A Night At The Opera

Posted on Wed Feb 13th, 2019 @ 8:54pm by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant Asa Dael & Rear Admiral Farenia Meowlith & Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott

Mission: Dance of the Valkyries
Location: Starbase 336, Dance of the Valkyries
Timeline: 2396

Marching down the corridor, time was of the essence. The anti-proton beam Freyja had used to carve through the USS Hera, the USS Aldrin and Starbase 336 all in one singular blast had demolished defenses and allowed Odin to extend the Bifrost to the starbase. Where he was now depositing forces unknown at the location, as at the very least his Valkyries battled their way toward the secret the base was hiding, which just might be a captive essence of a titan.

The order had been given to defend the station by Captain Telvan, which led to Commander Paris, Lieutenants Sonak and Dox and Dael, Petty Officer Weinstein, and Baroness von Alcott arming themselves, then beaming down to the station. While it was far and away the Commander's least favorite way to travel, there was no time for a shuttle, nor was taking one down an acceptable risk. Beaming had been a necessity, so she'd given the order and beamed in with the landing party.

After she'd had the ship's computer beam her EVA armor onto her form, what could be scarier than that?

While most of the station was still heavily shielded, they were able to beam in close to where the Bifrost had dropped off a number of the intruding Valkyries- a large cargo bay that seemed to have been repressurized with the aid of emergency force fields, though one wall had been sheared clean away. A group of six Aesir were in a defensible position, firing some sort of spear-like energy weapons at the station's defending forces and completely unaware of the Hera's forces that had beamed in behind them.

The Baroness was quick to take up a defensive posture. In her battle-worn gold and blue armor, her royal blue cloak fluttering, she charged the Valkyries with nothing but her semi-bare hands. Punching one in the face, a look of surprise froze on her face as she turned to look at the sudden sounds, then slammed to the deck out cold before the others could respond. Then the Teutonic troublemaker jumped back slightly, so the others could get a clear line of fire.

His face a mask of rigid jade, Sonak fired at the nearest Valkyrie as she charged. The phaser cut a deep gouge on the floor right before her feet and she toppled face first, her ankle caught and sprained as she stepped in the unexpected deptression. Like the consummate warrior she was, she ignored the sudden, sharp pain and rolled forward to absorb the fall, to come back up on one knee, weapon raised. But before she could even find her target, her eyes rolled upward and she fell under the nerve pinch of the Vulcan at the nerve centers of her neck, having rolled right into his reach.

For a moment, the scene made some of the other warrior women pause and stare at him.

''Freya's Girdle! This be sorcery! Is this... is this... Loki?'' one asked the other.

The answer was drowned by the fall of the ceiling Sonak blasted in a circle over their heads, effectively trapping them in a cage of heavy debris.

"Loki? Please. Loki wishes he was that smart," Rita muttered as she tapped at her comm unit, connecting to the station's computer and bringing up a holographic projection map of the radial hub design of Starbase 336.

"Looks like if they are keeping anything secure it would be in the central hub here," Rita observed, pausing to squeeze off a few shots in succession to an incoming Valkyrie who was snarling her way into a charge, before she connected and the living Norse legend succumbed to a heavy stun. "So let's try to get there with a quickness, people. Doc, you stick to my six, Baroness on short scout and the rest of you move as a unit, protect each other's flanks and let's try to use minimal force here, people. These were our allies until a few hours ago and they might be again if we can resolve this. Let's move."

"Aye, Commander." Dox closed up ranks behind Asa with her modern type 2 phaser in a low ready firing stance at the parties rear. In spite of the 360° data her suits scanners fed into her own heads up display, she kept her eyes sharp.

''My tricorder readings are confirming your logical assessment, Commander,'' Sonak reported, holding his instrument in one hand while leveling his phaser and firing a heavy stun beam at a crouching warrioress, felling her. ''I read a peculiar energy flux at the juncture of these corridors; the very kind we were looking for.''

Scanning through the data on their HUD, Dael mentally thanked McBain for training them to move effectively in their white armor. They had a caduceus and cross symbols in red on their shoulders, front, and back. The universal symbols for medicine as well as their lack of weaponry beyond a phaser and some knives marked the slim figure as a medic.

It was in that capacity Asa said, "The delta brain waves of the Valkyries after being rendered unconscious are 34 percent higher than expected. Recommended increasing stun power setting by 12 percent as a temporary default."

"Thank you, Doctor." Dox replied from the group's rear, adjusting her weapon just in time as two Valkyries entered into range of the 3-D sensors of her HUD, though still too far behind them in the darkened section of the corridor they were making their way down to see with the naked eye.

Dox brought her weapon to bear and fired two stun rounds into the darkness. Seconds later, the sound of two stunned warriors falling to the deck echoed towards they away teams rear as her HUD confirmed her hits as successful.

That was enough for Schwein, as she headed out for scouting duty. Double tapping her helmet, it started relaying her scan data from her cybernetic eye, which was not covered by her usual eyepatch right now. In a rush, she raced ahead into the fray between several more Valkyries and 'fleeters. With another punch, the lightly armored pirate all but knocked her target out and with a lunge, she grabbed them up and swung them around into the other three like a makeshift club, scattering them across the deck. Still clinging to the first Aesir, she flung the poor woman through a door into another pair of startled intruders.

Finally, she reported in. "Commander, I estimate fifty Aesir across this part of the station. I also detect an Asgardian ship forcibly docking near the central core." As she reported in, she ducked fire from one of the Valkyries she didn't quite knock out and had to casually grab one of the wall panels that had come loose and throw it like a frisbee at her to get her to stop.

The inborn sense of intuition that Rita Paris trusted implicitly urged her onward, and told the extradimensional explorer that haste was a necessity. "We've got to get to that core, people, otherwise I get the feeling something awful is going to happen. Speed, people, on the bounce! Move quickly, cover flanks and keep your heads down!" Unslinging her rifle, Paris called for smoke grenades then fired them out in sequence ahead of them. Then the career fleeter hustled the landing party forward, firing her phaser as they moved.

At the rear, Dox was picking up more attackers advancing behind them on her HUD. So, taking a page from Sonak's book, Dox tightened her phaser to a cutting board and fired a 'U' shaped groove into the ceiling, causing a massive section of the heavy durasteel to fall like a ramp from the floor to the ceiling, blocking the corridor behind them to trap the advancing Valkyries. "Our rear is clear." She yelled out to the group as she ran to keep up.

"Clever girl," Paris muttered as she worked to interpret all of the sensor data, then realized she had to focus past all of the possibilities of what might lie ahead and focus on the here and now. Firing a few more smoke grenades ahead, Rita slung her rifle and swapped her phaser back to her primary hand, minding the map to keep the landing party on course as they moved into one of the hub corridors to the central core. "Starboard at this juncture, then hard to port, then we should be in a long corridor to the hub entry."

The away team kept moving at a quick pace. As they turned the corners, Dox moved to the side of Asa and kept her eyes on her HUD, firing into their smoke cover to stun unseen Valkyrie ahead of them. Her focus was sharp as she was committed to not allowing any of the mistakes made on the Section 31 base to be repeated in the here and now.

"Starbase 336 ops, this is Commander Paris of the USS Hera," Rita broadcast on the starbase's internal frequency. "We have a landing party headed to your central core to try to head off the Asgaardians that are currently penetrating it. How can we best coordinate our efforts with your people in there?"

It took a few seconds for the reply to come through, and when it did another voice could still be heard arguing in the background. "You can start by steering clear of the central core. This station is classified top secret, and you people aren't cleared for this material! Our people have the situation under control-"

In that moment the entire structure shuddered, and the sounds of groaning metal and contrasting cavitations were heard and felt. Scanners indicated structural damage was occurring to the station, and as they ran, they entered a section of the station with transparent aluminum viewports, where they could see the chariot drawn by cats parked alongside the central hub of the station as another impact shook the starbase.

"This sure doesn't sound like 'under control' to me. Your station is suffering a severe assault on it's structural integrity. I suggest you sound the abandon ship and get your people to safety," Paris responded as visual distortions began occurring in the clear viewports- the sign of deforming transparent aluminum. "Seal systems, people. I don't know that we're going to have atmosphere for long."

Watching the view ports ripple, the order was quickly obeyed as the EVA suits were sealed in the event of an impending hull breach. "Commander. Recommend we activate mag boots as well. It will slow us down a fraction, but if those windows go, we'll be blown out into space." Dox suggested.

"Agreed, magnetize, crew- I need you on deck here," Paris ordered, processing the situation, listening to good ideas and pressing forward as a unit.

''I have the Valkyries' position on my tricorder, Commander,'' Sonak reported. ''I linked it's readout to the hud of our helmets. This should help us make a safer route out of here to the extraction point.''

Up ahead, still feeding the rest of the team data from her cybernetic eye, Schwein closed up her suit's helmet to reveal a rather stylized skull emblazoned in reflective gold on the forward round lens. Unlike her 'fleeter counterparts, her suit didn't have a nice fancy HUD inside of it, however - that was what her cybernetic eye was for. Instead, it was built to withstand and enhance her already incredible augment strength. With that said, the rifle, two swords, and disruptor lance she carried were not for show either. She just preferred to fight with her gauntlets for a while to make sure she wasn't killing possible future family.

Those thoughts had to wait though as most of the way down the spoke towards the central core, the clear aluminum windows all flexed enough to shatter, the entire walkway twisting slightly. She barely had enough time to magnetize her boots as all the air rushed out, sucking Aesir and 'fleeters alike past her. Glancing around, the life signs of the Valkyries read stable, but the fleeters...

Scrunching her eyes shut for a moment, she tried not to think about it. As a combat medic by trade, this loss of life... It just brought back bad memories. Instead, she pressed on, drawing her short sword as she headed towards the nearest emergency shield. She planned on breaching it and Challenging Freyja. She would answer for this.

At the shield, she found it defended by 'fleeters that looked genuinely scared at her armor and no amount of pointing to the little Starfleet Delta on her chest would convince them to let her in. "Little pig little pig... Let me in..." Chuckling softly, she chose another route. "Baroness von Alcott to Commander Paris. Ze Valkyr are able to fight without suits, so watch out. I am at ze core shields but ze dummkopfs will not let me in no matter how much I huff and puff. I fear they do not believe I am on their side."

"Mister Sonak, override that airlock hatch if you would be so kind," Paris asked as they trudged forward, magnetic boots slowing them down as she unlung her rifle, targeted and began to shoot Starbase personnel who being launched into space unprotected with transporter tags. "Paris to Hera, transporter room one, beam in targets we are painting, emergency evac! Dox, Weinstein, switch to tagging and save as many as you can. Time is of the essence, people!"

''Understood,'' the Vulcan answered as he used his tricorder to scan the lock, calculate the permutations of the opening code.

Slapping her phaser back to her hip, Dox tugged hard on the strap over her shoulder, flipping the massive rifle from her back into her hands, all the while using the readouts on her HUD to cycle the ammunition to the transporter tags. She stepped to the left flank of the security officer. "Weinstein, I've got 9 o'clock to 12. You get 12 to 3."

"Aye ma'am," the large neckless grunt replied, securing his rifle to his shoulder and using the targeting computer to perform rapid-fire tagging of the personnel who might survive if the landing party acted quickly enough.

Taking aim, Dox let out a slight breath and began firing. Not wanting to risk losing anyone, she switched to rapid fire and quickly began spraying the Starfleet personnel with tags. Deciding that the lives were more valuable than her ammunition supply, Dox kept firing as she watched her targets beamed away one by one

Interestingly, several Romulan security personnel were also floating out in space as well, but they were quickly snagged by green transporter beams as they were tagged by a series of Scorpion class scout fighters. Apparently the elusive Romulan commander of the base didn't want to lose any of her people, but saw nothing wrong with letting the Starfleet security force sacrifice themselves.

There was a beep behind them as Sonak turned towards them.

''Hatch ready to be opened, Commander.''

"We're unsealing this hatch. Stand back if you don't want to..." Paris broadcast on the station's comm frequency, even as she saw the Starfleet personnel pull back and level their weapons at the hatch.

"Really, people?" Paris shook her head and rotated her ammunition on her HUD to tears gas grenades. "Start tagging them as soon as we're through with transporter tags. Paris to Hera, security teams to transporter rooms 1 and 4, on the double, friendly fire, I want containment and disarming of incoming personnel."

"All right Mister Sonak," the gold-armored starship siren dropped to one knee and aimed the multi-purpose firearm at the edge of the hatch. "Open, and open fire, people."

Turning toward Petty Officer Weinstein, Dox gestured him towards the port wall. "They're going to be firing blind, so get close to that wall and stay low. Use your HUD to target."

As the hatch opened, the emergency atmospheric forcefields maintained the atmospheric pressure, but did nothing to prevent smoking tear gas canisters ejecting into the core at their entrance point as the crew of the Hera opened fire on Starfleet and Romulan forces arrayed against them.

Taking a knee against the starboard side of the opening, Dox could pinpoint those inside as if there was no smoke all with the HUD scanner and began tagging them for beam out, even as phaser fire began streaking wildly towards them.

Within seconds, the hum of transporter beams could be heard through the swirling mists and the crossfire stopped.

"All right people, move in mark your targets, fire if fired upon, but keep it non-lethal," Paris ordered as she moved in.

"Ceasefire! Stop this tomfoolery! You Federation dogs! Firing on each other when the real enemy is about to breach our inner research labs? What is that dha'rudh of a Commander thinking?" Grabbing a weapon out of the hands of one of the Starfleet security and tossing it aside, a Romulan woman with the rank markings of Riov and wearing the sword of a royal house strode past the forward line of station defenders to address the USS Hera away team.

"Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am Riov Dalia Rendal, the Romulan Commander of this station. My Starfleet counterpart lacks... insight... Into this situation and is likely to get us all killed. If you are here to aid us in the defense of our research, then by all means, feel free. You are obviously far better armed and armored and much better prepared to deal with situations such as this." Turning to the side, she motioned that they were free to proceed further into the station.

"In that we're agreed," the gold-clad commander grabbed the Romulan commander by the arm and hustled her along as they spoke. "Commander Rita Paris, of the Federation starship Hera. What's in there that Odin's so determined to breach we're pretty sure is a titan. My question is what's it doing there and what have you people been doing with it? Because that one-eyed Norse fella is-"

A resounding KLANGGG of metal on metal reverberated through everyone present, causing everyone to pause momentarily.

"Mad and determined is what he is, and his wife doesn't seem that pleased either." Paris shoulder slung the great rifle and switched back to her reliable hand phaser, firing a few strafing shots until she connected with a running Valkyrie as she hustled the Romulan commander along. "So any idea why they're so keen on tearing this starbase apart?"

Riov Rendal knew then that at least part of the charade was up and relented in at least knowing that there was a Titan aboard. "Who wouldn't be pissed at a lesser race performing historical research on your forefathers and being given the runaround by some Starfleet Intel dha'rudh? Honestly, I have no idea what sparked his ire other than repeatedly being told that we were unwilling to release the remains to his people. Look, I can clear you as far as the main research lab, but beyond that... Please don't let them get any further."

That little voice in her head told Rita this was about twenty percent mixed truth, which meant that the Romulan commander underestimated her, didn't trust her and desperately wanted to hide whatever was really going on here. Likely because she had mentioned 'remains' and that didn't bode well for whatever Freyja was liable to find should she be effective in penetrating the central core of the complex.

"You'd better stay close to us, Commander. We'll be better able to protect you that way," Rita declared, thinking to herself because I think the Federation might be bringing you up on charges and I don't want you to go vanishing at an opportune moment. Ah, when did you become so paranoid, Rita?

There were great gaping holes in the inner bulkhead where the central core was layered with multiple decks about it, almost as if the station had been built around the core itself, which did make sense. Inside those jagged hull breaches, the result of devastating force applied, were some of the Valkyries, talking cover and making a stand to cover their liege's bride, the queen of the Aesir.

"That's going to be a very difficult firefight, and time-consuming as well, and it's time we don't have. Ideas, people?" Paris called for input, because she didn't have an idea- but their strength was in their diversity.

Calling up a scan of the area where the Valkyrie were taking cover, Dox's HUD could see them all even where the ruptured bulkhead concealed them from a direct line of sight. "Commander, scans are showing that the closer we get to that Titan signature, the more signal interference we're getting. We couldn't just have them beamed away."

Looking again at the data, Dox paused for a second. "The Transporter tags are designed to act as pattern enhancers, but we don't have a clear shot for them... but what about the reverse? We can shoot tags past them. Over their cover and behind them... have the Hera beam a couple of us behind their cover. Myself and Weinstein can target the Valkyrie, the Baroness can confront Freyja. While they're dealing with us, you can close up the gap?"

"Beaming takes too long," the silver haired pirate replied. Beaming your allies out to save them was one thing, but beaming your enemies out so others had to fight them? That was dirty fighting to the Baroness and she didn't like it. The whole suggestion about beaming behind her enemies at the start was one thing, but to do it in the middle of a fight also sounded dirty to her. She just had to explain it to her 'fleeter friends in a way they would accept.

"While we beam, they attack, we lose." Schwein then put away her shortsword, and pulled out her disruptor lance in her off hand and pulled out what appeared to be a broken claymore in her main hand. With a squeeze of the hilt, it unfolded to a full length claymore and began vibrating. "You are familiar with principals of Blitzkrieg, ja? I will act as a battering ram, draw their attentions, and give you the openings you need. Then I will engage Freyja. No beaming, no tricks. Just honorable combat with good strategy and teamwork. Ja?"

It was on the whole a decent plan; there was the fact that these might just be the Baroness' in-laws soon, and in truth Rita didn't have a better idea. "Technically I can't order you not to. All right people, set a firing line, we follow the Baroness in-" The supersoldier held up three fingers, and Paris nodded. "Three seconds. Mark your targets, move and fire, let the sensors do their jobs. Doc, stick to my six as usual."

"Look sharp, crew, and let's go stop a war while it's still a diplomatic incident."