MCapt Tatash: "Goodbye, Tribble Brick Road" (Tag: Whittaker)

[Daniel Eastham]

((SB118 Convention Centre))

::The calm had started to creep slowly back in to the stricken conference room. At least he'd managed to take out a large chunk of the breeding tribbles, presumably they had formed some sort of nest in that ventilation duct.

A moments reprieve came as he tugged off his helmet, seemingly satisfied that at least for the time being there was no furry beastie about to purr him to death::

Whittaker: "Report."

::Tatash turned and nodded as Theo came over. He knew he was stressed with the falling of Anders and any notion of trying to be humorous had left his Gornish brain. His friend needed a bit of order back in his life, and as usual Tatash was happy to be his rock::

Tatash: "The convention center has been cleared out, at least as far as we can tell. The Paladins are continuing to push out the search area but we're trying to stay away from the public eye"

Whittaker: :: sighing :: "This is why I find tribbles to be a pestilence." :: beat :: "Are we any closer to finding out why they are not registering on sensors?"

Tatash: "Negative Sir. As far as I know, Intel are trying to figure out that question." ::He paused for a moment, frowning in concern:: "You alright Theo?"

Whittaker: "Hm? Oh." :: beat :: "I'm fine." :: lowering his voice :: "I feel a little disorientated."

::Alarm crept onto his lizard snout::

Tatash: "Maybe you need sickbay..."

Whittaker: :: waving his hand dismissively :: "It's not the tribbles. I didn't expect to see Mirra that's all. Last time I wrote to her, she was settling in aboard the Apollo."

Tatash: "Well, you didn't think you'd see me again either"

Whittaker: "That's a good point. Although when I saw you we were hunting down that madman and not corralling an infestation of potentially lethal balls of fur."

Tatash: "Well, corralling and exterminating. I'm pretty sure I burnt out their main breeding ground..."

Whittaker: :: eyes widening in alarm :: "You did what?!" :: beat :: "The TFA are not going to be happy about that."

Tatash: "Well what can I say, it would have been far riskier to extract them one at a time, I made a call to remove as much risk as possible. Going to write me up for it?"

Whittaker: :: reproachable :: "Of course I'm not." :: beat :: "I don't want to deal with the inevitable deluge of complaints if it ever gets out out marine detachment blew up some of their precious cargo." :: beat :: "Which raises the question, who in the hell got these tribbles here?"

Tatash: "The manifests I looked over... just about everyone's brought one on the station. It's like one of your human dog-shows."

Whittaker: "Well whoever is responsible can spend the rest of their lives cleaning up their mess." :: beat :: "We're going to be discovering them for months around the station."

Tatash: "Ah don't worry, I have plenty more grenades".

Whittaker: ?

::That momentary look of panic on Theo's face was worth it, just snapping him back to reality before the Gorn let out a loud chuckle, patting his friend on the shoulder::

Tatash: "Relax, i'm kidding."

Peters: =/\= "Lt Peters to Capt. Tatash."

::The Engineer again, hopefully some semblance of good news was about to occur::

Tatash: =/\= "Go ahead Peters."

Peters: =/\= "We're going to beam you some tribble detection assistants so we can locate the little devils and get a transporter lock on 'em. Give me a call when you got them and I will work the transportery magic."

Tatash: =/\= "Sounds promising, we'd need four of them."

Peters: =/\= "Aye, Cap'n. Inform the Paladins help is on the way."

Tatash: =/\= "Good job Peters, we'll be glad of it. What are these things anyway? Tricorder type things?"

Taybrim: =/\= "Captain Tatash - you'll be getting a series of interstellar probes that are designed to sense auditory signals.  They might be a bit cumbersome, but the range is excellent.  They've been modified to key in on the tribble purr."=/\=

::'Cumbersome' meant they would be heavy. Then again, they were Marines, not one of them missed a chance to show off their relative strength against the more civilized officer divisions::

Tatash: "Roger that, we'll get as clear a reading as we can. Slow and steady deployment?"

Whittaker:  ?

Taybrim: =/\= "As quickly as you can deploy them. =/\= ::a pause:: =/\= Is that Theo with you?" =/\=

Whittaker: =/\= ?

Taybrim: =/\= "Theo, we need to very calmly evacuate part of the promenade on decks 1075 and 1076, subsection Gamma.  I don't want to spook the locals.  Security has been deployed, but if you can assist with getting the probes in that area and getting the civilians calm, we'll avoid a big diplomatic incident." =/\=

Whittaker: =/\= ?

Taybrim: =/\= "I trust you however you choose to get it done. Just get the civilians away from the tribbles safely.  Or the tribbles away from the civilians!" =/\=

Whittaker: =/\= ?

::The line cut out, several blocky tubes with various antenna sticking out of the end appearing next to them. Each was about four foot long, a small tripod on the base to stand them up poking out awkwardly. Tatash lifted one experimentally, not too heavy, but not something he'd want to be walking half way round a starbase with either.::

Tatash: ::yelling:: "Paladins! Form up on me! Move it people."

::The heavy sound of clanking boots came down the hallway from various directions, the twelve-strong squad forming up in front of him and Theo with precision, prompting Tatash to give Theo a sly wink. He was proud of his units, despite Dal's illness, there had never been a single question raised about the Gorns leadership. They had performed with discipline, skill and bravery despite the sudden change::

Tatash: "Listen up! Our mission is simple, four fire teams take one of these probes each and split up. We deploy them at key locations in 1075 and 1076 Gamma,  arm them and hopefully get some eyes on the Tribbles for Engineering to beam them straight out"

Sergeant Staddon: "Will the Civilians be cleared out?"

Whittaker: ?

Sergeant Staddon: "Understood Sir, we'll try and keep it low-key".

Tatash: "Teams one and two head to Sector 1075, three and four to Sector 1076.  Each team will also take a canister of the Klingon-juice and give the area a sweep with it to be on the safe side. Any more questions? ::pause:: Alright, fall out and grab your gear."

::The Marines broke rank, splitting into their teams and equipping themselves accordingly.::

Whittaker: ?

Tatash: "We'll take your lead Sir, you give us the orders where to start."

Whittaker: ?

--

MCapt. Tatash

Marine Liaison Officer

SB118 Operations

C239108T10