Wellington - Not So Warm Welcome
Posted on Wed May 11th, 2022 @ 1:46pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Captain Dirk Taggart & Lieutenant JG Emony Kyl
Edited on on Wed May 11th, 2022 @ 1:46pm
Mission: The Koldaran Encounter
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The stench of death no longer lingered, it permeated everything. The smell of decomposing flesh was on the breeze and the Acehayan lack of windows meant the smell drifted through the cloisters. Beyond the walls of the temple the battle continued, the sound of weapon fire echoed from outside, easily overshadowing the sound of the Acehaya prayers being sung by the clerics that roved the perimeter of the outer cloister, setting candles and lamps of scented oils to try and offset the smell of death.
At the sound of the transporters, the various crew members immediately responded, the shout of "WEAPONS!" again rang across the room, echoing within the chamber as phasers and rifles were drawn and aimed. Though they had no indication that the Koldaran would even try to transport into the temple, there was still no way anyone was going to take a chance and risk complacency.
Though her phaser was already in her hand, it was a moment after they rematerialized on the surface that Shaille had reupholstered it, holding her hands up. “Woah,” she shook her head. “We’re the good guys, I promise!”
The first to respond was the binary form of Rostra Tang, the mission advisor and second in command of the Wwellington. Hers was a far more expected response from the Dalacari, as she put her hands up, “Whoa whoa whoa, please don’t shoot.” she requested. Well, ‘requested’ is a strong word, but she made her case strong. “Rostra Tang, Ship Executive, Citizen six three eight two c… oh nevermind.”
Next on the list was an interesting being. Hunched slightly, animalistic in appearance, with striking black and blue fur and an artificial left limb that might actually be the oldest thing on this planet. Including the planet! That thing was ancient. “Whoa whoa, same team, same team.” he held his hands up as well.
Given the phaser fuelled reception that they received, Siobahn found herself glad that she was both unarmed and well behind Rostra and Cor as they arrived on the surface. Face to face with that many weapons and the young medical officer may have just passed out cold. At least this way she had a chance to catch her breath as everything happened around them.
Hailey Weston had dropped to one knee right before they’d transported down, being one of the heavier armed of the Wellington crew, rifle ready to go just in case they dropped right in the pot. As they rematerialized, her eyes flicked around as she noted the phasers pointed at them, but didn’t alter her stance immediately, weapon aimed between two of them. As the others reacted in ways that indicated the new arrivals were friendlies, she slowly shifted her gaze around to not startle the ones that had been here a while. She shifted her rifle’s aim towards the ground just as slowly as she took in the surroundings.
The callout had Emony grabbing what cover she could and bringing her rifle to bear, the powering up thrum as intimidating as it was slightly reassuring. As soon as the forms materialised, she rolled back into cover and scowled.
Ichiko Gail turned her attention to the incident, the arrival. Reinforcements? But for whom… her phaser was set to the maximum setting, and the figures that came into view started to gain definition, started to come into view, started to…
As soon as the figures came into existence, Ichiko turned her phaser to the ground and turned the setting back down to stun. “Their friendlies.” she announced. “Timely arrival, thank you.”
Emony glanced at the rabitess from the Astrea, “This is going to sound silly but everyone’s transporter has a different look and sound. Do the Koldaran transporters resemble Starfleet ones? Because sooner or later, this jumpiness is going to get a bunch of people killed.”
“Purple streaks with intermixed pulses.” Ichiko responded. “The audio is a bit off, but that’s nothing your ears could pick up.” she motioned to her own ears. “I didn’t catch it because I’ve been hearing the discharge of Koldaran weapons for a few hours. Everything sounds off. Everything sounds like a threat.”
Looking around, Siobahn offered a tiny nod to Ichiko, acknowledging her words before turning back to Rostra and Michelle. “With your permission, it looks like medical staging is off that way, I imagine that’s where my talents would be best put to use right now.”
Abigail approached the Wellington group and offered a weary smile to the two ranking officers. “Captain Bartlett, Commander Tang I presume?” she asked. “Your arrival couldn’t have come at a better moment. If you’ll give us a few moments to help get your crew situated, I think it would be best if we jump straight into it. I’ll have a room emptied for us to talk.”
Stan looked around as the others spoke. Now he understood why they had packed all those supplies.
“A pleasure to meet you, Captain.” Michelle said. “Though it might have been nice in circumstances that weren’t… this.” she added
Rostra gave a pair of nods, “Rostra Tang, it’s good to meet you, but yeah what she said.” she offered a pair of smiles, a welcome sight in these dark moments.
“Like the Captain said.” Jason said “Couldn’t be at a better moment. Sorry about the welcoming committee though.”
“Better to be ready for the worst than lax about it, sir.” Hailey had wandered up, eyes on the move around, “Which way is the primary entrance? I want to check out the situation so I know where to deploy my troops.” The Major was all business at the moment and had a laser focus on what needed to be done.
Abigail glanced at Emony, the question still fresh in her mind. “Contact the ships in orbit, see if we can get some transporter inhibitors down here. We’ll work out the best locations for them to give us maximum safety.”
“Aye.” Emony said, standing up carefully, “Also, C…ma’am. We’re going to end up shooting each other at this rate. I’m a little rusty on my transporter theory, but we might be able to rig up something that requires something unique to Starfleet to open up a gap in the inhibitor field and not easily replicated. Even something as simple as challenge-response before beam-in. I say “Pike”, you say “Enterprise”, you’re in, something like that. Can’t be obvious but don’t make it so difficult it’s easy to forget and we still shoot our own.”
Abigail gave a nod. “Come up with what you can and let me know. We’ll consider anything that can help bolster our position.”
“I’ll see what I can do. At the very least, if the Koldarans have at least a different beam-in signal, it’d be a little easier on us, like how Starfleet and Klingon beam-ins are noticeably different. Hopefully, anyways.” Emony said and headed off to the side to get things started.
Another glance around, Abigail motioned for Lieutenant Commander Gunnison to join them. “If we’re going to be installing transporter inhibitors, we’ll need to make sure we have full communications. Find Elder Cleric J’Rayl and ask for access to their communications device and see if we can use that to amplify our own devices.”
Will nodded “I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “As memory serves me, if the original signal we received from them is any indication, it should be possible to pull it off without too much trouble. I suspect the most difficult part will be getting the Acehayans to let us have access to their communications device in the first place.”
“Commander Gail, if you would be so kind as to make sure one of the back rooms is clear and maybe have someone rustle up some chairs?” Abigail followed up.
Standing nearby, Shaille stepped forward, her weapons safely holstered. “I wasn’t meaning to eavesdrop, but I’m happy to grab some chairs if Commander Gail can point me in the right direction?”
“I’m on it.” and the rabbitess turned to Shaille, “You’re with me. No one goes alone in a warzone.” and the pair headed off to secure the back room, not to mention some seats.
Captain Dirk Taggart entered the temple as the sounds of phaser fire outside fell silent. His uniform smudged with dirt and grime, and his eyes were already appearing slightly hollowed from the stress of the situation. He was compartmentalising to get through the situation and would unpack that box at a later date.
Dirk Spotted the new faces and breathed a sigh of relief, as he walked up to the group and stood beside Abigail. This wasn't what he had in mind when he had wished to spend to more time with her, but he learned to live and enjoy the small moments of respite that life offered. "Captain Laurens, pardon my interruption, but I wanted to let you know we repulsed the attack on the port flank. We took a few casualties and it looks like they're mounting to attack in a different direction.
Lieutenant Commander Rogers arrived hot on Captain Taggart’s heels. His uniform bore a couple of new tears, one of which was still wet with blood. “Lookouts have spotted a large buildup to the south. They’re staging to try and force the Saiqir Gate.”
Hailey’s blue eyes locked on the new arrival, then glanced at his injury, gauging it to be more a minor wound, “Commander, show me if you don’t mind.” She let her rifle drop on the friction sling she had it on, reaching back for her medkit, “I’ll get you patched up on the way. I’ve got some troops on their way down in just a few minutes and we can deploy them there.”
“It’s this way.” Rogers nodded his head towards a grandly carved arch. “We’re going to need those extra bodies. The Koldarans don’t waste time between staging and making their assaults.”
Stan looked up at the arch. He had never seen such intricate carvings before. He ran a tricorder over the structure. Then remembered the reason they were there.
“ Sorry. It’s just whoever made this did a fine wee job on those carvings.” More said pointing to the arch.
She extracted a tricorder from her medkit and gave him a scan while they walked, then pulled the dermal regenerator and began wielding it with expertise, tapping her combadge as she made the motions, “Weston to Rori, bring Second in on my signal soonest, load for bear.” She didn’t even wait for acknowledgement, “Don’t worry, sir, you’ve got the Corps here on your side now, this is what we’re here for.” She gave him a brief but confident smile.
The binary form of Rostra Tang spotted Stan glancing up and over at the carvings on the archway. “They’re very pretty. Just think, if we didn’t all get the call to come here and stop the Koldarans, by this time next week this arch and…” and she stopped talking. Boom. Done.
Her twin, however, picked up the conversation flawlessly, “... everyone who ever made anything like it would be gone. Wiped from the slate of history.”
Stan shook his head sadly.
“ Can we stop them though or are we destined like this arc…..to go boom?” Stan asked
Rostra gave him a pair of smirks, “Okay first off, dramatic much.” she giggled, an odd sound in stereo, “Second, arches don’t go boom. More of a … crumble crumble crash.” she seemed amused. Her twin picked up the conversation at this point. “I believe we’ll be fine. We have expert reinforcements on the way, all we have to do is dig in and resist. And believe me…”
“... nothing pisses off the Koldaran more than an efficient resistance.
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Participating Characters:
Captain Dirk Taggart
Commanding Officer, USS Pennsylvania
Lieutenant (JG) Emony Kyl
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pennsylvania
Lieutenant Commander William ‘Buck’ Rogers
Chief Flight Control Officer & 2nd Officer USS Astraea
Fleet Captain Abigail Laurens
Commanding Officer - USS Astraea
Lieutenant Siobahn Fallon
Medical Officer - USS Wellington
Lieutenant Commander Shaille Levine
Chief Security Officer - USS Wellington
Major Hailey Weston
Marine Commanding Officer - USS Wellington
Lieutenant Stan More
Botanist/Science Officer - USS Wellington
Commander Ichiko Gail
Second in Command - USS Astraea (Ts’usugi - Experience Combating Koldaran)
Commander Rostra Tang
Executive Officer - USS Wellington (Dalacari - Experience Combating Koldaran)
Lieutenant Cor Cordale
Chief Engineer - USS Wellington (Thux - Prosthetic Limb)
Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison
Chief of Operations - USS Astraea
