A Simple Business Transaction, Pt. 2

Posted on Sun Aug 2nd, 2020 @ 8:52pm by Colonel Sehan t'Varis & Plot-Related NPC & Sublieutenant Gedak K.I.A. 238702.10

2,453 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Chapter I: Resurgam
Timeline: 238612.21

"Five minutes to destination, boss."

Raven acknowledged the report and straightened the tie that she had donned as part of her new "uniform". She couldn't deny that the old 21st-century Earth style definitely had a certain appeal, Gedak was right about that one. Maybe she was going to make it an actual sort of uniform for her crew? Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The Romulan officers had been instructed to change into civilian attire, and both the team to make the deal and the infiltration were ready and standing by for transport. The Raven's Claw's weapon and shield systems had been freshly calibrated and were armed and ready, as was her cloak. Raven opened a shipwide channel. "All hands, battle stations and stand by. You all know the plan, let's get this done as smoothly as we can. Yellow Alert." As a matter of convenience - as many of the ship's computer terminals had been salvaged from Federation ships - Raven and her crew had adopted Starfleet's alert system, and, accordingly, the lighting across the ship dimmed and the status displays showed a yellow frame.

Finally, the Claw dropped out of warp, opposite a battered old freighter. Raven looked around the bridge. "Right then, folks. Showtime. Standby shields, cloak, disruptors and torpedoes. Kaiae, open a channel to our friends over there."

Once the channel was open, Raven smiled at the smuggler captain. "Good Afternoon. Raven, of the Raven's Claw, as arranged. Our representatives are standing by for transport."

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Ash stood in the transporter room with the rest of the team. She made sure she had nothing identifiable to the Raven's Claw on her. She's Ashley Rogers. Lone wolf. A cover story that isn't exactly too far from the truth. She's been left behind before, but she hopes this mission doesn't end like that. She checks her weapons one more time, patting the knife in her boot and her for-no-other-reason-for-keeping-it-but-nostalgia old comm badge as a habit. "Hatham," she called out to the big burly security officer. "Keep our folks safe. Keep an eye out for anything. They're about as trustworthy as we are. Hopefully the insect drones take care of business. Keep the comm lines open, I'll be listening to everything. And if for some reason things go terribly sideways, I'll blow the engines. It'll look like accident. I would say good luck, but you and I both know that we make our own luck out here." Ash holds up an emergency transport beacon for herself and smirks.

Hatham gave nod and half-smirk back. He didn't need to worry about anything identifiable since his role was very much to be the obvious BSB - Big Scary Bodyguard. So he was dressed in black, with leather jacket, disruptor rifle over his back, standard disruptor at his waist, and two obvious knives (plus an assortment of not-at-all-obvious weapons). "Got it." He tapped an ear stud that disguised a backup comm.

Ash moved over the the transporter controls and verifies the coordinates. They go meet the sellers. She goes to the engine room as the insurance policy. "Rehana and Gedak, make sure we're not getting ripped off. I'm pretty doubtful of their returns and exchange policy. Everyone good with what's going down?"

Gedak chuckled and pointed to the case full of fake latinum by his side. "Please, if anyone is getting ripped off, it will be them." He gave a toothy grin and straightened his bowler hat. "I will enjoy this transaction very much."

"I hope so," Hatham chuckled. "Though counterfeits that good probably cost almost as much as the real thing."

The Ferengi's grin grew even wider. "Rule of Acquisition, number three. Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to."

Ash watched as this ragtag group banter as they prepared for their mission, she couldn't help but chuckle and shake her head. It was never like this with the Section. And it was rarely like this for her in Starfleet. For all the Federation claimed to be enlightened and righteous, it always was tripping over its own rules and regulations to maintain its own image. She was always the outsider, someone that needed extra scrutiny. He could hear echoes of her old Captain berating her for putting herself into a position where she couldn't be trusted. But no matter how many reprimands she got, it couldn't change who she was. And when it was all said and done, it was they that couldn't be trusted... not Ash. A part of her sometimes does wonder what life would have been like if she had just played her part... gone through the motions to be the good little officer. She shook her head at the fantasy that, not long ago, was about to become a reality. While sometimes wistful of the life she could have had... sometimes she wonders how her family is doing... and how Renee is doing... she can't deny to herself how right her life now feels. Ash hopes this mission goes well, she might just actually like these people.

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Finally, the smugglers responded, and the face of a burly Orion appeared on the viewscreen. "I can see now why you would need spares for a singularity drive. Nice ship you got there."

Raven smirked. "Thank you for the compliment. Now, may we transport over our representatives?"

The Orion simply nodded, and closed the channel. A moment later, the freighter lowered its shields and sent over a set of coordinates for transport.

When the coordinates were received, Raven turned to Kaiae. "Keep an open channel open to both teams." Finally, she opened an intercom to the transporter room. "Okay, go time."

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With the word given, Gedak and his two companions took their places on the transporter pad. As they beamed over, a secondary transport would take Ash over to the smugglers' vessel.

Rehana grinned wolfishly. It was probably the closest she'd ever come to making a typical Romulan expression. "Let's go steal ourselves some ship parts."

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When Gedak and his team materialised on the freighter, the Ferengi immediately cursed. They had transported directly into a holding cell. Angrily, he tapped his communicator back to the Claw. "Boss, we've wandered straight into a trap. We're in a holding cell."

"Fvadt!" Hatham cursed. "I am going to break every bone in their CO's body - if he's lucky!" And not one to make idle threats, he began to unpack a small sticky grenade he'd brought in case Ash needed more diversion. "Where do you figure is the best spot to blow through to the lock?" he asked Rehana.

Rehana shrugged. "Usually I put that kind of thing near where it connects to the door frame. That way I don't have to figure out the combination, I just have to break the locking mechanism."

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Ash materialized near their warp core and immediately dove for cover. Her advantage was stealth and surprise, she wasn't about to get spotted by some random crewman. Then she heard Hatham curse through her comms. Of course... a trap.

"Dammit. I hate surprises," she grumbled as she interfaced with one of the consoles, "Guess we can't blow the engines with everyone on board," Ash whispered into her comms. "Doesn't mean I can't give them something for their engineers to chase..." She loads an algorithm into their power control systems, causing random sporadic power fluctuations throughout the ship. She could just drop the power in the holding cell, but that would be too obvious. But at least with this small act of sabotage, it gives the Claw an even bigger advantage.

"Rogers to Raven, what's the play?" She readies her phaser, a part of her hopes that she gets to use it.

Nothing but static responded to Ash, as her communication failed to get through. "Of course, comms are down... why would anything work right?" Ash mumbled.

At that very moment, a young Orion engineer came into view. The way he held his rifle indicated that he was not aware of the intruder hiding mere metres away. "Hello..." Ash's eyes narrowed as she watched the Orion. She holstered her phaser. Without communications with the Claw, she can only assume that she won't have backup and may have to just take over the ship herself. Not too bad as she did the mental calculations for the crew complement... not ideal, but doable. She will definitely have to use the element of surprise, so no use of the phaser unless absolutely necessary. The power fluctuations will be her cover.

She locked her sights on her unsuspecting target as he walked past her. With a grin, she pounced on her prey and snapped his neck from behind. Silent. Quick. Classic Ashley Rogers. She dragged his body to the console she was working on and overloaded the display, causing it to explode. It would take an autopsy to determine that the cause of death wasn't from the shrapnel, buying her more time. "One down..."

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Raven cursed when she the message from Gedak came through. "Boss, they are raising shields and firing up their engines," came the report from tactical. The young commander cursed again. "Red alert. Prepare weapons to take out their shields and propulsion systems."

She turned to Kaiae. "Let's play this another way. Try hailing them again, subcommander."

"Full view or narrow angle on you?" Kaiae's voice was the clipped but even query of an experienced professional; aware perhaps not only of the technical or operational details of her trade, but the more nuanced pieces of psychological operations one might play through it, as well.

"Narrow view. Focussed on this," Raven responded, reaching into her coat pocket and pulling out her Tal Shiar commander's insignia. "Let's see how they feel now. And switch our IFF to Tal Shiar, IRW Nova."

Kaiae's fingers flew across the control panel. "Done. Channel open in five...." A steady count was relayed for a few seconds, to give a last few moments of preparation, before Kaiae fell silent and the screen came to life with the connection to the smuggler's ship.

Raven gave her most authoritative expression. "This is Commander Sehan t'Varis of the Tal Shiar vessel Nova. Come to a full stop immediately and lower your shields."

Instead of responding, the channel was immediately closed again. "Boss, they're charging warp drive." Raven shook her head. "Idiots. Weapons free. Take out their shields and engines."

Mere seconds later, the antique Warbird's weapons lit up, and two disruptor beams hit the aft section of the smuggler vessel. "Target shields down to 32 per cent, boss," tactical reported.

"With one shot? Careful, we don't want to blow them up yet, our people are on that ship!", Raven cursed, before turning back to Kaiae. "Subcommander, see if you can raise Ash Rogers and get her status."

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Ash was thrown off her feet when the freighter was rocked by weapons fire from the Claw. "What the hell?!?" She didn't want to think the worse, but its definitely a possibility. Raven is firing on the ship, knowing full well that she had crew members on board. Was this a set up? To get rid of her, Hatham, Rehana, and Gedak? Did Kaiae have something to do with this? This wasn't Ash's first rodeo, she has been betrayed before and have spent years as prisoner of war and later in a Federation prison colony, experiences she doesn't care to repeat.

There's only one option left. She will have to take this vessel herself if her team had any hope of surviving. She keeps her phaser holstered, she doesn't need the added attention from the freighter crew. This will have to be done the fun way... she makes her way through the corridors on her way to the bridge. A gaggle of crewmen were heading her way, probably to go repair the damage to the ship. "You get to live... for now," she said to herself. With her own people firing on her, she has to pick her battles carefully. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. However, the armed security contingent... they won't be so lucky.

She follows them and grabs the one walking the slowest. With one swift slice from her knife she slit his throat before he could scream. She takes his phaser and starts to overload it. Like a grenade, she lobs it at the group in time to see their shock before the uses the body as a shield from the explosion.

"Nine down."

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Gedak cursed when the ship was rocked by the Claw's attack. "I knew this whole thing was going to be the death of me eventually," he shrieked, when an explosion went off right outside the door of the brig. "What was that?", he asked his two companions, before tapping his communicator. "Something just exploded right outside the brig. Rogers, was that you? Come get us out of here!"

Hatham didn't wait for an answer - he'd been about to set a charge to blow a hole from their side when the power had flickered, now he didn't have to. The forceshield on the brig collapsed, but Hatham had seen 'shield down then suddenly back up' as a cool trick to kill escaping prisoners before, so he grabbed a spike from his vest and jammed it into the frame, sending a surge of energy through the coils to make sure it stayed down. With that done, he rolled across the edge, coming face-to-face - or more accurately chest-to-face - with a guard, still somewhat stunned by the explosion of a circuit panel. To his credit, the guard did try to stop him, but Hatham caught his wrist in one hand before the disruptor was halfway drawn and grabbed his throat with the other, crushing the larnyx before he could make a sound.

Retrieving the disruptor from the guard's limp hand as he dropped him, he aimed down the corridor toward the sound of boots running in their direction. He paused a beat to be sure the person rounding the corner wasn't Rogers. Green skin - Nope, you're dead. A quick blast dropped the Orion. Two down. Hatham grinned at the sound of other boots skidding to a halt. "You two, cover me," he called back to Rehana and Gedak. "I got this."

Rehana paused to grab a disruptor of her own off of one of the dead Orion. "Got it! Oh, they are going to regret trying to double-cross us..." She trailed off into a slightly terrifying cackle.

(to be continued...)

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