USS Grail: Havoc - Storming Engineering (part 1)

by

Lieutenant Logan Castle and Lieutenant (jg) Eve Mallory

<Stardate: 47307.17>

<Transporter Room 3>

Logan Castle stood before his Security squad and looked them each in the eye. All seemed ready and anxious. Anxious to fight. He had seen enough of those looks in the Corp. He had buried a lot of those `looks'.

"Ensign T'Arna.", he stepped right up to the panting Klingon woman. She looked as if she might spontaneously orgasm if he punched her. "You will lead Makot, Azure, and Camponella. If it ain't Starfleet, kill it."

She shook her head furiously, her hair fanning out in a haze of black. She leered menacingly, her teeth grinding.

"Lo Pan. Dimitri. You are with me. We will insure the Security of Lt. Mallory and En. Charon."

No sooner had their names been spoken, the Cardassian and the Scientist entered the Transporter room. Mallory bore with her a tricorder, phaser and a small handled black case. Charon carried a phaser and a large toolkit.

"Let's move.", he barked. As they all took a space on the transporter pad, Castle leaned back to Eve and whispered, "No matter what, you stay behind me."

Eve whispered back. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." Castle heard a note of fear and resignation in her voice.

"Castle to Hunt. Are you ready?", Castle spoke through the open combat channel.

=^= Let's go already! =^=, came his anxious and irritated reply. Castle shook his head. `Accountant my ass.'

"Energize!", he hollered.

<USS Indiana- Engineering>

Castle paid no heed to the details of his environment. His world, and the world of his team, became limited to two things: targets and non-targets. Of targets, there were a dozen. Of non- targets.... no point in counting those. He took aim as the Romulans became aware of their presence.

T'Arna's battlecry was so bloodcurdling that all, including her own security team stopped and turned to look at her. Two Romulans were blistered with lethal phaser fire before anyone could act.

Then, all Hell broke loose.

Azure and Camponella fell back to back on their knees and started blasting targets of opportunity. T'Arna and Makot charged forward, howling furiously and drawing fire away from the Engineer and the Scientist. And away from the warp core. The core was quiet, but there was still anti-matter contained within it. Castle shouted her name in proud fury as he shouldered his phaser rifle and began firing at anything in front of her. "T'ARNA!!"

Four Romulans lay dead and smoking before any of the others could raise a disruptor. But, once they were collected, the fight came back to the Feds. Zol Makot, from Mars, was disintegrated by a powerful blast to his chest. He stared at the whole that went clear through him before he finally fell glassy-eyed dead.

T'Arna roared her rage as she threw her d'k tahg, the three-bladed knife jutting from the throat of the Romulan that killed her partner.Eve didn't pay any attention to what was going on behind her.

As Charon leapt to the controls to try and restore power, she saw two Romulans, each armed with disruptors. both pointing at her and Charon.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and stop.

In her head, Eve heard a voice she had dreaded hearing:

|Threat level exceeded. self-defense sub-routine initiating|

|Primary mission: defend this unit and carbon-based units|

|Secondary mission: restore power to vessel designate Indiana|

Time started up again.

Mallory raised her phaser faster than was normally possible, and fired once, twice. Each shot hit a Romulan, disintegrating them.

But one got off a shot, hitting Mallory in the chest. If she had been anyone else, it would have been a killing wound, as had been demonstrated already on Makot. As it was, it knocked her back and caused her to drop the phaser. She was slammed back into the glass paneling, and was unable to prevent herself from falling to the floor.

But she still had momentum, and used it to slam into Charon's legs, knocking him to the floor, causing a disruptor blast to miss him.

"Stay under cover." She stated in a flat tone to the engineer.

Charon nodded, and scuttled under one of the consoles.

Mallory could not feel anything in one arm and shoulder, but that was irrelevant; the other arm was still functioning. She reached out with the other and grasped her phaser, rolling sideways and ending up on her back, braced against a pillar. She raised the phaser and fired.

The Romulan on the upper deck, arched, and vanished in a red flash of energy.

Mallory glanced to one side, and saw that Castle and the others had prevailed; there was only one Romulan left.

She stood up, moved to the consoles. "It is now safe to come out." She said to Charon, who came out from underneath and began to tap at the consoles. Her other arm was still not functioning, but she was beginning to feel the return of sensation to it.

She heard movement from behind her, swung around, phaser coming up, finger tightening on the trigger...

"Are you all right?" It was Castle, staring wide-eyed at the huge melted burn in her uniform. She dropped her arm.

Mallory's reply was flat. " I have sustained minimal damage," Her voice was cold and monotonal. "I will heal."

Charon spoke up. "The controls have been locked out!" He said. "I can't do anything."

Mallory reached down and picked up the small black case. Opening it revealed a matt black device the size of a tricorder. She placed it on the console, and lights on its surface began to flash.

"Decryption algorithms commencing." She said calmly.

To be continued....

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Jason

argo@easynet.co.uk / ICQ No: ##4194684

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a work station...