Operation Beachhead - Recovery Ops - Part 1

Posted on 22 Jul 2012 @ 7:40am by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal & Sergeant Dawn Brianna & Lance Corporal Cyfian Harper

1,485 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: M8: The Kzinti War!!!!
Location: Planet Mercer - Former Federation Colony

Jason returned from his 'discussion' with Velez. He found Cyfian in the squad bay finishing up a ration pack. Shaking his head to himself as he though, ~the kid must have been even more upset than I thought if he hadn't bothered to go get a hot meal from the field mess.~

He took a seat in the rack across from him and waved him closer with a pair of fingers.

Lifting himself up Cyfian leaned over to Jason and nodded.

"My...request... to go after Dawn was denied. But I'm going anyway." He looked at the Marine for his reaction then continued. "You will have a guard duty near the shuttles at 0300. When you head out I want you to 'accidentally' run into my rack and wake me. Once you have relieved the Cpl Winchester and I'm sure she is asleep I will be by to 'borrow' one of the shuttles and go find her."

Cyfian's eyes widened. He wanted to go get Dawn too but this seemed crazy. Disobey a order, steal a shuttle. Cyfian couldn't find one single logical explanation to do this. Though his gut just screamed that this was the right thing to do.

"I can't have you going alone sir. You'll need someone to watch your back and I just happen to be in the area with a weapon." Cyfian smirked.

Jason smirked a bit but the kid was right; there was no telling what they were going to run into. "Fine. we leave after 0300."

Cyfian nodded. "Understood sir." He couldn't help but chuckle to himself. Straight out of training, first assignment and he's going to disobey a order. Well so much for a career in Starfleet.

[Hours later...]

Jason was awakened as planned and he rolled over to watch as Cyfian left for his shift at guard duty; another 20 minutes later and he was up, slipping into the darkness. Taking an indirect course to be sure he wasn't seen Jason made his way to the shuttle area. As he watch for signs of movement all he saw was Cyfian as he patrolled the area, he was half temped to stun him and leave him but he might need his help.

Upon reaching the shuttles he activated the hatch and darted in. The shuttle was already fully equipped with more gear and weapons than they would need. "Computer, prepare for emergency departure."

Rushing back to the hatch to get Cyfian he scrambles outside, whispering loudly "Harper...Lets go!"

Nodding Cyfian picked up his rucksack that which was conveniently placed in the hanger earlier, and boarded the shuttle. It hummed gently as the consoles came to life and Cyfian took a seat next to Jason.

"Sir... you know how to fly one of these things right?" Cyfian asked jokingly.

Shrugging slightly. "Not really...I am still working on my pilots certification."

Cyfian chuckled softly. "Your joking right? Right?" Cyfian looked at Jason to get a response but he seemed to be concentrating on the console. "Great... just great." He whispered to himself.

The shuttle lifted off...not exactly level but the two were up and Jason adjusted their heading and the shuttle sped. The strange thing was that Jason didn't care a bit about the trouble he was going to get into. He had a team member out there and they were going to get her back; before the Kzinti could do...whatever they planned.

Velez had had a hunch that his Staff Sergeant wouldn't let it go. He watched as the shuttle moved up the mountain side. "Good luck. Go get our girl." He turned back into his shelter and closed the door, he would let the next watch find the shuttle gone, that should give them about two hours.

Jason and Cyphian returned to the crash site and started from there, they flew slowly scanning for human life signs.

The night sky seemed brighter tonight. Cyfian wasn't sure whether it was because they were up in it but it was almost beautiful. Just by looking up at the night sky you could easily forget of the bloodshed a few days before. Turning to his console Cyfian began to scan the surface for any Human life signs. The shuttle crash site seemed the most logical place to start but its doubtful the Kzinti would be so gracious as to wait for us there.

"Nothing around the crash site sir." Cyfian said as he continued to scan. However, without a clear direction as to which way they went this search could go on for hours and they didn't have that luxury.

"Sir, could you get us lower. I have an idea."

"Hold on." Jason brought the shuttle lower and slowed.

Cyfian opened the rear door which revealed the illuminated crash site. A gust of savage wide blew through the shuttle, rattling the instruments like bones hanging on a rope. Picking up his helmet Harper placed it on and activated his visor. He was trained in tracker and if he could get a good look at the crash site, he could determined which direction they took.

It didn't take long to find out. Zooming in to make sure there was no doubt, Cyfian nodded satisfactory. Hitting the panel to close the rear door he returned to the cockpit, removing his helmet and roughing up his hair. It was something he always did when he took off his helmet.

"They took the Sergeant North East. They can't of gone very far due to the thickness of the growth. If we hurry we might be able to catch up to them."

"Roger that. I've got the sensors at their max. I just hope we don't attract any attention before we find her."

They flew on for several kilometers..."Whatever they may be, those things sure can cover a lot a ground."


[A short time later…]

The console blinked as the sensors picked up a human life form. "THERE! And she's not alone...Gear up!"

Almost instinctively Cyfian bolted out of his seat and straight into the back. Throwing on his Backpack and helmet he reached for his weapon. After a moment of calibrating the sight and ensuring the weapon was fully functional he stood waiting for Jason.

Programming the shuttle to land half a click away as to not to alert the Kzinti soldier Jason left his seat to gear up as well. Once on the ground Jason turned to the junior Marine. "We got some ground to cover. You ready?"

Tapping his helmet and switch it to night vision Cyfian turned to Jason and nods. "This is what I was born for."

Nodding. "Okay then...lets go." The two of them headed into the woods as the shuttle ramp closed behind then.


Dawn slowly woke up, the fire was out, but her enemy captor was still there next to her keeping her warm. She felt weak, dizzy, nauseous, not good signs in her case, meaning she had lost quite a lot of blood. Suddenly she heard a noise, causing her to jump away from her captor a little in case it was some of his friends. "Hey, wake up, I think someone is here." she said quietly to him, nudging him.


Jason and Cyfian had made their way to opposite locations to be able to encircle the Kzinti.


As she nudged him the Kzinti woke and rose. His ears twitched at the sounds coming from the forest, she was right something was coming...from multiple directions. Sniffing the air he looked to his 'captive' and rushed into the forest.

"What is it?" Dawn quietly whispered, still not fully awake, trying to see what was coming. She looked at her 'captor' wondering if her squad was coming for her.

It seemed that the hunter had become the hunted. He scented the air again and his ears twisted to locate those closing on them. ~Two human's...very close.~ He cursed himself for letting be drawn off guard by the female. He lunged for his weapons but as he reached them a boot came down on the belt.

Jason stood there his phaser rifle pointed at the Kzinti. "Don't even thi..."

The Fourth-Son of Kthaw-Rhen didn't hesitate and he exploded up into the human sending him flying back and into a tree. On impact his weapon discharged but the blast hit nowhere near anything important, and the human fell to the ground unconscious. Spinning he turned to face the other human.

Cyfian bolted out of the tree line carefully placing his shot at the Kzinti who charged down Jason; one in the leg, to disable and two in the chest to finish it off. At that moment of time Cyfian could only see the Kzinti he was shooting, such was his concentration on his shots that all sound seemed to disappear apart from the soft sound of his weapon and the scorching of flesh.


TBC

 

RSS Feed