'Niras led the way to the docking ramp, Klingons that were working on the ship began to arm themselves and make their way quickly toward the team. Instead of pulling the phaser rifle this time, K'Niras settled for the hand held and unstrapped it from his side, raising it just in time to fire, with deadly accuracy, at the first group of Klingons advancing on them. "Keep firing and keep moving forward!" he yelled to his team over the sound of the alarm and the disruptor fire of the advancing Klingons.

As EJ herd the klaxons, he rushed forward, keeping up as fast as he could, handheld phaser at the ready. Following K'niras up ramp, he proceeded to fire at one of the Klingons. "Quite the sight Lieutenant!" he said, firing at another one. One Klingon marched forward almost knocking EJ off the ramp. Spinning round, he clocked the Klingon in the leg, with a sweeping leg kick. Returning to his feet, his phaser aimed directly between the Klingon's eyes, switching it from stun to kill in one swift move. "A mharú nó a mharú," he spoke in his native Irish Gaelic, as he squeezed the trigger on his phaser. Returning to the upright position, he pointed at another Klingon. "Do ar aghaidh," he spoke again, taunting the Klingon in a dialect it would not understand nor care to.

K'Niras nodded in response as they made their way slowly forward and onto the prototype. There were Klingon's on board, but the Caitian led the group into a space they could defend while they prepared the explosives. He knelt and unzipped the bag he'd been carrying, along with the phaser rifle. Inside the bag were enough explosives to send the prototype back to the drawing board. "I have the detonation device, but first we have to set these up." There were ten little explosives. They were very powerful despite their size and they attached easily to just about anything. K'Niras pulled up his PaDD and opened the map of the D-7 battlecruiser. "So this is all I have... and we have ten of these... where do we put them?" He had marked a few places on the map, but once again, he wasn't an Engineer.

Cadet Senior Year Charles Bartowski, who had been quiet for most of the mission, stood from his crouched position and turned his back to the oncoming Klingons, to have a look at what K'Niras was showing the group. His standing motion attracted attention and only seconds later he cried out as disruptor fire ripped through his right arm and shoulder. The Cadet hit the ground and K'Niras shoved everything aside to get to Bartowski as fast as possible. The Cadet was still conscious, but in obvious pain. Knowing that he could not expect this boy to go on, K'Niras grabbed his comm and flipped it open. "K'Niras to Musashi! We need Cadet Bartowski transported back immedately for medical attention!" The comm clicked and sputtered, but the Cadet shimmed and was gone. The third injury. It inspired K'Niras to move faster and get the rest of the team to safety as soon as possible.

With a weapon in each hand, CPO Philips stood up, fired 6 or 7 rounds and got down again next to the Caitian. "Show me," he said with authority. As they tipped the device so he could see the plans of the ship in front of them, he gazed at it and orientated it in his head with what they were looking at. He began tucking the explosives into his tunic. "Ok, it's not rocket science. I'm going to put these explosives in places where I think according to this drawing here they will do the most good. While I'm doing that you will be firing holy hell at the Klingons to make them keep their heads down. Chances are I'm gonna get hit at least once, maybe twice. My body armour should be able to take it. If they don't set off the explosives that is. Whatever happens, once I'm done, you get them to beam me back cause I'll most likely need more first aid. Once I'm gone, you detonate at the same time you transport out. Piece of cake." he said, looking for approval from the team. And then raising and shooting three more times in a bid to even the odds. As he got down, no one said anything, so he did. "On my Mark. Everybody load up and get ready. Phasers to maximum and 45s at the ready. When I say go, start firing at anything that moves over there." He secured the explosives and yelled."GO." And he darted out from behind cover and began to run.

K'Niras nodded in agreement. "We will follow your lead and cover you." When Phillips said "go" he followed the human backwards down the hallway so he could fire behind him and lay down suppressive fire.

Every Klingon present saw what was about to happen. A few even got shots off. Philips was like a man possessed. He ran like The Great Walter Payton trying to get a first down on third and long, fourth quarter and down by 3 points. With ten seconds left in the game. He managed to get the first explosive in a place that would cause massive damages if there was fuel in the Ship. He faked right and ran left as his team rained havoc on the astonished Klingons. One of whom set out after him. And was very close until a phaser rifle blast toppled him. Explosives number two and three were then thrown into place by Philips as he took a glancing shot from a disruptor. He went down but quickly got back up and started again. Another two explosives in place. He had reached a point of no return, and where the team would find it hard to protect him as he instinctively knew would happen. But he focused on the task at hand when he realized he only had a few charges left to place. He dove for cover and threw the charges toward the ship. They made contact and the rest was up to the team! He began protecting himself by firing everything he had.

K'Niras stuck to his hand-held phaser because it was much easier to run and shoot with. The ship was massive and it was very close to finished, or at least too close for K'Niras' comfort. Running the entire length of the vessel was difficult and took time. They were also hounded by Klingons much of the way.

EJ followed close behind K'Niras, looking behind them. There was gaggle of Klingons behind them. "Why won't these dogs die already," he said facing behind him and firing off a few rounds of his phaser. EJ was muttering in Irish Gaelic. Something he was found of doing in high combat situations. "Lieutenant, how much time do we have till extraction?" he asked as he fired off a few more rounds. "Díreach bás le haghaidh grá na déithe," he spoke under his breath, the loose translation in English is "just die for the love of the gods". Firing off a few more rounds from his phaser he rounded a corner.

"There is no set time, Ensign. When we are done we will signal the Musashi for extraction," the Caitian answered. He stood at the end of the corridor, until the team was around the corner and then ducked around the corner himself, jogging to catch back up. Phillips was moving fast. Faster than K'Niras expected someone with an injury to go.

Philips fell in with the rest of the team. Fired a couple more rounds dropped his mags and reloaded. "That's what you call a Hail Mary where I come from. Boss these explosives are ready, we're burning daylight. Call for extraction with a 2 second delay on my beam out and I'll set off the charges. There's no need for us all to be in that danger," said Philips, remarkably calm for what he was proposing.

K'Niras shook his head at Phillips. "The detonation needs a command code. I'll handle it, but let's do get out of here." He opened his comm device. "Away team to Musashi. We need extraction. Three to beam back and I will need a several second delay on my teleportation."

Once the team had all disappeared into the swirl of blue that was teleportation, K'Niras pulled out the detonation PaDD and entered the command codes it required for detonation. He took a deep breath, looked around, and tapped the button. The explosions started at the opposite end from him, but the ship rocked hard with the first blast and K'Niras had to steady himself. He closed his eyes, praying for transport soon. He felt the heatwave coming as explosions continued to rock the ship. He even had a brief moment of panic that he might die on this Klingon ship, when he felt the cool, clean air of the Musashi again. He opened his eyes slowly to see the ends of his whiskers curling from the heat. He let out a relieved breath of air and smiled at the Transporter operator on duty. "Well... that was close."

:END