Freeing the Slaves - Security & Tactical
Posted on Tue Mar 21, 2017 @ 8:43pm by Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant JG Lucia Cusack & Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant Commander Arrda
Mission:
An Orion to Die For
Location: Stameris
Timeline: MD 4 || 1500 Hours
Once they were in position, the Security and Tactical personnel were beamed down to Kelshaak.
Meanwhile, the Security and Tactical personnel beamed down to a location near Kelshaak, but instead of being in the woods, they appeared in a deserted warehouse that smelled of herbs and rotted food products. The sensors had chosen this spot as being closest to the slave market that was designated as a secondary position that was likely to hold the Federation officers prisoners.
Andrea Jameson, the lead of this particular group of Security officers, frowned at the smell. She was too much of a professional, though, to say anything or make any sort of scene about it. Instead, she quickly assessed her people's state and then glanced to the Tactical personnel that were part of this mission. Since she was Security and not Tactical, she would defer to the judgment of the Tactical lead as to what tactic they should use.
Martha couldn't stand the horrible smell that she couldn't help but notice as soon as she and the others beamed into the abandoned warehouse. After thinking for a few moments she looked around for the nearest exit before addressing the away team with what she believed was the best plan to infiltrate the slave market and hopefully retrieve the prisoners - if they were still there.
"Alright. As we're next door to the slave market and all of the doors are heavily guarded then I think our only way in is through a wall - so we are going to use a stable wall adjoining one of the less protected areas of the market and blow a hole into it. I have determined the location of this on my Tactical PADD along with a strategy to stick to the quieter parts of the facility until we get to the staging point. As I think it's very unlikely the hostages will still be undergoing processing, myself and Miss Jameson will scout the auction hall while the rest of you will wait in the corridor until I give you the signal to come in. Any questions?" Martha said.
Martha felt in the circumstances it would be better if the rest of the away team waited outside until their presence was required - after all - they would attract a lot more attention amongst the guards in the auction hall than herself and Andrea. She waited patiently to see if anyone had any questions.
There were looks among the Security personnel, then one of them asked, "What is your signal?" Each officer had their own manner, and since this was the first time any of them had worked with this particular Tactical officer, they did not know what her signal methods might be -- and that was a key part of this plan.
"We'll call for you. Ms Cusack - come and follow me with those charges please" Martha said.
Lucia nodded and followed her wife along to the wall Martha pointed at. Dropping her bag to one side she opened it and started passing the charges to Martha - who stuck the two charges into the centre of the area.
"Do you want to do the honours?" Lucia asked.
Martha grinned. "You should know me by now"
Lucia collected her now empty bag and gave Martha the detonator before they took cover behind some barrels which had some extremely unpleasant smelling contents.
"Fire in the hole!" Martha called.
The security personnel scattered, taking cover behind crates, barrels and other cargo containers. The smell had just become irrelevant, but Andrea hoped the noise of the detonation wouldn't bring trouble before they were ready.
Moments later she pressed the button which blew a hole into the wall - sending a large amount of masonry into the part of the slave market they would be entering. Once the dust had settled she stood up and instructed the detachment to follow her through the new hole in the wall.
"Right...Jameson you come up front with me. Ms Cusack bring up the rear with Ms Alexander" Martha instructed
Andrea moved to the front of the formation beside Martha. As she went, she gave silent signals to her team, indicating the formation she wanted them to take.
"Yes ma'am" Lucia replied.
As soon as the explosion went off and the first alarms began to sound. Enemy troops rushed the armory where they began to arm up while others gathered the slaves from the front holding area and began to herd them towards the back.
Soon the party were inside the facility and Martha told the rest of the party to hold position until they were called in. Spying two guards by the door Martha wanted to enter, the Tactical Officer took one of the stun grenades from her belt and as soon as it was primed she tossed it in the direction of the two guards.
"What the?" the larger of the two guards said.
Before they had time to react the grenade detonated and knocked the two guards out.
"Alright...in we go. Set your phaser to heavy stun and stay behind me" Martha instructed
Andrea had to admit, those stun grenades definitely had advantages. They did give the guard time to notice them, but not much else. She fell into step behind Martha, motioning for her team to stand ready and wait. Checking that her Phaser was set on heavy stun, she moved silently behind the tactical officer.
The moment the Security and Tactical people entered the hall, disruptor fire greeted them and one young officer went down.
Edits required below this point
Martha immediately spotted one of the shooters and aiming her rifle up at the Orion man she pulled the trigger which sent the guard over the balcony railings and crashing to the floor below.
"Draper! Take Morgan back to the beam-in point and return once he's in sickbay. Cusack you go with them and cover them!" Martha ordered.
Lucia would have preferred to stay in the fight but as she'd been ordered she didn't argue and knew she and Draper would be expected back in the auction hall once Morgan was safely beamed out back to the ship.
Martha started laying down covering fire to shield those taking the injured Morgan out to the beam in point. Clearly they'd been expected and Martha had an idea just who'd told the guards the Triumphant was on the way.
More enemy combatants came out of side doors and from the stage firing disruptors, a phaser or two and one had a Breen CMR-114 cannon that looked too big for the man to hold.
Andrea would have preferred the silent, sneaky approach to this op, but she was obviously not in charge. Not to mention that that ship had sailed; the cows were out of the barn; and the bag was seriously devoid of cats. So all she could do now was try to minimize the losses. With a series of short commands, she distributed her security team, sending them in varying directions around the perimeter of the room while she laid down her own covering fire.
The security team moved in quickly behind Martha and Andrea, dispersing as they entered. They scattered seemingly in a chaos of movement, making targeting difficult. As they did, some laid down bursts of cover fire while others moved in behind them and scurried behind equipment, cages, and whatever other cover the hall offered. Then those laid down covering fire for the first set to move and do as they had done. They continued this practice, Andrea continuing to lay down her own covering fire, until the entire team had entered and was dispersed around the hall, all firing from some manner of at least partial cover.
The Orion with the Breen CMR-114 cannon opened fire and blew a huge hole in the wall next to several Security and Tactical people, killing one in the blast and the sound reverberated at a near deafening level in the room.
Andrea growled, signaling her people to take that Orion down before he killed anyone else. Three of them fired at him; one to his right, one to his left, and one directly at him. That way, he would get caught by one of the beams no matter which way he dodged. The rest aimed and fired at the other weapon-carrying enemy combatants.
The Orion with the CRM-114 went down under the phaser fire while his finger held the trigger down and created a massive rip in the front of the market and whatever was beyond it.
Other enemy combatants came pouring out and began to lay down suppressive fire while the slaves in the back area were gathered and forced to move down a corridor.
Martha watched as the guards started to gather the slaves for a move. It was too risky to shoot at the guards because of their proximity - so she hope taking out the defending guards would be enough to draw their attention away from the slaves.
Spotting two guards on an overhead gantry with heavy ordnance she decided the best best way to take them both out would be to take the gantry itself out. Charging her phaser rifle up to maximum setting she aimed at the nearest supports for the gantry and opened fire - taking them out and sending the gantry and the two guards who were on it crashing to the floor.
"Looks like you two forgot your safety harnesses" Martha muttered.
Quickly altering the setting of her rifle back to what it was she returned to returning fire at the guards who were attempting to drive back the away party. Draper and Lucia were still absent - although that was to be expected for another minute or two with the distance between there and the beam in point as well as carrying Morgan there in the first place.
A huge Nausicaan in some type of armor burst through a doorway and began to lay down a hail of phaser fire a the Starfleet personnel. He carried some sort of heavy assault phaser and didn't seem to discriminate if he hit his own people or members of the away team as he fired.
Watching the Nausicaan man firing at even his own colleagues Martha didn't know whether to laugh or not. It was doing the away team a favour of course but there was the matter of making life harder for himself.
"What a pillock" Martha cursed.
Andrea saw them moving the slaves in the hallway behind the downed Orion as well and cursed softly under her breath. "Cusack, keep these guys busy. I'm going to try to find another way to those prisoners." She wasn't ordering the higher-ranking Tactical officer around, merely giving her plan in the most efficient means possible. At the same time, she motioned to fifty of her team to follow her and the other one hundred to keep helping the Tactical officers.
"As you wish. Just don't get yourself killed" Martha replied.
Choosing not to take what was said in the way she normally would Martha took a position where she could take out the Nausicaan man. Now in her element Martha paused for a moment as she lined up her shot and kept her finger gently on the trigger - squeezing it extremely slowly until she was happy with her shot and then pulling the trigger the rest of the way - sending the Nausicaan man crashing to the ground.
With the last of the resistance taken down, the remaining Orion's worked to get the slaves out the back way and tossed grenades towards the Starfleet personnel to cover their tracks.
Andrea then retreated with her fifty back through the opening Tactical had made in the wall, behind covering fire laid down by some of her people. She then scanned with her tricorder to find another route to intercept the moving slaves and their handlers, hopefully without them knowing she was doing it.
A moment later, a layout of the slave market showed on the tricorder and revealed a large area in the back where various humanoid lifesigns showed, a few offices, a large number of Orions and a Romulan.
Looking at the map of the layout, Andrea quickly spotted a good direction to go so that they could, hopefully, head the slave-herders off at the pass as it were. Motioning to her people, she split off two groups of fifteen to the side passages she had noted that would converge ahead of the enemy and indicated for them to move quickly. Meanwhile, she took the remaining twenty and went right up the enemy's tail. The plan was to catch them in a three-way pincer move that would force them to surrender.
She didn't want to have to stun any of the Starfleet people, but if it came down to it, she would. Stunned by their own was definitely better than killed by the enemy, after all. She hoped it didn't go down that way though.
Finally Draper and Lucia re-appeared and Martha quickly gave them a signal to hold fire until she decided the course of action. Deciding it would be best to cause confusion and stun the slaves in the hope it would confuse the guards she summoned Lucia and Draper to her firing position.
"Stun the slaves. If the guards open fire on us then we've got a chance of getting the slaves out" Martha said.
Lucia nodded. "Alright...I think that'll work..."
Seeing the Starfleet personnel coming in from all sides, the Orions with the slaves turned their disruptor pistols to the slaves. "Stop or we will kill them all!" One ordered.
"Hold your fire" Martha ordered.
Martha wanted to get the prisoners out alive and she needed to re-think if they were going to get the prisoners out alive. Thinking quickly she looked to Draper and Lucia and briefly glanced down at the stun grenades on their belts. They were behind some rubble from the collapsed gantry giving them some protection from the enemy fire. Stunning the prisoners with phasers wouldn't work because the Orions would kill the rest - so if they stunned both the Orions and the prisoners then nobody would get killed.
With all three holding their primed stun grenades until the last minute the trio threw them at different areas of the group.
Caught in the blast of the three stun grenades, both the Orions and the slaves collapsed in a heap.
After peering over the rubble and seeing the grenades had worked Martha gave the officers either side of her a sly smirk before crouching up to address the rest of the away team present.
"Jameson - you take your team and check the perimeter and secure the hall. Everyone else with me - I'll check the PADD to get visual IDs of the people we're looking for" Martha instructed.
Andrea resisted the temptation to say 'yes, ma'am' to the Tactical officer and simply nodded. It was likely that Cusack was just doing what she had done earlier, giving her a plan. "Got it." She signaled her people to fan out. They did, she taking a part of the team, and checked the rest of the facility to make sure they would not be accosted further.
Lucia and Draper also crouched and watched as Martha got the PADD out of her bag and loaded up the personnel files. Once the rest of Martha's team were present she started scanning through the files so everyone could see who they were looking for.
"Alright...we're looking for these people. Our priority is to ensure their safety and get them back to the ship before those ugly bastards wake up. Once Jameson's team are back we'll start moving them to the beam-out point" Martha instructed.
Pair by pair, Andrea's teams reported back to her that their designated sectors of the building were clear. When they had all reported, she ordered them back to the beam-in point. When they had converged there, she spread them out in a protective formation around enough space to contain the remaining 100 of her security people she'd had remain to help the tactical people, Tactical's 150, and the twenty or so slaves she had counted before moving off to search.
Once her people were in formation, she tapped her comm. badge. =/\= Jameson to Cusack. Building is clear. We've got a defensive perimeter around the beam-in point just in case. =/\= Just in case some jackass decides to pop in last minute and try and stop us.
=/\="Alright - hold position. We'll be ready for beam out in about five minutes or so"=/\= Martha replied.
Martha instructed those present to hand out spare commbadges to those who were to be beamed back to the Triumphant and one by one they were carried out of the room by two members of the away team. With the last one remaining Martha and Lucia picked up the young human woman and slowly carried her back to the beam-in site where she had instructed Draper to remain to keep watch just in case the Orions decided to launch a counter attack.
The remaining 100 Security people who had remained to assist the Tactical staff took up protective stances and moved with the Tactical staff and the wounded almost-slaves toward the beam-in point. Once they all arrived at the beam-in point, those people joined the other protective Security personnel. Andrea tapped her comm. badge again. =/\= This is Jameson. We're ready for beam-out."
