MSNPC Oolwi - Situation Normal All Frogged Up
Chris Taylor
((Abandoned Battleground, Kobyar-Grunden Border, Galaris IV))
The Major shook her head.
MacKenzie: I get the sense that you believe much of this war is senseless, Major…
Oolwi: It became pointless the moment we got warp power, if it wasn’t already. We could all just go colonize other worlds and mold them to suit our philosophies in peace. Leave each other to their half of this world. Ignore each other completely, if that’s the only way we can get along! But instead of building a bigger footprint in space, we’re just kicking each other around down here. All the lives, all the material, thrown away. For what?
By the time she was done speaking, she was staring at the civilian alert drone. Knowing that even if her words weren’t being recorded, her biometrics were. And plenty of inferences could be made from those should someone chose to go looking.
Lieutenant Bergmen, focused on capturing images of the battleground, swung his backpack to the ground and climbed up the grunt. He braced himself for the potential ugliness within before opening a door. Indeethl shared his tension, and the relief evident in his smile. Exposing Starfleet personnel to mangled corpses was not on her itinerary for this mission.
Jovenan: It’s okay, Lieutenant. It’s… okay.
MacKenzie took a deep breath through her nose, surveying the landscape as the unmistakable scent of scorched metal and earth polluted her nostrils.
MacKenzie: Any conclusive readings so far?
Bergmen: We need more time to take more differential samples for comparative evaluation, Captain.
Jovenan looked at her tricorder.
Jovenan: Agreed. So far, the materials are similar to what we’ve seen before. The alloys are completely typical, the chemical residue is what would be produced by weapons used by both sides, the, um, biological material is Grunden…
Oolwi: If any Grunden were taken by our side--
The Major’s words were cut short by a low roar which she knew all too well. A cloud of black smoke rose from the horizon and mixed with the dark clouds above. Indeethl’s airsacs inflated wide enough to burst.
MacKenzie: ::with a renewed sense of urgency:: Major, I thought you said this site wasn’t active?!
Bergmen: Looks like some precise bombardment… But I don’t see the cause.
Oolwi pulled a monocular from her vest and searched sky for signs of its source. She set her drone to do the same.
Jovenan: Is it possible it was an unexploded ordnance going off, or should we consider vacating the area at once?
Bergman jumped down from the grunt just as another explosion illuminated the ground.
MacKenzie: What’s going on?!
Bergmen: Drones! Incoming!
Telemetry from her drone -- broadcast in the form of digital chirps coded to relay direction and distance which was also fed to the monocular -- told Oolwi where to look. They were Kobyar tactical drones, to be specific. Kurup-17s, a generation ahead of the model she’d left on the capitol building's landing pad for Silveira and the others to examine.
Jovenan: Major, please tell us…
Oolwi: They’re ours! ::Putting her helmet back on, visor pulled up:: This shouldn't be happening, but it is!
Bergmen: There! Take cover!
Bergman gestured towards another remains of a Grunden grunt, one with an intact forward cabin. It was the closest shelter. Indeethl looked to the courier bug; to see that its pilot was starting liftoff, anticipating the order she hadn’t given yet.
Jovenan: Captain! We need to move!
Oolwi: To the grunt! I’ll bring the bug to us!
MacKenzie: Response
Everyone ran to the cover of the vehicle Bergman had spotted. Crossing a section of relatively open ground, brutally exposed. Another explosion nearby ripped the sky open with its furious sound. A steaming blade of metal, thrown loose from one wreck or another, came arcing hot and fast for the group. It might have ended very badly for someone, if not for the intervention of the Major’s drone, which flew into it on an intercept course. Speared dead, it fell to the ground to join the metallic graveyard.
Bergman made it first to the grunt followed by the rest of the group. The air was filling with the filth of destruction, charred and dry.
Jovenan: Is everyone okay?
Oolwi: Captain, we need an evac! Now!
Hui’Jel: I’m on my way!
MacKenzie/Bergmen: Response
Another explosion shook the metallic frame of the vehicle. Dust rained on them, much of it passing the Major’s open visor to pool within the wide band of her collar. She activated her helmet’s radio, thumbing radio frequency presets and spitting out every command override and emergency code she could think of. One of them did succeed in forcing the civilian alarm drone to land and shut itself off, but the explosions -- the tactical drones -- kept on coming.
Jovenan: Major, what is this? Can’t you call off the attack?
Oolwi: ::To her transmitter:: Stand down! I repeat, stand down! Glisk! ::To MacKenzie:: The drones aren’t responding! I’m not getting anyone on the live-pilot channels! These are more of the Grand Marshall’s wayward weapons, I think!
She thought she had accounted for all of the weapons used in the assault in Tevire. But maybe she hadn’t pulled in enough favors from enough contacts, because clearly some had gone undisclosed to her.
MacKenzie/Bergmen: Response
Jonevan looked at the Major, and then the Lieutenant.
Jovenan: Lieutenant, can the drones take phaser fire, at high level? Can we even hit them?
Oolwi: ::pointing at their ride:: How about we get closer to them?
The bug took a semicircular path to the foursome. Coming up around the far side of the grunt just in time to shield them from the worst of yet another explosion. It came down in the clear area that the group had just run across, but did not land. The force of wind from its rotors, blowing against gravity, kept it hovering just above the ground. The grass below whipped around in angry waves.
Oolwi covered the distance in two leaps. Her second landing was made harsher by the force blowing down against her. A third jump delivered her to the bug’s side-runners. She grabbed hold of the open side door with one hand and reached down with the other to collect the first of the Starfleet officers.
Oolwi: Come on!
MacKenzie/Jovenan/Bergmen: Response
((Courier-Bug A-7D-HG9, Kobyar, Galaris IV))
As soon as her charges were aboard, Indeethl made for the cockpit. Claiming the
seat that MacKenzie had been riding in before. She wasted no time in unlocking the turret safeties or reviewing telemetry screens. Half of the drone complement was racing towards the team. The other half was circling over Tevire, doing untold damage.
Oolwi: Captain, this is a Dirty Water situation. We are eliminating those drones.
Hui’Jel: Aye, Major.
The bug shot up into the sky, just as another explosion threw something big and heavy into the very vehicle they’d just been sheltering behind. Covering it briefly in a cloud of dust and debris too thick to see through. The drones were coming in fast.
MacKenzie/Jovenan/Bergmen: Response
Oolwi activated the intercom, for those who hadn’t gotten their helmets back on yet.
Oolwi: I won’t waste time quoting regs. We are all authorized to defend ourselves and prevent those drones from harming anyone else. In the rear of the cabin, you’ll find gunner stations for the bug’s weapons. The consoles will display your language. I’ve locked the forward turret to my seat, but the rest you may use as you see fit. Or we can leave the door open and you can see how well your energy weapons do.
Much as she regretted destroying items that may yet prove to be vital evidence in the investigation, she saw no other choice. Dead investigators didn’t solve mysteries. And simply retreating to let them continue their rampage was unthinkable. These drones were Kobyari made, and it was her duty and Hui’Jel’s to see them neutralized. The best hope was for a lucky shot that would send a drone to the ground without obliterating its malfunctioning processors.
MacKenzie/Jovenan/Bergmen: Response
Air-to-air missiles streaked towards the courier. Hui’Jel pulled hard on his yoke, sending the vehicle through a hairpin evasive pattern. Indeethl unleashed a barrage of fire at he nearest drone, forcing it to veer off without damage. She looked to her pilot and friend, unspoken conviction in her eyes. He nodded. She nodded back.
Oolwi: ::Speaking through her helmet:: There are rogue drones attacking the Grunden village as well. Once we’re done saving our own backsides, Hui’Jel and I are prepared to cross the border and clear their sky. If that wouldn't violate your neutrality?
Would the Prime Directive compel the Starfleet personnel to disallow giving aid to Grunden citizens in this crisis? She didn't know the intricacies of that code well enough to guess. And she was too busy shooting at the more immediate threats to stop and puzzle it out.
MacKenzie/Jovenan/Bergmen: Response
Tag/TBC
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MSNPC Oolwi
As written by:
Ensign Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12