Saving Lieutenant Arnason

Posted on Tue Jan 31st, 2023 @ 1:52pm by Uhlan Ezra Perez & Captain Freya Mannerheim & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash & Lieutenant T'Ango & Kalahaeia t'Leiya
Edited on on Sat Feb 4th, 2023 @ 7:22pm

1,999 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Chapter VII: Into the Storm
Location: Shuttlecraft Magpie
Timeline: 238704.24

Having arrived early, T'Ango paced in front of the shuttle, looking very much like a cougar pacing the limits of a cage. Except of the fact that she was armored and decked in battle rattle, the impression wasn't far off - though her cage here was time.

Yes, they were going to jump back to get Gunnar before the Tal'Shiar got anywhere near him. Yes, they had a solid team and she knew that just she and Rogers had managed far more difficult extractions. BUT if that somehow failed (and she'd been Special Forces long enough to almost expect something to go FUBAR) the fall back would be rescuing him in the now. Whatever that might mean for where he was and what state he was in.

Nearby T'Ango, Kali wasn't pacing, but burning off her own nervous energy in a different way: Toggling the on/off repeatedly on the holo-disguise Divash had given her for this run; which was resulting in the bizarre sequence of her face appearing, then changing subtly into an unrecognizable one (albeit of the same gender, species, and relative age), then back again, over and over again. Even if there had been time, surgical alterations were out: Being able to show her own face was going to be necessary to prove her identity to Gunnar potentially. But at the same time, being able to hide her own face was possibly going to be key, too; she was in the end a deadringer for her mother, who in turn she had been told looked a good deal like her great-grandmother. Someone might connect the dots, and to blend in well if they had to, she needed them not to.

Elements, what is she, 12? Hatham thought, watching the tiny Romulan fiddle with the holo-device. "Hey, give it rest. You don't want to break that thing before we get there."

"He's not wrong," Divash said gently, intervening before Kali's pride, or temper, might incline her to snap back at the hulking Romulan merc. That one was a fight even her fast nimble friend was unlikely to win.

Kali rolled her eyes, but let her hand drop away from the switch, leaving it off for now with her own face on display.

Ash was the next to arrive, walking in and seeing T'Ango and Kali, she smiled at the familiar faces. This is the kind of mission she has plenty of experience with... high stakes, clandestine, and maybe a little dirty. "Some days I wonder if I'm getting to be too old for this, but every time I get ready to go out on a mission....I feel like a kid again."

"Don't get too excited, Major," exclaimed Captain Mannerheim as she stepped out of the shuttle. If everyone's ready, please, do step on board the Magpie. Time's...well, there's not really a rush, but still. Better to get this operation going."

"YES!" 'About time' was unspoken but clearly evident as T'Ango sprang for the shuttle door.

The hangar door opened, and Perez burst in, still strapping on their MACO body armour, clutching their two newly-acquired short swords under an arm. "Sorry, people, forgot to look at the chrono."

"As long as you're here," Hatham said, pairing up beside Perez as they entered the shuttle. "Another minute and I might have had to sit on the cat."

Kali stood awkwardly to the side after boarding the Magpie: Mannerheim, she assume, would take the pilot's seat, which left her feeling, as she always did when someone else was in it, vaguely as if she was in the wrong place. Finally, she settled for taking one of the other spots and drumming her fingers on her leg.

As everyone was boarding, Perez finally finished armouring up, slinging the short swords across their back and nodding to Hatham. "Good to see you, too, Hatham," they said with a grin as they took a seat on the shuttlecraft. "Ah, nice and dim in here. You know us Terrans don't really like bright lights all that much. My genetic mods make it easier, but still, it's unpleasant."

Freya chuckled as she overheard Perez. "Get yourself some of these," she said, adjusting her glasses. "These are slightly tinted, helps with the bright lights, you know? I mean, I never got surgery to fix my eyes, but that really just gives me an excuse to wear them without anyone asking questions." She sat in the pilot seat, and turned back to the others. "Right, are we missing anyone or can we get going?"

T'Ango looked around. "Operators, Doctor, Pilot. Yep, this should be everyone. Let's go."

Ash took a look at the team around her, couldn't really pick a better group. She nodded, "Let's get your boy back."

The Captain nodded, and initiated the shuttle's launch sequence. "Shuttlecraft Magpie, departing. Wish us luck, folks, if this goes right we'll be back in five."

Miles Lynn's voice sounded through the comm. "Good luck guys, see you in a few, with Gunnar on board. I'll let the Doc know to be ready, just in case."

As the shuttle lifted up and left the hangar, Freya turned to look at T'Ango. "Better brief your team, we have three minutes until we reach safe distance and are ready to jump."

With a nod. T'Ango activated a small holodisplay of the target area from her armor's wrist control. "This is Gunnar's last known location. We'll be arriving ten minutes before the comm that places him there. That should put us on site and at a reasonable distance just after he separated from the refugees. We have to be sure before attempting contact. If they hear or see us contacting him, they may panic and not head to the ship, thinking the whole thing is a set up. Worse, if they see us grab him they might decide to either fight us or hit him with a 'mercy' kill shot," her whiskers and ears flattened back, "and I do not want to have to fire on the people we came to save."

"Now, the terrain is hilly but covered with upland tropical rain forest, which should provide plenty of cover to disperse into so we assess the situation and cover the approaches before Gunnar arrives. Thanks to future tech," T'Ango tipped an ear toward Freya, "we can beam down simultaneously without risking a trace. However, we know he was leading Tal'Shiar away and they'd gotten close enough that some of the refugees showed up wounded, so we will go down weapons ready."

"To that point, he's going to be operating on the assumption that anyone else out there is Tal'Shiar. This is Gunnar we're talking about, so he won't shoot to kill, but he's got an old type I phaser and he will definitely shoot to stun. Though if he thinks Tal'Shiar are closing in and it's hopeless..." she frowned unwilling to voice that possibility, "In any case, we need him to know this is a rescue party. I shouldn't be the one to make contact - if he sees me out there we'll waste time arguing over why I'm not on the ship." She looked at Kali. "Ideally, you will be the one to approach him. He knows you well and unlike Rogers, you don't have a Terran doppleganger he might wonder about. But if things go sideways, whoever is closest just grab him - knock him out if you have to - and tag him for beam out."

"Captain Mannerheim will be staying on the ship and monitoring us. I'm going to have you stay behind too, doc," she said, almost apologetically to Divash. "Any casualty will be beamed back immediately so we need our doctor here and ready. I have my field medic training if it's needed down there."

She paused, looking at each of them. "Questions?"

"Yeah." Kali fingered the switch she'd been flipping earlier, but didn't turn it back on yet. "Are we completely winging this; or do you have a cover ID for me I should be playing to?"

"Sorry, but we don't establish multiple covers that could pass Tal'Shiar muster. You're going to have to use your well-known talent for," T'Ango's whiskers flicked with a brief grin, "...improvision. Don't worry about contradicting anything. Gunnar goes in as someone's cousin, visiting from one of farther colony worlds." An ear flipped back and forh. "So maybe don't use that exact one or it'll sound suspicious."

"Maybe try to avoid talking at all," Hatham said. "Your accent will raise more suspicions than any story you come up with."

Kali rolled her eyes, but she couldn't entirely disagree with the assessment: At best even, she probably gave off verbal vibes of 'someone pretending to be higher ranked than they are', with the combination of a high-class accent twisted somewhat out of shape by...well, by growing up on Earth and only ever having a few people to copy or learn it from as a kid.

Ash nodded. "Hatham is right. We are here to get Gunnar back, not make friends. Enemies maybe... hopefully," she grinned. "We should hit hard and fast. The less interaction the better."

"I'm sure you could manage," Divash said kindly - the big Romulan was probably right, but she hated seeing Kali feeling any worse about being neither fish nor fowl among her own people. "But Ash is right. If you have to answer questions, we're in trouble, so if it comes to that use any surprise at your accent to strike first."

"It'd be much easier if we could just shoot first and answer questions later...." Ash sighed. "I'll even set my phaser to stun...."

"I'm not asking any questions," Hatham said, patting the vest pocket with his tiny but powerful disruptor. "I'll avoid shooting because it draws attention, but if I have to shoot, there will be zero discussion and my weapon will not be on stun."

Ash smirked, "I'm so glad you still use that thing. I mean... I can have fun with this too..." She lifted her pant leg to reveal the knife she always kept on it. "Sometimes the personal touch is needed...."

Kali didn’t say anything in response to either of them, but she shrugged her shoulders and eyebrows alike and reached under her tunic and slid her own blade out for a moment; dark, sharp polished metal with an engraved hilt; and it was an implication in and of itself as she then slid it back into concealment; possibly not lost on anyone that her rather non-standard size gave her a great angle on the vital organs of most of her own species.

Hatham gave a curt nod of approval at Kali for once acting her species and station.

T'Ango, however, pulled her own knife from her boot with a fang-bearing smile. "Good company. Just try not to hit anyone in front of Gunnar. If someone's hurt, he can't but try to save them - we once had to pull him away from doing CPR on a guy who tried to kill him."

Perez simply shrugged. "Hey, I'm just here as a bit of extra muscle. You need me to shoot something or slice something up with my swords, you tell me."

At that, the Captain laughed. "Meanwhile, I'm just the taxi driver." A ping from the nav console confirmed that the shuttle had now reached a safe distance from the other ships. Freya turned to T'Ango. "Well, let's hope I put the target coordinates in right. Hold on, everyone, this will get bumpy. Black alert."

She pressed a button on the control panel, and the light strips on the ceiling that indicated the craft's alert status turned dark. A moment later, lightning-like pulses of energy surrounded the shuttle, before it span around its axis and everyone on board felt a jerking motion as it jumped.

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