USS Grail: "Havoc"- `Securing the Indiana: Slaughter'

by Lt.(jg) Eve Mallory and Lt. Logan Castle

<USS Indiana: Main Engineering>

Engineers scattered this way and that, in an attempt to get the Indiana functioning again. The room was filled with the low hum of conversation and the gentle thrumming of the warp chamber.

Mallory turned to Castle. "It is likely that the remaining Romulans may attempt an assault. Would you like me to attempt to raise force-fields around appropriate access points?"

Castles eyes kept sweeping the busy section. "Hell, if you can do it, do it." He looked at her long enough to give her a wink. Then, he continued to scan the area, his phaser rifle moving in perfect synchronicity with his eyes. He looked up onto the second level. Ens. Dimitri and Lo Pan were keeping a moving watch going on all accesses. Thorin Azure and T'Arna split their attention between the two main doors. Castle covered it all.

Mallory then stepped toward a bank of consoles that strangely were untouched or unused by the organized chaos around her. "Computer. Reroute OPS and Science controls through these consoles." The computer trilled, and she hit several keys, scanning for Romulan lifeforms aboard the Indiana.

"22 Romulans still aboard Indiana.", she said. "I can flood the areas they are in with an inverted tetrion particle field, that will neutralize any disruptors, but leave Federation weaponry unharmed."

Castles eyes grew wide. "You can do that?" Mallory's look was placid, but she nodded in affirmation. Castle nodded vigorously. "By all means, lieutenant. Disrupt those disruptors."

Mallory's fingers danced over the keys, then finally hit a button. "Done.", she said, then moved to the temporary science consoles. She activated the scanners. "Long range sensors currently off-line, but short range are working."

She watched the changing readings impassively. "The Warbird's computer core has been disabled. Shield strength is failing."

"Good. That means the jarheads are about to move.", he said as he stepped out into the center of Engineering.

"Listen up! T'Arna and Azure. Front and center!" Castle made sure they responded before calling to the others.

"Lo Pan. Dimitri." They came up to him from opposite sides of Engineering as Azure and the Klingon T'Arna also gathered round.

"Lt. Mallory has managed to jam the Rommies disruptors. We will begin a deck-by-deck sweep for any and all enemies and we will eliminate them. No quarter given. Understood?"

The four of them nodded, T'Arna almost drooling.

Castle walked up to Mallory. "After we exit, seal the entire section with forcefields. Do not open those doors...."

"I will not open those doors until I no longer detect Romulan lifesigns.", she informed him seriously. Castle simply nodded. Then, he turned to go.

"Let's go!", he shouted to his squad. They followed him to the doors. Mallory dropped the forcefield and opened the door from her terminal. When it was barely half open, Castle ducked out, followed by the rest.

The firing started immediately. Even though it took less than seven minutes, Castle felt as if he had been spilling green blood for days. At first, they had simply walked in a wedge formation, destroying Romulans whose expressions of surprise at their failing weapons was forever frozen on their dead faces.

Soon, though, the Romulans realized that they had to change their tactics. Some had managed to acquire Federation phasers, but careful strategies by the five security officers quickly neutralized them.

In the end, with less than a dozen left, they had attacked the security team en masse, daggers gleaming.

T'Arna had waited breathlessly for the Romulans to finally make such a stand. They had made a strategy of falling back, but finally, there was nowhere to fall back to. And when they finally charged the murdering Feds, she swept out her bat'leth and roared in primal ecstasy.

Lo Pan and Dimitri, the inevitable duo, fell back to back, phasers flaring as knives lashed out. Kwan was stabbed through her abdomen, but the wound would only be fatal if she did not receive medical attention in more than an hour. Gut wounds were a painful son of a bitch. And they killed you slow.

Thorin Azure kept close to Castles flank on one side, while T'Arna whirled on his other, her two-handed blade whipping green blood everywhere. She was bleeding from several wounds of her own, but she was unimpeded by any of them.

Castles phaser had been practically cut from his hand, his right thumb broken and almost severed by a Romulan dagger. A straight palm into the face of his attacker had crushed the Romulans nose, shattered fragments of his nose piercing his brain. Grabbing the falling Romulans bloodied dagger, Castle threw the heavy blade. It struck solidly between the shoulder blades of a Romulan who would have disemboweled T'Arna.

The Klingon saw that her life had been saved and shouted what sounded like a Klingon curse. Castles eyes widened for a second before he once again fell under attack. It was not a curse she had uttered. Castle spoke enough Klingon to know

what she had said. `I will mate with you!', she had screamed. To Castles mind, it sounded like a threat.

It was only seconds later that the last Romulan fell, T'Arna's bat'leth chopping into his back like an executioners axe. Kwan Lo Pan slipped and fell in a tacky puddle of green blood.

Vohck T'Arna pushed Azure aside as she grabbed Castle by his uniform tunic and covered his mouth with her own. He tasted blood and felt sharp pain as she savagely bit his lip. Castle grabbed her hair, snapping her head back, and pushed her down to the ground, driving the wind from her.

"Never do that again.", he hissed at her as she gasped. Her panting leer told him that she was even more enflamed, but she did not renew her `assault'.

=^= Mallory to Castle. =^=, Eves voice came over the open channel of his communicator. =^=The Romulans are dead. The Marines have destroyed the Warbird. =^=

"Thank you, lieutenant.", Castle replied. "We will proceed to the Bridge. T'Arna and Azure will be returning to you." Castle slapped his commbadge. "Castle to Hunt. We are coming to you."

Mallory activated her commlink again. "Mallory to Grail. All Romulans aboard the Indiana have been terminated." She might have been talking about the weather for all the emotion in her voice.

Then, in the silence of her head, something said:

|Threat level within acceptable parameters|

|Primary and secondary missions completed|

|Self defense sub-routine deactivating|

It was as though light and sound and feeling returned in a rush. Only self-discipline kept her from falling. She hung onto the console for a second, trying to control the shaking in her limbs. In her mind's eye, she saw Camponella being engulfed by Plasma venting, heard his scream.

"Lieutenant? Are you all right?" It was an engineer standing beside her. Eve couldn't remember his name for a second, then it came back to her; Charon. It was Charon.

*No, No I'm not!* She smiled weakly. "Yes, I'm fine, Ensign." She straightened with an effort. "Just fine."

In her head, Camponella screamed again.

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

Jason Cleaver & Kurt Hellstrom

Lieutenant (jg) Eve Mallory

Chief Science Officer: USS Grail

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/8529/index.html

argo@easynet.co.uk/ ICQ No: #4914684

"Great, she's a toaster oven. Can we go now?"

Alien Resurrection