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What Base Treachery

Posted on Thu Feb 14th, 2019 @ 9:22am by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant Asa Dael & Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott

Mission: Dance of the Valkyries
Location: Starbase 336, Dance of the Valkyries
Timeline: 2396, Dance of the Valkyries
Tags: Night at the opera 2/3

"Baroness," Rita grasped the pirate captain's shoulder and looked her in her organic eye and splayed a devil-may-care grin at Schwein, an expression that conveyed the absolute confidence she had in the woman. "Godspeed- go!"

"Feuer frei, meine kameraden!" With that, the Baroness grinned a shit eating grin and charged into the thick of the Aesir, screaming at the top of her lungs and firing at them with her disruptor lance while carving into their cover with her claymore like it was paper. She was doing excellent at drawing their fire as well, but most shots went wild. Even the ones that came close only grazed her armor or punched holes in her already battle-scarred cloak.

As she got closer to where Freyja was hammering on the hatch, it was as if the Baroness entered a righteous fury. Leaping over Valkyries still undercover as if they were toddlers at a tea party, she took to kicking them over with her armored boots.

Then right as Freyja got the large doors to the last lab which contained the Titan open, Schwein fired a few shots from her disruptor lance to get her future mother-in-law's attention, before abandoning it in one final leap. Freyja turned to meet her, the arrogant smirk fading from her face as her spear shook heavily from the impact of the silver-haired Baroness's claymore, easily driving the Goddess back at least a meter before she caught her footing.

"That woman can really cover a LOT of ground in three seconds. Go, go!" Rita urged the landing party forward, phasers lancing out as they advanced.

As they advanced, Dox laid down a strong suppressing fire with her phaser, targeting the remaining bulkheads the Valkyrie were using as cover with maximum power to cause the metal to superheat and explode away.

Assessing the tactical situation, Sonak, instead of firing directly at enemies deftly maneuvering to get cover, opened fire at setting 10 in a subtle pattern to make them react and move away from his line fire; so that they would hesitate to charge and be better exposed to those of his teamates.

In the momentary confusion of the blasts, Dox reduced her phaser down to the highest stun setting to resume fire, rendering unconscious one Valkyrie as another rushed the stout young Romulan with her spear. With less than an inch to spare, Dox rolled out of the way of the lunge but in doing so fell slamming hard against the deck.

From the deck, Dox reached around to her back to pull out a short metal rod that, with a flick, extended into a two-meter long staff with a glowing blue end just in time to block a lunge from the advancing Valkyrie.

All the while, the Vulcan science officer was also on the move, stopping his firing pattern and thus managing to flank the opposition. While the other Valkyries charged past him, both his hands found the necks of a pair of warrior women, dropping them like stringless puppets. This however gave a third one time to turn and come at him, blade raised. A sharp pivot on one foot barely missed cleaving him from skull to crotch; and sending his clipped phaser off his belt to clatter in a debris-filled corner.

Aware of the loss, Sonak lost no time in switching to close combat. Following his pivot, he stayed very close to the swordwoman, making sure her blade would be hampered by their closeness, enough to continue his rotation around and right behind her before she could move away back to proper striking distance. The experienced warrioress would have stabbed him backward with the hilt of her sword if his fingers had not already found both sides of her head.

''Sisters! Peace!''

That Valkyrie was not their leader. Thus, the others simply stopped for barely a second, startled by the sudden, unexpected call shouted by of one of their own. The psionic suggestion thus voiced would not deter them more, as they instantly noticed the Vulcan standing behind her and holding her as a shield between them with a weird grip on her head and face.

Sonak just expected this to be enough for his team to bring the confrontation to a close.

If... his calculations were right.

Still on the ground, using every bit of enhancement the EVA suit could provide, Dox was holding the Valkyrie on top of her from plunging her spear tip through her visor into her brain with her own staff. For a split second, the Valkyrie was distracted by Sonak's strategy, allowing Dox to move.

She let up pressure on the right side of her defense, forcing the staff to slide to her right and plunge with force into the deck right beside her head. As it did, the bladed edge sliced too close and cut through the shoulder of Dox's armor as the young Romulan pilot let out a hoarse scream of pain.

But she used the opening to slam the glowing edge of her staff into the Valkyrie's stomach. With a bright blue burst of energy from the tip of the weapon, the Valkyrie was blown back off of Dox by the stunning blast from her staff.

At the sound of her scream, Weinstein laid down cover fire, stunning the downed Valkyrie and interposing himself as an armored wall between Dox and the battle. “You okay, Lieutenant?”

"Thanks, I'm okay." Dox assured the fresh security officer. “Let’s keep moving.”

“Like hell,” Asa grumbled quietly to themselves, reaching into their shoulder-slung bag to withdraw a tissue knitter and hypo. The doctor stepped over to the pilot, and after a quick scan with the newly built-in medical tricorder in the hand of their armor, Asa grunted and peeled Dox’s armor back a bit, revealing a bloodied shoulder.

“This is going to sting, brace yourself, Lieutenant.” Then, after knitting as much of the wound that could be reached without taking the time to compromise the rest of the damaged armor, Dael injected a hypo to ward off pain and infection. The injection contained a small amount of stimulant as well, both to encourage blood reproduction and enhance battle reflexes. Once that was complete, Asa used a portable cauterizer to seal back together as much of the arm of Dox’s armor as possible.

“It won’t be as sturdy as it was before, but should hold together for you. Once we are back on the Hera I want to do a full exam, but this has at least nullified any particulate matter or infection. Just try not to land on that side?” Asa said, patting Mnhei’sahe’s good shoulder in a conciliatory manner. They hated battle, hated seeing their friends wounded, hated the senseless loss of life. The universe had given no options today though, so the doctor was simply doing all they could to keep everyone in one piece.

“Everyone else ok?” Dael called, scanning to confirm that everyone else was hale in body. After quickly confirming all were well, Asa noticed the Valkyrie that Mnhei’sahe had blown back was beginning to stir. In a no-nonsense fashion, Asa walked over and used flexible restraints to secure the Valkyrie’s hands and feet.

“Commander, should I rouse our friend here?” Dael inquired, pointing at the now-secured combatant.

“Converge on my position,” Paris grunted as she caught a Valkyrie’s blade on her own, then she raised her leg to place a boot in her opponent's chest, shoving her away then stunning her with a phaser beam. “Looks like Freyja and the Baroness are currently engaged in a duel, and the remainder of the forces- DROP THAT DISRUPTOR, MISTER, OR LOSE THAT HAND!” Paris barked at a Romulan security officer who was recovering and reaching for his weapon. "Seem to be routed for now."

"Yes, your people appear to be exceptionally well trained..." added Riov Rendal, letting the implied 'for Starfleet' hang in the air a moment before continuing. "We still have the issue of that last invader and that... Did you bring a pirate with you? How quaint."

Meanwhile, the duel between Schwein and Freyja was fast and furious, both swinging with their respective weapons, a nanopulse claymore and an uru spear, but neither were making headway against the other. The impacts alone were sending out shockwaves powerful enough to strip the walkway they were fighting on over the great slumbering Titan Iapetus of its hand railings a piece at a time. It was obvious both were fighting with their full power, but it was obvious which one would run out of stamina first. While Schwein was an amazing warrior, Freyja was Aesir and could fight like this for what was rumored to be an eternity.

Hence the silver-haired pirate needed to get the upper hand somehow.

In the center of the walkway, she saw her chance. The catwalk supports were thinner so she pressed the attack, momentarily driving her future mother-in-law back, the air bursts from the blows stripping away the grating beneath their feet as well now. With even more precarious footing, Schwein leaped back a few steps and switched to a one-handed hold on her claymore and pulled out that federation TR-116C2 rifle, quickly cycling it over to grenades and firing off a trio of them right at Freyja's face. She was able to swat away the first two.

But not the third one.

The sneaky pirate had triggered all three at that point so they exploded all around the queen of the Aesir, catching her off guard. Slapping the rifle back on her back, she leapt for Freyja with her claymore across the gap she had created and landing square on top of the woman, pinning her to the remains of the far catwalk, claymore embedded in it and at the woman's throat. One armored foot was on Freyja's chest and her spear was lodged into the handrailing, out of her reach. "YIELD!"

“Nobody move, nobody interfere… we need to let this play out,” Paris broadcast aloud as she stepped through the breach into the central chamber, where below the Titan slumbered. “Eyes open, let’s make sure no other complications arise in this particular scenario,” the gold-clad commander ordered. “I don’t want the Baroness catching a stray disruptor bolt for her trouble or getting stunned by a trigger-happy security officer. Mister Sonak, I need interpretation of these readings… what are we looking at down there?”

The Vulcan's eyebrow rose as he looked at his tricorder readings.

''According to these readings and our updated data banks, this is... a Titan.''

He rechecked the instrument's calibration before confirming.

''More precisely, this would be the Titan Iapetus, if our current data is exact; and it seems, judging by the instruments and scanners hooked to it, that someone was most eager to extricate the molecular and atomic structure and monitor it's energy and physiological makeup.''

He looked up at his wife, his superior officer.

''What we are seeing here is experimentation on an unwilling sentient entity; a clear and unambiguous violation of scientific ethics, if not simply morality.''

“Well, that explains the Aesir’s ire. Don’t suppose you’d care to explain this one, Commander?” Paris turned a skeptical eye to the Romulan commander she had kept close to her throughout this, even as a Starfleet commander arrived, brandishing a modern phaser.

But Starfleet or not, Dox simply saw someone approaching her First Officer with a weapon, so the lieutenant's phaser was primed at a low ready position as she kept a watchful eye on the newcomer.

Meanwhile, Freyja grinned and relaxed, chuckling at her defeat. "Well, I now see why my son fancies you. I yield, Piglet."

Schwein then grinned and collapsed her claymore, returning it to her belt and offering Freyja a hand up. "Then now that the truth of this station is exposed, let us stop this fighting and begin talking."

At Sonak’s report to Rita, Asa had begun to silently fume at the audacity of everyone who had presumed to capture another sentient life form and experiment on it. Those days were to be in the long distant past of science as far as Asa was concerned, and there would be hell to pay for anyone who would stoop to such barbarism.

Opening themselves to the energies in the room in the way Death had taught them, Asa focused on the pained energy radiating from the form of Iapetus in the core of the station. Sensing a tendril they could reach, Asa sent their own energies into Iapetus, forming a mental image of rescue and reassurance, picturing themselves reaching out a hand towards Iapetus, a gesture of greeting and help throughout the universe.

There was something else coming towards them- fast. The energies Dael sensed were full of wrath and fury, war, pain, murder, and victory. The doctor gulped and formed a mental image of the Hera team shining as beacons of hope and friendship, conveying their intent to free Iapetus and form a truce long enough to sort out the guilty parties… and a determination to see those guilty brought to justice. They were only partially aware of Rita beginning to speak, but instead continued to suffuse Iapetus with a trickle of their own life force and awareness.

“Just who the hell do you people think you are? You can’t be in here, this is all top secret material and the experiments here are so far above your clearance you shouldn’t be anywhere near this area! Get out, all of you!” Commander Peirce fumed and snarled, even as a rainbow began to coalesce behind him.

“It might or might not be above our clearance, but I think the fellow behind you might disagree,” Paris observed as the All-Father himself, Odin, liege lord of Asgard, master of the golden realm and patron of the Norse pantheon, ruler of the Aesir and commander of the Valkyries arrived, clad in his golden battle armor with his great spear Gungnir in his firm right hand.

“WHAT BASE TREACHERY, THIS? WHAT FOUL PERFIDITY BE AT HAND? WHAT DOTH THESE MORTALS PLAY AT WITH THE FORM AND FOUNDATIONS OF THOSE WHO BEGAT US?” his voice boomed, heard throughout the station as well as local space.

Accepting the offered help, Freyja projected her voice as well. "I BELIEVE OUR FUTURE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW IS CORRECT! NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR BLADES BUT THE TIME FOR WORDS, DEAR HUSBAND!"

“All right, let’s get this started then,” Paris nodded, then her voice boomed out of the station’s comms and through every Starbase 336 comm badge.

=^= Attention all parties- this is Commander Rita Paris of the starship USS Hera. Cease all hostilities immediately. All factions involved, Aesir, Human and Romulan, are all currently entering a cease-fire. Anyone who disagrees will answer to a higher power, quite literally. So lower your weapons and let’s all pretend we are striving for a peaceful resolution, =^= she broadcast, then she turned to the towering figure of the one-eyed liege lord of Asgaard.

“Lord Odin, known as the Wanderer, the All-Father, ruler of the Norse Gods, governor of war, death, poetry, the arts and wisdom. He who gave one of his eyes to drink of the well of wisdom. We greet you in humility and beg an audience to parley for peace,” Rita began. While she herself didn't know all of those titles, the Fedepedia article she was reading from did. She might not have been the smartest girl in the room, but she knew how to look up a list of titles when diplomacy and some soothing words were needed.

“You have no authorization-“
“You do not speak for the Star Empire-“

Both station commanders began objecting, as Paris unlimbered the great rifle she had shoulder-slung at the moment and pointed the phaser at Starfleet and her rifle at Romulus.

“Both of you had plenty of time to negotiate long before now. So you can both stuff a sock in it, unless it involves explaining away this travesty of justice that appears to be occurring here. The big man’s got something to say, to air his grievance, and you’re going to hear him out before you start trying to excuse all this. Milord, you have the floor,” Paris wasn’t sure what the etiquette here was when dealing with gods, but she figured standard Starfleet diplomacy would work.

“Forsooth, the All-Father shall have his say!” Odin intoned, looking down at the slumbering form of the titan. “Why hast thou done this thing? To what end hast thou imprisoned one of the great titans, a judgment which e’en the gods may not pass pon such a being? The All-Father would know the truth- thou hast dealt in lies and nonsense and deceit, thus why mine personage was forced to intervene. Speak now, and know that the all-seeing eye of Odin e'er knows truth from falsehood!”

Sensing the immediate danger was receding, Doctor Dael looked to Commander Paris while drawing their tissue knitter, osteo-generator, and other medical tools from their bag. Before stepping towards the nearest Romulan that appeared to be nursing several blade wounds and an arm at a highly unusual angle, they said, “By your leave, Commander?”

Riov Rendal knew all too well the power Odin had over lies and truth and stepped back half a step. "I do not object to your medical treatment of our people, Doctor. As for your query... As a member of the Tal Shiar and a proud member of a royal family of Romulus, I hereby exercise my right to remain silent."

At the mention of the Tal Shiar, the part-Romulan Starfleet officer went rigid. The Romulan 'secret police' were the boogeymen of Dox's childhood and she suddenly felt that old fear creep in.

Commander Paris nodded and waved, silently indicating for Dr. Dael to continue before bringing the barrel of the rifle up to point in the face of Rendal, and extending her phaser arm toward Commander Peirce. “I believe the angry Teutonic god asked you a question we’d all like to hear the answers to… so, do you want this to go easy, or hard? Because nobody is in a good mood here, and this could all turn to bloodshed again very quickly if you want to keep stalling. As the two in charge here, I think the odds are pretty good he’ll likely start with you… and frankly, I'm not in a terribly charitable mood myself.”

 

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