Castillo De Muerte
Posted on Thu Jan 17th, 2019 @ 11:35pm by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Lieutenant Asa Dael & Lieutenant Alex Sexton & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy
Mission:
Section 31-B
Location: Sector 31 base 'Castillo De Muerte'
Timeline: 2396
Approaching the asteroid base, unsurprisingly, meant piloting through an asteroid field. Which wasn't that much trouble if you took your time and didn't nudge too many meteors out of the way with the deflector, sending them off on gentle trajectories that could wreak havoc when they were coming back this way. As they were in no hurry and she wanted plenty of external scans before they went in, Paris took her time, and flew like a grandma.
"What can you tell me about this chunk of dead rock with power readings Yeoman Dedjoy?" Paris asked over her shoulder.
"I can tell you that my ID codes are working. Otherwise, that weapons platform would be firing at us right now." Ila pointed out one of the viewports at a rather massive phaser satellite that they were currently passing. "As for the station itself, Lucky had a listing of almost three hundred possible research projects that could have been performed or stored there ranging from genetic manipulation, cybernetics, reanimation... Ah... Suffice it to say it's a long and dangerous list, Commander. Thankfully, the base design is simple. There's a shuttle bay with primary housing, a central shaft leading to all the research decks, and at either end is the power core at the bottom and the command center at the top. For the extra hazardous, there are isolation blisters on the surface, but sensors show that a few have been breached. As for that shuttle bay door... Got it. It's opening now, Commander."
"Atmospheric conditions and lifeform readings, Miss Dedjoy?" the first officer asked as she maneuvered carefully toward the shuttle bay.
Ila pulled up those scans next. "I can't get detailed scans of the atmosphere from here, but I do know that it's toxic. As for life forms... It's a bit of a jumbled mess. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. It almost reminds me of readings we took from a mission years ago... We had to take out a Romulan research station using corpses, Kobali viruses, and Borg tech. It wasn't pretty..."
With a shudder, Asa addressed the group, "Don't touch anything with your skin, please. I have spare gloves in case anyone needs them if you take your armor off."
Turning from the weapons console, Lieutenant Dox chimed in on the subject. "Well, these are full environmental suits. Ideally, we should keep them sealed to reduce any possible contagion risks, I would think. We came across some of those Tal'Shiar research stations when I was younger and calling them hot zones would be an understatement."
Alex listened to the report. Breaches from the blister compartments interested him most. If it was necessary to be contained in that manner, what the hell could’ve been in there. And if it escaped was it still lurking around? “Security team listen up. Don’t take anything for granted or any stupid chances. Watch your six and stay frosty. Remember we wear red shirts. There is a stigma attached. “ and he gave hand and arm signals to prep for egress.
"Funny, I thought Security hadn't worn red shirts since my day. But hey, what do I know," the Commander quipped from the pilot's seat as she eased the heavily armored runabout into the shuttle bay. Inside were the charred and decimated platforms of three runabout class vessels, identifiable only by the size of the undercarriages that had not burned or exploded. "Looks like something blew up all of their escape vehicles. Or they did it themselves to prevent whatever got turned loose here from escaping."
"That might be a good thing," Dox added, largely to combat her steadily rising nerves. "It indicates at least a possibility that whatever was or still is here hasn't escaped."
Turning on the forward lights, Paris spun the Thor about to shine the potent beams about to scan the hangar bay for any signs of movement or clues as to what had transpired here. Char marks and phaser and disruptor burns marred the walls of the hangar, along with a few corpses floating serenely in the inky darkness... corpses who did not look as though they had died from depressurization. Chunks were missing from more than one of them, the perfect spheres of their bodily fluids having been ejected long ago, now filling the bay with perfect brown globules that hung in space like glittering jewels of tragedy.
"Looks like we missed quite a battle here where the escape vehicles were to be found," Paris observed as the Thor settled down on the deck with the barest of gentle thumps. "Palmiotti, Bunche, you two are on guard duty with the runabout. I don't want to be running from a reactor overload to find out our ride home is a smoking ruin, and I had damn well better not get back to the Hera to discover some extradimensional xenomorph's egg sac attached to the belly of our ride. Understood?"
While waiting for direct orders, Doctor Dael set about scanning the corpses floating. Brow furrowed, they said to the group, "Not all these corpses died by phaser fire. Some were already dead before they got blasted to bits."
Suddenly, one of the floating bodies thumped lightly into the window directly over Dox, causing the young officer to flinch for a moment. She leaned forward to get a better look at the massive injuries. "Uh, Doc... I don't think all of these were blasted to bits. Those look almost like... teeth marks."
“Ok so FYI the red shirt comment was for my boys. It’s a stigma that no matter what colour we really wear, security is still considered red shirts amongst ourselves. Secondly, I’m not so sure it’s a good thing that whatever they were trying to keep in stayed here. Looks to me like they fought one hell of a battle, which means we’re underdressed for this dance. Let’s just hope all the boogeymen have long since expired. Watch the friendly fire and pay attention to detail. I got that old funny feeling in my bones now!” Said Alex
Without taking her eyes off of the windows, Dox replied flatly to the Security officer. "Sorry, Lieutenant Sexton. But I didn't mean good for us. I was thinking more good for everyone else in this system and beyond if whatever happened here has hopefully stayed here. If it's still here, we can hopefully contain it or keep it from spreading if it's viral."
"Sounds like somebody missed the part of the briefing where we're to destroy this complex, so any abominations of science that were created won't be getting away from here," Paris mentioned dryly as she powered down the engines but charged the weapons. Turning to face the rest of the landing party, Paris addressed the security investigator. "While I appreciate your colorful euphemisms designed to undermine confidence, let's keep it to the task at hand, Lieutenant Sexton. We are neither underdressed nor unprepared."
"I suspect, given the nature of this mission, the boogeyman or men are still inside, and we're here to take care of that with a rather final solution," Paris addressed the landing party, then refocused on Sexton. "So as they used to say back in my day, drop a pair. If you have misgivings, you are welcome to stay with the Thor and we'll take Mr. Palmiotti instead. Keep an eye to search and rescue, but that beacon was activated three weeks ago. I doubt we'll find any survivors, but stranger things have happened. Now, once again, we're to analyze the situation, rescue any survivors if possible, locate the command center, secure whatever data is recoverable, then more than likely destroy the station. Questions?" Paris looked around the interior of the runabout to see if anyone wasn't on the same page.
"Aye." Dox nodded in acknowledgment,
“Yeah, and that’s what I’m afraid of. Viruses are so unpredictable. Then there’s the whatever or whoever they had the firefight with. I guess we will just have to wait and see.” Replied Sexton
Distracted a bit by the medical mystery floating by, Asa looked up after hearing Paris speak and replied, "Aye Commander. Based on what we know of this base, medical based warfare is likely. I think Lieutenant Dox is correct....these are teeth Mark's, and not all humanoid teeth..."
“See what I mean? Now we got bodies floating around with teeth marks that don’t even look humanoid and we’re not supposed to share a little humour on the occasion. Come on XO, lighten up a little bit.” Said Sexton realizing it was a mistake the moment he said it. Paris had not warmed to him from the start. Now he gave her reason to ride him even harder.
"If I could interrupt please?" Ila called out over the suit comms, having already sealed hers as soon as they got close enough to enter the hangar. "These readings are not lining up. The exterior damage is from three, maybe four weeks ago. The distress beacon lines up with then. These remains? The dating on them reads as from over twenty years ago. This station's containment failed back during the Dominion War." Letting that sink in for a moment, Yeoman Dedjoy leaned in a bit closer to Rita. "Commander, whomever or whatever sent that distress call..."
"Is apparently native to a vacuum? Won't this be a fantastic scientific discovery," Commander Paris observed dryly while rolling her eyes. "Sealed systems people, assume we're exposing ourselves to whatever went wrong here, and don't get spooked. Exercise scientific detachment and combat careful movement, sweep as we go, comms open."
Rechecking the seals on their gear, Asa indicated an affirmative response and stood ready to proceed. They felt understandable caution of what the group would find and what would be required to achieve their goals, but the doctor was almost infectiously curious. If there was hidden knowledge to be found, Doctor Asa Dael had resolved to find it.
Locking the seals on her armor in place, Dox did a quick check of all the internal systems and audio. "EVA seals are locked and all systems are green." She announced, in her level best calm voice. But inside, the young Romulan pilot was terrified. She had faced a number of challenges in her brief few months on the Hera, but looking out the window at the sea of floating corpses made her wish she was facing off with an angry Spider-God again.
The crimson clad Lieutenant took a deep breath and recentered herself. She was scared, but she wasn't going to allow that to stop her from doing her job. She had her academy training to focus on and her friends at her sides. 'you can do this, Mnhei'sahe.' she thought to herself.
Dedjoy took a few deep breaths, her already large, doll-like eyes even wider. "As soon as the area is secure, I'll tap into the station's systems and check the status of everything. See if I can get gravity running at least."
"That would be most appreciated, Yeoman. All right gentlemen, once we blow the hatch this is your show until the hangar is secure. Hostile territory, eyes open, mind on the mission. Everybody comes home today," Paris nodded to Sexton as she tabbed the cabin depressurization. "Blowing the hatch in 3... 2... Security, you're on."
As the security team of Sexton, Smith, Jones, Johnson and Reynolds stacked at the hatch, the first real rush of nerves hit them, and just as quickly was gone. This was business and they had all been here before. "Swoosh" went the hatch and the eeriest of feeling came over them as a group. The team instinctively engaged the gravity boots and quickly stuck to the deck plating not five feet clear of the shuttle.
Floating in the atmosphere or lack thereof, just in front of them was one of those things, for lack of a better word. One moment it was motionless and the next it was flailing to grab the nearest thing it could. It's teeth looked like something resembling that of a great white shark, and they were blood stained.
The fifth man out was Reynolds. And she was in no mood to deal with the Unknown. One shot was heard, and one kill was made. "Good work Reynolds. Now everybody get your back to the shuttle and get ready to move on me." Ordered Sexton as he reached for the hatch closure mechanism. "Until we clear this bay, I think we should keep the hatch secure." And he hit the switch and the hatch started closing. Once the hatch was closed and the rest of the team secure, the crew went back to work.
"Folks this is a target rich environment sanitise the area. Fire at will." Ordered Sexton and the team began firing at random. The heads of the bodies began to explode one after the other. A minute later all movement stopped. Sexton surveyed the area. They had all stopped moving and for the most part were dead for real this time. All in all about fifteen had been reduced to floating waste material. "Whatever these things are, I'd say don't let one bite you." As they moved away from the shuttle, one of those things seem to launch itself at them from nowhere. Jones engaged it and brains went everywhere. "Good shooting Jones, now lets finish clearing this shuttle bay." Ordered Sexton not easily believing what they had so far seen and encountered.
They moved in unison to the entrance to the shuttle bay, looked back toward the shuttle and saw two more that must have been floating out of sight. This time, Sexton took one and Smith took the other. "Splash two more, zombie sharks!" Yelled Smith
+comm+"Sexton to Paris, you can join us whenever you are ready, just watch out for the floating debris. It's hard to tell which ones are capable and which ones we put to sleep forever. And whatever you do, don't turn on the gravity until we are sure of what we are up against. I think no gravity might be why who ever lived the longest did in fact live at all." Said Sexton
As they opened the shuttle bay doors, the unexpected happened, all hell broke loose. Two of the team had to literally duck and role to avoid being eaten alive. Alex released his gravity boots and pushed upwards, giving him a better angle on the zombie closet to him. Kicking it in the face and sending it back into the other three that were in front of them. Narrowly missing its clawed hands ripping at his suit. Then he fired and hit the beast somewhere in its head. The rest of the team was busy as well. And Jones was in trouble one had gotten behind him and if somebody didn't do something quick, thought Alex. But it was too late. The beast had grabbed ahold and the moment it knew it had Jones, the thing went into a berserker rage. Ripping at Jones helmet and biting down hard on his outstretched arm. Jones yelled out. It was the last noise he made, as the thing ripped his throat out.
In the back of Sextons mind, he could see the monitor on the shuttle go flat line on Jones vitals. Sexton angled himself toward the wall. Re-engaged his gravity boots and started shooting. He was not prepared to loose anyone else on his team. Reynolds killed one more whilst Smith looked on at Jones in disbelief. Johnson had managed to get his back to the wall and was shooting anything that came across the threshold of the shuttle bay doors. Before long, they had killed another five zombie sharks, as they were now affectionately referred to! And we're ready to kill more. Sexton looked back to see if Paris and the others were with them.
"None of these suits have directed thrusters, so magnetic boots, people." Paris ordered. In theory everyone knew to activate them, but command meant setting expectations and watching out for those for whom this might be their first zero-g battlefield situation.
"Lieutenant Dox, you're on point- cross the bay, nothing fancy. Doc, Dedjoy, stick to Dox. I've got our rear and I'll seal the hatch. Go, move!" Paris was already sealing the hatch as she spoke, "Palmiotti and Bunche, stay inside the runabout, buttoned up."
Following Paris' instructions and her lead, Dox engaged her magnetic boots which then made a thud, pulling against the deck plates. Bringing her phaser up and into a ready to fire position, the young Lieutenant was terrified. But Rita Paris was a born Commander and did exactly what the anxious aviatrix needed to keep herself focused: she gave Dox a responsibility and a charge.
Looking back quickly to lock her attention on the eyes of the wide eyed Ila, Dox kept her voice calm but firm. "Stay right behind me, Yeoman Dedjoy. I got you away from Anansi back on the Hera and we'll get through this together too." Dox said, recalling their attack on the Hera weeks ago where Dox had drug the unconscious Yeoman away from danger at the hands of an angry god. The two began to move as quickly as magnetic boots could allow.
Scooting out, the original series officer swiped up her phaser and set it to level 7, the kill setting as she watched her HUD and kept her scanners active as she ran. It was odd watching the monitor instead of her immediate surroundings, but the imaging was vastly superior.
"I'm sorry for Jones, security team," the Commander commended. "Lieutenant Sexton, are we clear into the complex yet?"
“Yes commander. Reynolds and Smith have secured the corridor just the other side of the shuttle bay doors. Fields of fire are good. But if you don’t mind me saying so. The most direct route possible to where we are going would be prudent.” Offered Sexton
Ila had opted to leave her weapon on her back for now, instead focusing on the terminal hacking tools she had brought with her. Already at her wit's end just from those things she'd once seen in a report and now saw in person, she had to take a couple deep breaths and flex her fingers to calm herself enough just to magnetically seal her hacking terminal to the security terminal just inside the shuttlebay.
"You can do this, Dedjoy..." she muttered to herself as she powered the terminal on and quickly accessed the non-essential functions, bringing emergency power in at least their local area back on, which meant lights and about half gravity. She was also able to get a detailed map of the installation as well as the status of most of it. "I'm in. Emergency power is on for this deck."
As for the gravity, across the deck you could hear the splat of falling fluids and flesh all around as the gravity plating kicked in. The yellowed lights did little to reduce the creepiness of the area, however.
Keeping her back to Dedjoy's as she worked and her phaser raised, Dox took a sharp breath at the sight of the room.
Viscera was not unknown to Doctor Dael, but the sight before them was unprecedented in their limited life experience. The doctor paused a moment next to Dox, hands on knees and head down, taking four deep cleansing breaths to avoid vomiting in their helmet.
They thought about going to their fallen fellow, but the injuries were too severe, the doctor could already tell....he was gone.
"I've downloaded a map of the complex and I'm sending a copy to your HUDS now. This deck is mostly living quarters. We'll have to pass through a couple common areas - it looks like a lounge and a dining hall. Then we'll be in the central turbolift corridor which goes up and down. Up goes to the command center, which is where the distress call came from and where the data core is. Down is where the reactor core is. Both register as offline, but from here I can tell that there's at least antimatter. Other than that..." Pausing a moment to try and access a bit more data, Dedjoy found she just couldn't for whatever reason. "Everything is offline. We'll likely have to go to each location to access the data core and reactor to blow the station."
"We'll stay together until the central shaft, then. Lieutenant Sexton, I assume you and your men are the experts in making things go boom. You'll take Lieutenant Dox and set the reactor to blow, then reconnoiter with us here, or back at the Thor if things have gone sideways. Dedjoy, Doctor, you're with me to the command center to secure the data and see whom or what sent that distress beacon. Open comms, no surprises people." Paris peeked into the hallway where cybernetic zombie sharks with, unless she missed her guess, lasers cyberware lay no longer animate, as it might have been debatable to call them alive when they had been moving.
"300 experiments and one of them was zombie sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads. And regular zombies, it looks like? Doctor Dael, some variant Romero strain? Tell me this isn't Borg technology they were playing god with here?"
Approaching a zombie shark, Dael knelt down to look more closely at the laser assembly. They snapped off a small component that was embedded in the cerebral fluid of the creature and scanned it.
Shuddering, the doctor turned to face the commander. "Negative, Commander. This is definitely Borg tech, but this bit... over here," they said snapping off a targeting device, " This isn't. I have never seen this alloy before. It seems to have bioadaptive capabilities,and the structure of the atoms is reading more dense than can be accounted by mass. There is Romero strain in the bodily fluids, but also Powers cascading RNA writers and Savini complex and Carpenter strains too. Its....its a lot ma'am."
Alex slowly worked his way around to each member of the team. Alex was thinking as he slipped a tag on his xo, and the doctor and the rest of the team. If this went south, whoever made it back to the shuttle would be able to beam them back with the tap of a few buttons. sexton quickly up loaded the tag data to the shuttle from his arm pad, then turned his attention back to his team.
"Sounds good commander. Open Comms and we will set the demo, whilst you guys get the data. If it gets hairy, and I mean this. Lock yourselves down and I'm coming for ya. If it kills me, I'm coming for ya." Said Sexton hoping the commander could see the sincerity in his eyes. "I don't want to lose another soul." And he stepped off in the direction of the turbo lift shaft and main corridor with his team close on his heels.
Internally Paris bit back the urge to explain to the junior officer that protocol indicated he wait to be dismissed from a briefing. She'd given him authority, after all. But when this was over they were going to have a very long talk. Because right now wasn't the time nor place as more automatic weapons fire lit up the corridor beyond, as the deck rose up like a blanket to try to smother a few members of the security team in an amorphous life form that might or might not already be dead.
"A walk in the park..." Paris muttered as she followed the security officers into the lounge, where the overturned furniture seemed to be opening toothy maws and animating to attack now. "Lieutenant Dox, you're on rearguard. Make sure nothing is following us and no stragglers."
"Aye, Commander." Dox replied in her usual flat manner when she was in 'business' mode. Keeping her weapon held at a low ready stance, she side stepped around her crewmates to take up the rear of the group. Her anxiety held in place by the needs of the job.
Deeper within the facility, a deep thud reverberated throughout the deck echo bars. Something big was loose and the changes to the station's status had roused it. Pulling out one of her more specialized scanners, Ila's eyes went wide as she realized what it was. "Commander... The central turbolift corridor... That thud? My scanner is registering a large biomass resembling a tyrannosaurus that's likely undergone similar transformations to the rest of these... Things... I'm also reading... I think I'm going to be sick..." Instead of telling, she just showed Rita the screen of her scanners.
"Hortas? They made zombie hortas?!?" The disbelief in the Commander's voice was evident. "This keeps getting better all the time... wait, xenomorphs?" The old-school officer paused in her expression of disbelief to form a solidly disgruntled grunt. "Mad scientists. I just hate mad scientists, I really do... what's wrong with perfectly sane science? It gets stuff done!"
"Lieutenant, you heard the Yeoman, zombie old-school extinct apex predator with cybernetic and undead capabilities ahead. Might I suggest a coordinated grenade assault?" Paris suggested, then added."Let's do try to limit the structural damage as best we can, don't want to impede our access to the reactor, after all."
Doctor Dael shuffled slightly closer to Commander Paris instinctively, drawing their phaser and internally cursing their decision to not come more fully armed.
The sound of phaser rifles and the words Apex Predator did not belong in the same paragraph let alone the same sentence. Alex reached behind his back and removed the small pack he had there for special occasions. Though never in his wildest dreams could he have thought up something this radical. "Security pull back to me, and get ready to volley fire on whatever emerges from that shaft ahead. Use your gravity boots to keep your balance and get behind me so I can throw a very special grenade." And as soon as Reynolds and Johnson got behind he, they waited. The bumping noise was getting closer. And just as the group had thought they had seen everything, the biggest head of a T Rex in any galaxy emerged from the shaft. It's mouth opened and a sound came out making anyone close enough grab their ears.
This thing had to be shut down fast. Alex twisted the explosive and waited, silent counting off the dead seconds and then he threw it so fast that it would have been hard to see what it was if you didn't already know it was an explosive. "Everybody get down." And 1.5 seconds later there was a flash, a bang and then a boom, of pretty big proportion. But not big enough to take down the structure only the monster. Green slim and blood covered the walls of the upper part of the shaft, as the main body of the creature fell several decks below to its final resting place.
While she was at the back of the group, Dox's Romulan ears picked up the explosion a bit more intensely then not and the young pilot winced slightly.
Alex sat back on his butt from the concussion of the blast, and so did Reynolds and Johnson. Smith stood once again with his mouth open not believing what he was seeing. "One down , an unknown number to go. I just hope that's the last one of those we meet. Got no more fun toys like that one." Said Alex almost laughing out loud, which must have caught on because Reynolds and Johnson began to laugh out loud as well. Finally Smith joined in, and they looked like a crazy group who just escaped a looney bin!
"Ok, let's get this show back on the road. Commander by your leave, we will start our decent!" Said Sexton waiting for a response from Paris.
"Very efficient work, Lieutenant. Miss Dox, you're with the Security team," Paris reinforced, fixing Sexton with a very particular expression. Get her some experience but bring her back alive was clearly implied in the glance to him, to her, and the meaningful nod to the security investigator afterward.
Moving briskly to lessen the distance between where she was at the rear and Sexton's position, Dox replied. "Aye, Commander." Then the rotund Romulan nodded towards the Security officer, acknowledging the order and his authority. "Lieutenant."
Alex nodded to the Commander. "I'll keep her by my side." He said with a smile and then looked at the map on his tricorder that had been down loaded earlier. "We have roughly 100 meters down to go. Since there is no gravity it should be pretty easy going if we apply ourselves. No heroics and no stragglers. Let's go." He would wait for the artificial gravity to be turned off. And then turn off his boots gravitational hold on the deck and lightly propelle himself downward encouraging Dox and the others to do the same.
Disengaging her magnetic boots, Dox pushed off the deck plates to float in formation beside Lieutenant Sexton. Zero gravity was an environment the former childhood smuggler was fairly comfortable in, having had to repair the artificial gravity almost weekly growing up on a perpetually failing smuggling ship.
"Let's make this ascent and descent a touch less perilous," Commander Paris decided, then called the command. "Miss Dedjoy, kill the gravity until further notice and we can ascend and descend far more quickly and efficiently, while our opponents are at a disadvantage. We've made it abundantly clear that we're here, and I'd like to be away sooner than later. Lash together with 3 meters of line between us. Doc, you're our rear-guard."
"This is the only deck I was able to restore gravity to so the rest of the station should be completely in zero G still," replied Ila, putting her scanning tools away and pulling her rifle free. She'd qualified with it, but actually having to defend herself and others... She just hoped when the time came, she didn't have to.
"Looks like it's time for some zero-G maneuvering. Work fast, be careful, do it right, and we'll all be home in time for supper."
