The Final Revenge
Posted on Fri Mar 27th, 2015 @ 7:20am by Lieutenant Augustus Deakin & Oleran Telan & Amelia Darby & Commander Jordan Gunning & Lieutenant Yzhara & Zezz'a & Valia
Mission:
Sins of Lives Past
Location: Nameless Planetoid [Underground]
Timeline: After 'Pursuit Course'
The beam in site was cramped, dirty and bereft of any distinguishing feature save for a light strip that bathed it in an ominous orange light. The room was walled on three sides with the fourth open to a ramp that descended further below the surface on a steep gradient.
But the light wasn’t the only thing of interest in the small entry chamber, though it was the most visible. Two other pieces of technology were occupied within the walls. The first was the transport inhibitor, which had just deactivated itself when it received the correct signal from orbit.
The second piece of technology wasn’t apparent until a moment after a transporter beam reassembled the molecules of a six-person Starfleet away team. The intruder alarm system screamed to life and a deep, chilling klaxon sounded throughout the base.
Amelia Darby was just becoming aware of her surroundings when the klaxons sounded. As soon as the annular confinement beam released her from its grasp, she cursed and bolted to a wall panel, thumping it with her fist to expose the access terminal behind it. “Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!”
Gunning's phaser seemed to snap directly into his hand as he tried to peer down the ramp into the dingy glow beyond. "What the hell is that, Darby?!"
“Sorry, Commander, I forgot about that,” Darby shrugged. “I was stunned unconscious not long ago.”
"Sure, blame the stun. Can you turn it off?!" Gunning felt as though his voice was dissipating in the wail of the klaxon, unsure how loud he was really shouting.
The intelligence officer was wrist deep in the access panel, reaching for the right isolinear chip sequence until finally, with a grunt of triumph, she completed the circuit and the klaxons stopped. She turned and looked at Gunning. "Yes."
"All of you on me!" Gunning shouted, heading off down the ramp and forcing Darby into a run to catch up, all the while cursing their loss of the element of surprise.
[Meanwhile, elsewhere in the base...]
Deep in the bowels of the base, the klaxons boomed loud enough to rouse Deakin from the blinding haze he had existed in for the last few hours, days, weeks. How long had it been?
“What is that?” Telan shrieked, standing up in fright at the sound. He had been so engrossed in what he was doing, which was testing his painstick in different areas of Deakin’s body.
"Perimeter alarm!" Zezz'a shouted over the wail. "Unauthorised transport in the main entryway!"
Telan's eyes widened and fury filled his face. "That's impossible! How could they find this place?" he said, but continued before the Reman could respond. "Get out there! Get the Romulan and stop them!"
Zezz'a immediately took off, haring down the tight corridors in search of his colleague Valia. "Valia! Valia! Starfleet are here! Grab your disruptor!"
Valia was not far away, and reacted to the situation far more calmly than her Reman friend. "Really Zezz'a? How long have we known each other? Do you really think I would go anywhere without my disruptor." She pulled the disruptor pistol from the holster on her hip and followed Zezz'a down the corridors.
The Tellarite turned away from the Reman before he had left, focusing once again on Deakin. "This might be the end of our time together, old friend," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. He smiled and patted Deakin on the head then walked around him to some cabinets on the far wall.
Deakin tried to turn to see what Telan was doing, but couldn't get a good look. He had opened something metallic and was rummaging. He heard what sounded like a zipper and a quiet, simple beep.
[In the corridor, approaching the main room]
Old habits died hard for Gunning and he cracked a half smile as the first disruptor bolt ripped into the wall behind him, sending dust flying everywhere. Everyone on the away team was combat proficient officer and as he threw himself behind a stack of alloy crates, he could just make out the others taking positions through the haze.
"Lower your weapons!" Gunning shouted over the hail of gunfire. He caught a brief flash of the last time he had been pinned down in a tight corridor and his arm began to smart. He shouted louder. "Lower your weapons and you will not be harmed!"
The volleys of disruptor fire began to become faster- almost like a gatling gun- something he didn't like the sound of. He shrugged to himself. You asked for it. "Fire!"
Suddenly five bright beams of orange light burst from the Type-II phasers carried by the away team as they began to pin down their attackers.
Yzhara kept her guard up as she advanced forward in the dark tunnels. The poor lighting and clouds of dust made no difference to her as far as visibility was concerned, though she had no doubt that her shipmates were significantly burdened. As they raced down the ramp, Yzhara's antennae twitched in several different directions, her eyes shifting around to look at nothing in particular. Suddenly she shouted to the others to take cover. "Get down! There's still two of them!" She hunkered down to make herself a smaller target as disruptor fire started streaming over their heads once again.
With all the dust that was being thrown up by the missed shots, Gunning could barely see his hand in front of his face, let alone how many assailants there were.
The phaser fire burst out again. There was a thud. The disruptor fire seemed to stop. Gunning motioned forwards.
The away team followed Gunning through the gloom. Darby peered into the haze at the shapes on the floor near where they once stood in cover. One was clearly the Reman, Zezz'a. The other, propped up against the wall a couple of metres deeper in, had to be Valia. A part of her was pleased; she never liked that pair and they certainly didn't like her. She looked ahead to where the team was already heading.
Only one of them left now.
[Inside Telan's Room]
The cacophony of weapons fire stopped as suddenly as it began. Deakin, utterly exhausted from the intense pain inflicted by Telan and that wretched painstick, was beginning to feel hope. He hadn't felt it since the first beating administered by that monstrous Reman. His every muscle, every bone, every fibre of his being was aching. His body screamed out for mercy, but he had refused to give Telan the satisfaction.
Deakin had vowed that this insignificant little weasel of a creature would not be the end of him. He just wished it didn't hurt so much.
His restraints suddenly slackened and he was able to move. His first attempt at moving his arm sent searing bolts of pain through his body. Not yet, he said to himself. He had to recover a little at least.
Telan was standing a little behind and to the right of his prisoner. The disruptors weren't firing. That could only mean that the Starfleeters had gotten past Valia and Zezz'a. A dark humour rose up within him as he traced the mechanism's release trigger with his right thumb. In his left hand he had a disruptor pistol leveled at the back of Deakin's head. It was perfect. Not only his prize, but a whole squad of extras would go with them. This will do nicely, he thought as he imagined the image the Starfleeters would see when they entered.
"It's almost over, Augustus," he said as the door started to open.
A phaser came through the door first, closely followed by Gunning who thrust it toward Telan while keeping half an eye on Deakin. "Oleran Telan- you are under arrest. Gus. It's okay, we're here."
A maniacal chuckle bubbled out of Telan's mouth and he shook with a strange kind of madness. "Oh, I don't think so, Starfleet!" he said. He held up the release trigger in his right hand and waved it about before holding it perfectly still at eye level. "Do you know what this is? Hmm?"
"Oh my God," Darby gasped when she recognised what Telan was wearing. The trigger in his hand connected to a vest packed with explosives. "It's a bomb," she added, purposefully injecting calm into her voice and not allowing her phaser to drop even a millimetre. "Release trigger. Easily powerful enough to take out this whole base."
The Tellarite nodded slowly, his grin below bulging eyes the stuff of nightmares. Suddenly, he closed his thumb on the trigger. The unit on his chest beeped as it received the signal, arming it. It would detonate if Telan's thumb came off the trigger. He laughed. "What are you going to do now, Starfleet?"
The silence was deafening. Jordan glanced round at the others, all of whom seemed to be trying to work out a way to remain stoic in the face of certain death.
"I'll tell you what you're going to do," Telan said as he strolled around behind Deakin, still sitting half dead in the chair at the centre of the room. "You're going to join my good friend, Augustus and me."
Deakin was watching out of the corner of his eye, waiting for an opportunity. When Telan walked around him, bringing the release trigger closer in the process, that opportunity presented itself.
"None of us," Telan was saying, his eyes locked squarely with Gunning's, "are getting off this rock alive."
The movement was swift and brutal, catching everybody by surprise. Deakin launched himself at Telan, knocking the disruptor away with his shoulder and grabbing Telan's trigger hand in both hands, squeezing tight to keep the trigger down. Telan screamed as his hands were crushed in Deakin's great fists.
"Go!" Deakin called back to Gunning and his team as he struggled with Telan, who had recovered from the shock and was showing surprising strength. "I can't hold it long! Get to the surface! Get out of here!"
Gunning's eyes widened and he saw the desperate look in Deakin's. He was bloodied, beaten and looked for all the world to be at death's door, before he had used all of his force to overpower Telan. Now Gunning had no choice- the only way that he and his crew were getting off this rock was to leave the man they had come to save to die.
"Go, go, go!" He shouted at the stricken officers surrounding him, their faces gaunt with shock, as he reached the door he turned back to the stramash ongoing on the ground. "I'm sorry Gus."
Deakin watched them go without a trace of regret; he wasn't going to allow this madman to kill his friends. Telan was gaining some ascendancy in their struggle, but Deakin still held the upper hand. He made brief eye contact with Gunning as the commander apologised. He didn't say a word, merely nodded; nothing needed to be said. One professional to another, each knowing that they had the respect of the other. Both would have done the same thing if they were in the other's shoes.
It had to be done.
Lieutenant Augustus Deakin [KIA]
Chief Operations Officer
Commander Jordan Gunning
Officer in Command
Lieutenant Yzhara [NPC: Von]
Flight Operations Officer
Lieutenant Amelia Darby [NPC: Deakin]
Starfleet Intelligence Asset
