Disaster Training

Posted on 07 Jan 2011 @ 2:45pm by Captain Reva Madhava & Captain Antonio Vazquez & Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

2,632 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: M7: Shore Leave - Mercer Colony
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: After the Red Alert

At Lieutenant Belacque's orders, Lieutenant Michael Darwin had the holodeck training program ready to go; all that was needed now were the participants. As he waited, pacing and stretching, the first such person arrived. "Okay, I'm here! Happy?" The green harpy growled at him even as he nodded to the security officer he'd sent to get her.

"Thanks, Ensign Aldus. You're even early," Darwin complimented the woman. To Reva, he blandly answered, "Just making sure you didn't 'forget', Ms. Madhava."

She narrowed her eyes at him then asked, "What's this training to be? Hand-to-hand like the other day?"

"Possibly. You'll know as it comes along," he said and turned as the door opened again.

The bay doors to the holodeck opened with a loud whoosh and Lyra walked in. She wore her normal starfleet uniform, a type two phaser held in the pouch on her belt.
"You all ready?" she asked skipping straight to the point, she was eager to get something done.

"Just about, Lieutenant," Darwin answered. "We're waiting on just a few others. The program is ready - it's the one you designated for this exercise."

Seeing the phaser on the woman's belt, Reva complained: "Hey! I wasn't given a phaser!"

"Its a security and tactical training simulation exercise, you should really bring one" Lyra replied. "Computer replicate a type two hand phaser" she ordered. A phaser appeared on the floor with its pouch for the belt infront of the Ensign.

Antonio, having quietly entered while they exchanged words, swept up the phaser and handed it over to Reva, "Ensign...", and had a momentary thought if it was a wise thing to do...and while standing right in front of her...

The glare Reva leveled at Antonio spoke volumes. She took the phaser from him and without looking away from him, asked Darwin, "Do we get to shoot each other in this simulation?"

Darwin coughed to cover his laugh. "Ah, no, Ensign Madhava. Introductions are in order: Lieutenant Vazquez, you've met Lieutenant Belacque, our new Chief of Security, I believe. Lieutenant Belacque, this is Ensign Madhava, a science officer; Ensign Stevens, an engineer; and Ensigns Aldus and Jenkins, both ours."

Antonio nodded at everyone, and then looked back to Reva as if unconcerned, though his eyes saddened.

"With your permission, Ma'am," Darwin addressed Belacque, "we'll get started." At her nod, he moved on: "We're all on the same team; try not to shoot each other," he glanced significantly at Reva who rolled her eyes. "The game is this: we have a red flag, our computer opponents have a blue flag. We need to steal theirs and need to defend ours. Any questions?"

"No", Antonio answered, looking to everyone along with Darwin.

"Unless Lieutenant Belacque countermands this," Darwin glanced at his boss, "She, Ensigns Stevens, Aldus and Jenkins and I will go after the enemy's flag; Lieutenant Vazquez, you're with Madhava, defending our flag."

Feeling a just a little uncomfortable at the arrangement, Antonio rubbed his forehead as he nodded, and then gave a small smile, deciding he would wait to see what positioning and moves she would make on her own, before offering anything.

"Okay," Darwin wondered what the deal between the Orion and the Weapons Specialist was... but it was a curiosity better handled after duty hours. "Any other questions?" He regretted asking almost as soon as he had: he saw the look in Madhava's eye as she piped up.

"What's the penalty for *accidentally* shooting someone on our team?"

Antonio looked up and around, feeling exasperated at her question.

"Just... try not to, Ensign," Darwin bit his tongue before either laughing, smiling or otherwise making a comment; the move helped him to look annoyed. "Ok, let's go. Computer, start program." Around the group, a terrain and two buildings filled in the black and yellow grid. One building was next to the team; the other at the far end of the holodeck. Between the two, there were hills and hillocks, but no vegetation, no source of cover. Darwin grunted. "Mr. Vazquez, we'll need your half to provide some cover fire for us."

"You got it", Antonio replied, and gave Reva a firm look of 'focus your attention on this training and not on your anger towards me.'

"After you, ma'am," Darwin gestured to his boss and smiled, ever the gentleman (ladies first, after all).

Lyra nodded and pulled the phaser out of its pouch. "Computer run Program Belacque Alpha One" She said. Suddenly the group was seperated with equal teams. "We're blue team" she said "The others are red, its capture the flag" She explained. They were stood in a modern state of the art training field with obstacles, transporters and various items lying around like the simulations used in Starfleet Academy.
"Lets go" she said picking up a phaser rifle that was lying on the floor and arming it.

Reva paused where she was and glanced first at Darwin then at Antonio; confusion was evident on her face. "Wait... are we red or blue? And are Lieutenant Vazquez and I playing defense here in this building or... going with you?" Since she was a scientist and here in order to learn to work with Security in a combat situation, she'd listened to Lieutenant Darwin explain things and what the Chief had just said conflicted with his explanation.

For his part, Darwin raised a brow and waited for his boss to answer.

"We're red. The computer is blue. Its been programmed with some of the most formidable species in the Federation Database. Klingons, Remans, Hirogen, Borg, Species 8472" Lyra replied she had made this program to really test the skills of officers.

Nodding, Darwin added, "The computer will randomly choose our opponents from that list. Take your places and let's go." He nodded to Antonio and headed for the field.

Antonio nodded in return, and recognizing the look in Reva's eyes, he immediately grabbed her arm and began leading her into the building.

"Hey...!" Reva started to protest, but then she saw Antonio's quick glance at her and she demurely went with him. In the building, they went upstairs, where another set of stairs continued up; through an open doorway, Reva could see a red flag flapping in the wind. They continued up and took positions against the roof's merloned battlement. From there, Reva could see their small team heading out onto the field; she could also see bodies advancing from the other building. "Do we aim for them or just aim... for what?"

Slightly shaking his head, he turned away from her, positioning his phaser rifle and took aim downwards towards the other building, cutting down the advancing bodies one by one. He then turned back towards her giving a look as if to say 'does that answer your question?'.

Frowning at him, Reva nearly shot off a snide comment about his teaching by example. Instead, she took up a position similar to his and aimed for distant bodies. She missed more than she hit, but at least she was making life unpredictable for the enemy.

As she did, Antonio switched his target, and aimed for the windows and crenelations of the other building where enemy fire was being returned. Cursing himself for allowing himself to be distracted, his eyes scanned upwards, making out a sniper between the buildings merlons..."roof!" he pointed out, depressing the trigger as he took aim...

His outburst made Reva giggle, "Are you suddenly a Terran canine? Roof, roof?" She reached over and squeezed his thigh lightly, turning the squeeze into a light rub.

And he missed his target. His face hardened, "Reva...damn!!" he gripped her hand hard, yanking it away as he stood up, taking it out on the enemy, his movements were second nature as he took aim again, this time hitting his target, then laying down continuous fire as he spotted the remainder of their team, noting their movements, as he continued to cover them.

Reva smirked, shook her hand, and went back to the game, firing on the enemy.

Lyra stood directly up and had already set her phaser rifle on wide beam. Taking quick aim she took out four of the approaching hirogen. She then ducked down again and leant around the corner using her scope to see what was there.
"Go ahead and take up positions, hide best you can then we'll go one by one" Lyra told the team. "Vazquez and Madhava cover fire for us while we move closer"

Darwin hid, best as he could, behind a small boulder that was shorter than he was by roughly four feet, and quickly looked out on the field before waving his disposable ensigns forward, "Go!" Basically, his plan was to cross the field, dodging and weaving, while Vazquez and Madhava kept the enemy from picking them off. It wasn't the best of plans.

Lyra followed him and they hid behind one of the simulated boulders.
"The holograms think" she said. "We need to cover fire and not run in straight lines" Lyra told him. "Head for that building over there we'll take cover in there" Lyra told him.

Halfway across the field, Darwin did what Darwin did in almost every training sim he'd ever been in: he died. Enemy fire cut him down in the prime of his dash from one hill to another. The Ensigns with him all paused, surprised by his sudden demise, and dithered for a moment. A shout roused Aldus, who motioned for the others to follow and they made a short, dangerous dash for the building. Amazingly, they made it and followed Belacque inside.

"Word of advice for you, always look before you run" Lyra told them. Half of them had just run for the building. "If a sniper phaser rifle was up there, he would have picked you off quite easily"

"Aye, Ma'am," one of the ensigns mumbled before looking around to see if there were any enemies on this level. There weren't, so he headed for the stairway up and cautiously looked up, diving back before the hirogen up there could fire on him.

[Darwin]

While the ensigns continued on, Darwin gathered himself from the battlefield and headed, now unseen by the others on the holodeck, to a console from where he could watch the others' performances. With multiple screens running, he scrolled back on the data from Madhava and Vazquez. He frowned as he watched Madhava play around and tease her older, superior officer. He decided to make life a little rougher for the Orion and the Weapons Specialist; he then turned his attention to how the ensigns with Belacque were behaving.

[Madhava/Vazquez]

The Orion screamed as an enemy soldier dropped from the sky to her side. She started to roll away, to try to aim her phaser at it, to defend herself. Her efforts failed: her phaser fire went wide, the soldier grabbed her shoulder and her defense was offensive. Still, she had at least one trick Darwin had taught her: she kicked the soldier in the groin. It was a highly effective move when used on Darwin.

The warrior's blue armor prevented Reva from doing any damage to the much larger, much taller Hirogen. The only response she got was a mild grunt in response. Suddenly the Hirogen shoved her forward, into Vazquez's arms.

[Belacque and the Ensigns]

Ensign Stevens was cowered in the corner, her phaser pointed outward, ready to kill (well, stun, since this was a holodeck simulation) any enemy that came close to her. Since she was an engineer by trade, this was the best she could do.

At the bottom of a stairwell, Ensign Aldus looked up the stairs again and fired on what he hoped was an enemy. Return fire rained down from above and Aldus looked at Belacque. "Any ideas for getting up these stairs?"

"Run and fire like hell" Lyra said gripping her rifle and putting it onto rapid fire mode. "Simple, anything comes down gets shot, anything going up dosn't stop" Lyra explained.

Ensign Aldus glanced at Belacque then up the stairs. Things had gotten quiet up there, but Aldus had just enough experience to know that was a bad thing. He staggered to the side as Ensign Jenkins suddenly pushed past him and dashed up the stairs, phaser aimed up and activated. No sooner had Jenkins reached the top than a flash of fire and light and sound consumed him. His (now holographic) body tumbled back down the stairs, landing at Aldus's and Belacque's feet. In her corner, Stevens whimpered.

"Ok, so its an ambush up there" Lyra replied. "I know what I'll do" she said taking out her hand phaser. "I'm going to set it up on overload, essentially turning it into a small grenade type bomb" she explained. Tapping several times to turn it up as far as it go, then forcing it to overload. Taking her aim she threw it as hard as she could and it landed neatly on the top step.

A holographic soldier came to investigate it and he picked it up. Suddenly a loud explosion erupted and the entire top of the stairs laid in ruin whoever was up there wasn't now.
"Seems clear" Lyra replied gripping her phaser rifle and scanning the area.

Pausing, Aldus looked at his boss and wondered if she was making him be the cannon fodder.... he looked up the stairs and decided he didn't want to go up them. Of course, part of the reason was that the top of the stairs were in ruins. Getting to the next level would require some arm strength. Sighing, he headed up and poked his head over the level of the floor and nearly lost his nose as he ducked back down. "Yeah, seems like it would be! It's not," he hissed at Belacque before carefully aiming his weapon over the edge and firing away blindly.

[Vazquez, Madhava and the Hirogen]

Reva's shout had warned Antonio and he turned just as a second Hirogen fired on his position. Quickly, Antonio knew what had happened; the Hirogen had either flown over the field or flanked them and climbed the outer wall of the building. Dropping his rifle, he brought up his hand phaser and fired on the Hirogen, hitting the beast at just the right spot and taking him out, if only for a moment. Seeing his opponent go down, Vazquez turned, just in time to receive an armful of flailing Orion. Deftly, he shifted her to one side, unceremoniously dumping her to the floor...he was too late, though; the Hirogen Reva had roughly struggled with fired on him, hitting him square in the shoulder. Antonio slightly flinched at the sting, the setting having been set for all the weapons, yet he put his hands up, he was done. If the Hirogen's weapon had of been the standard for it's kind, he would of been in no condition to continue.

Scrambling to her feet, Reva stood up just as a third Hirogen appeared over the back wall and rushed forward to grab the team's red flag. "No!" she hollered, belatedly, and turned to grab her weapon.

As she reached it, the holodeck reverted to its black and yellow grid, ending the capture the flag game. Darwin stood by the holodeck controls, arms folded and mouth frowning heavily. "I'll speak with each of the Ensigns separately," he said, "Starting with Aldus and Jenkins."

Antonio stood back, staring at Reva. It was clear to him, he knew what he needed to do.


______________

Lieutenant Lyra Belacque
Security Chief

Ensign Reva Madhava
Science

Lieutenant M. Darwin, Security
Ensign Jenkins, Security
Ensign Aldus, Security
Ensign Stevens, Engineering
-NPC'd by Reva


Lieutenantjg Antonio Vazquez
Master at Arms/Weapons Specialist
USS Achilles

 

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