Chariot disposal

Posted on Wed Oct 24th, 2018 @ 2:47pm by Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Senior Chief Petty Officer Syal Duran-Yeager

Mission: Hera v Hera

Thex small group had been slowly making there way to the spaceport talking care to avoid the locals and any roaming patrols of amazons. Now they hide in an ally overlooking the starport. With the TR116 eyepieces, it allowed the group to easily see through the walls so everything was visible to see.

The spaceport was rather different from what you'd think of when you'd think of a spaceport. The chariots were all sitting in lines atop a large flat marble surface with a large stone tower in the centre. A few Minotaur wandered among the chariots driving a group of and badly beaten humans who were carrying what the andorian guessed were power packs.

" Looks like they don't think anything up for the moment. The pilots are most likely in the tower. I guess the cyclopes are the repair crew though I'm pretty sure they aren't doing this of there own free will. " Thex said quilty before openly winching as one of the minotaurs drove a large hoof into the back of one of the human's legs causing into to let out a roar of pain that echoed around the city. It's guard only laughed as it kicked to make the chained gang move.

Sonak made a few calculations while observing the whole landing area and the ships resting there.

"The hardest part will be to put the communication array of the port out of service. It is rather large, with multiple antennae and on top of the control tower. But it is essential to hamper any retaliation from their part. It should also be coordinated with the crippling of their fleet. The ships themselves are an easier but a more risky target."

He pointed to the neatly aligned chariots on the tarmac.

"The ideal maneuver would be to place one photon grenade with a remote detonator under every deflector dish of each ship. This would require for someone to go stealthily and swiftly under each bow and affix one with a magnetic pad; ideally one saboteur from one side and another from the other side, meeting in the center then without pause exiting sternwise together. Once safely away, a third concealed person would detonate them remotely all at the same time and render every chariot inoperative at the same instant while covering their escape."

He looked at the Andorian with a raised eyebrow.

"This is what the Klingon proverb refers to as: a thousand throats can be cut in one night by a running man with a knife."

Duran-Yeager regarded the other two members of her party in silence. "How do we get in there?, plant the charges and get out without being seen?" she inquired in a soft tone of voice.

" Good question. I don't see anyway without getting detected. Though..." Thex said as she looked back at the slaves and their guards. " Maybe if we get a distraction... though I don't like the idea of using slave labor as a distraction." She said looking at the poor beaten creatures.

"The runabout's transporters seem the obvious mean," Sonak reminded them but then added; "however, it's beam would most probably be detected and bring them to alert status. We need to draw their attention away to something like a concerning yet natural phenomenon that would not make them think of an assault ongoing against them; like a brushfire or landslide on the other side of this installation..."

" That could work. " the Andorian replied looking up at the hill. " Do you think we could beam one of the probes into that and set it to broadcast as a level of vibration that could cause a landslide? " She asked her team.

Duran-Yeager raised an eyebrow. "That might work. But if you juice up the probe, there is a risk you might destabilize the magma chamber in the volcano." Duran-Yeager commented quietly. "If that mountain blows its top, we automatically complete our mission but the cost will be way too high," she explained. "Another option is a half dozen photon grenades deployed to the crater of the volcano and then we detonate then, make it look like an eruption is starting." she sighed. "But we need to know exactly what this vulcano is doing at all levels, we may cause the very thing we're trying to avoid...."

Thex nodded as she began to open her coms to the Thor. It only took a short while before the results came back. " Well, it looks like she's in a dormant state. Gases in the main chamber seem low enough so we could blow it up without causing an eruption."

Duran-Yeager suddenly smiled. "Excellent," she commented. "Okay, the trick will be transporting ordinance in without it being crushed upon reintegration." the small female lifted a hand to her jawline as she considered it. "the ordinance will need to be small otherwise it will cause an eruption either way." she turned to Sonak when she realized suddenly that she didn't know how he liked to be addressed. Some had their own preferences. "Sir, could we generate a small lava surge as a distraction without a large ash surge. We don't need to generate a pyroclastic flow.."

The Vulcan examined the target area while thinking out loud.

"It is rather difficult to have one without the other. But ashes will go up and lava will flow down if we can manage to open a properly angled fissure high enough and vertical enough. Under gravity, the smoke and ash would go straight up and mostly straight down while the lava would flow downside."

He looked back at their team commander.

"We don't have to create a major catastrophe that could endanger friends and foes alike. What we need is just a diversion; something sufficient to grasp their attention long enough for us to get into position for the real destructive operation."

He showed her his tricorder readings.

"There is here near the top on this side a small crack already exposing bubbling lava to the sky. If we discreetly bring a probe in this angle and from this covered direction at a low altitude, it's engine explosion once in the molten rock should be enough. The lava flow will then follow the incline towards those hangars over there. At the very least, they should all look this way just long enough for our plan to get into motion."

Thex nodded as she began programming the necessary data into her wrist computer. " Okay. That should do it. As soon as it hits be prepared to move. " She said looking at her team before they would have to run. It wasn't long before the probe smashed into the volcano throwing up a cluster of rock and lava. True to the vulcans word the lava began rolling down the hill.

It had an imminent effect as a large number of amazons appeared from several of the buildings and began running towards the hanger.

" Move." Thex said quilty indicating that she would take the centre line of chariots.

"Yessir," Duran-Yeager answered quietly, she selected the first line of chariots as she began breaking out the items she knew that she would need to get this assignment completed with a minimum of fuss, she moved silently and swiftly as she attached the first warhead to the location she had committed to memory. Going about her work in silence.

From the completely opposite end of the line of ships, Sonak with the same hasty care affixed the charges he was carrying to the base of every deflector dish, his keen vulcan senses on the alert. His own swift run would bring him to Duran-Yeager right under the chariot in the exact middle of the resting fleet, using the front bulk of the ship to hide him and his shadow. The rumble of the lava flow easily covered the little noise his soft-soled boots were making.

But there was still a statistical probability of being detected despite all their precautions and successful diversion. Hence both his haste and his caution. his communicator was open so that Thex could alert them of any incoming danger they would fail to be aware of.

It was now a question of minutes.

Thex had taken the center line and was slowly making her way along the line making sure every ship got a bomb and a tag from her wrist mount. Halfway along her journey, she froze as another bellow from the minotaurs echoed around the shipyard.

Pocking her head around the ship she noted they were only a few chariots down from her. " Guys can you cover me whilst I try and get past these guys. I don't know how powerful the smell of a minotaur is." She whispered into her coms.

Duran-Yeager meanwhile had her rifle out as she had taken careful aim at the Minotaur's head. "Copy, I got him." she said quietly, as she slid into a small corner next to one of the chariots. "He so much as looks at us funny, he's gonna die." she muttered softly.

"I will try something, Lieutenant Commander; probabilities are low but acceptable," Sonak then whispered back into his communicator.

He was barely a few meters from one Minotaur looking confused by the sudden agitation and ground shaking. Sonak put his hands on the ground, his eyes focused on the back of the head of the man-beast as if he was going to drill a hole through it. His fingers moved slowly on the artificial ground covering of the tarmac like pale, sluggish spiders.

Back in his own universe, he could have projected his thoughts directly into the mind of the creature. He could even have thrown a pebble with his limited telekinesis to distract it. But in this reality, his psionics were no better than those of any Vulcan. Yet, his training was that of a kolinarh master. That is what he was now counting on.

With as much concentration as his decades-long disciplined mind could muster, he search and found the presence of the monstrous guard through their shared contact with the ground. Through that physical link, Sonak projected one single idea into the mind of the man-bull; a very sound, reasonable, obvious idea.

"All must help."

Fortunately, the mind of a minotaur was very unsophisticated; and the will of a slave creature made to serve was quite weak.

The monster flicked his long ears, shook his enormous horned head then blinked it's tiny black eyes and sniffed with his wide flaring nostrils. With a bellow and a rough gesture, the minotaur called his friends to him and lead them at a run towards the threatened hangars.

Thex waited till the creatures and their slaves had moved on before moving. She said nothing but gave a thumbs up to the Vulcan before she continued her task. She was around halfway done with arming the explosives and tagging the craft.

Duran-Yeager moved from her hiding spot in silence as she slid her rifle onto her back before she went back to tagging the chariots with the explosive charges she had remaining. Normally Duran-Yeager was a social butterfly and often she would make world-weary jokes but now wasn't the time for it. A smile appeared as she placed the last charge on the row of chariots she was tending to. "Row three is done. Moving to assist with row one." she commented in calm, measured tones.

Thex wasn't long behind Duran when she finished her row. She took a defensive position behind one of the chariots and waited for the vulcan to finish his row.

The Vulcan confirmed his own work later. His psionic diversion had delayed him a moment but he had managed to place all his charges well hidden under the deflector of each vessel in his own row.

"Row one complete. Proceeding to last row one from eastern quarter and moving towards you. Based on our current progress, we should meet at the center in five point seven minutes; mark."

Following his own signal, he moved to his extremity in the final row and attached his first charge to the chariot resting there. With the minotaur guard now away to help with the incoming disaster, he could proceed more swiftly as there were much less risk to be seen and heard.

Thex noted her team had finished so without a word she indicated for them to move back towards there original hiding position. Hopefully, they wouldn't be spotted and could be out of her before the fireworks started.

Duran-Yeager moved off, away from the chariot she had just booby-trapped, she was heading for Thex's position in silence, her footfalls made no noise as her short legs ate the distance to her destination quickly, she nodded to the Andorian in disguise as she reached the taller female.

Sonak got to them a moment later, his tricorder flashing silently as he reported the readings to them.

"All charges in place and active, ready for detonation. I have scanned the deflector array of those ships and the explosion will cause damage between ninety-four point seven to ninety-six point three percent of the whole array. It will be impossible to use them or to restore them in any other way than a complete replacement of the whole assembly; which will take no less than fity-three point forty-seven hours by an expert team of technicians for each ship."

He then showed them both on the small screen of his tricorder the schematics he had recorded during his sabotage run.

"Without a deflector dish, those ships will be destroyed by the friction of an impulse speed take-off; if they take a slower pace of ascension on thrusters only,the first micro meteorite they will meet in orbit will destroy them just as quickly through sudden decompression. If they activate shields to compensate, this will severely deplete their energy reserves before going into combat... and the smallest weakening of them will again expose them to the initial danger. In summary, we will have effectively grounded her fleet... as soon as you activate your detonator, Lieutenant Commander."

He was just finishing when their conmunicator demanded their attention with a message from the Hera's XO.

"Have reached main temple. Converge as you are able, bring the Thor. No resistance encountered thus far. Pressing on to temple now. "

The Vulcan looked at the resting vessels.

"I think now would be a good time."

Thex nodded as she drew the detonator and making sure her team was clear she pressed the trigger. For a seconed, there was nothing, before with a bang that blew the tiles of nearby buildings the explosives went off. Each chariot buckled as the deflector was obliterated as well as a good portion of the ships.

Thex grinned as they kept moving. " Good job guys." she said as they moved towards the temple.