Ens Chevalier - Familiar faces in wornout places...
CPT Arianus
(( Maintenance Tunnels, Beneath Downtown Medara - Betazed, circa 2376 ))
Dakora:
I don’t think… ::He paused and tried again:: Rank doesn’t make
my life more valuable than anyone else. But yes. You lead the way and
we’ll focus on trying to sense if anyone is approaching.
Jaseb
nodded to the commander, and gripped his
rifle tighter. Listening to Leera made him even more concerned, than
how much he let it be known. Commander's words didn't make it better.
Who was he lying to? Of course he was more important than Jaseb,
Savel, Z'Vahme. His years of experience as an intelligence agent,
knowledge of the environment, and insurgence tactics were more valuable
to their situation than any theoretical training Jaseb could have.
More valuable than any mall cop training Savel had. This was war.
Total war, where success meant sacrifice of lives, ideals, our own
humanity. There were no rules, no conventions, nor mercy. Only
victory counted. They needed to become saboteurs, spies, assassins,
if they ever wanted to survive. They will need to do terrible
things, if they even want to get a glimpse of something reminiscent of
victory.
Jaseb nodded to the commander, gripped his rifle tighter
and stepped forward to lead the way. Commander Dakora, Leera with
Z'Vahme behind him, Savel closed their little group from
behind.
Chevalier: Can you tell me where we are heading,
ma'am?
Silence was an answer. Jaseb turned, as he walked, and
looked at Leera. Her face was distant, as her thoughts. Passage was
slowly closing as the tunnel was branching into two different
ways.
Chevalier: Ma'am?
Leera: Sorry. ::Looking around
at the group:: I was just… thinking.
Z'Vahme:
Response?
Chevalier:
So, which way will we be heading, ma'am?
Leera:
::Indicating a branching passage:: It’s this way. We should pick
up the pace a bit…
Chevalier: Thank you, ma'am.
Jaseb
turned again, to face their way forward. Rifle in his hands slowly
became heavier, hand in hand with his thoughts that were eating him
away
from the inside. They will die here. There was no way out...
((
Sometime
later – Beneath Medara Bayfront - Betazed, circa 2376
))
Jaseb began to get used to the rifle in his hands. It was
heavier than he was used to, probably stuck together from other
weapons, as the barrel leaned forward and pushed against Jaseb's hand while he gripped the rifle's vertical grip. If there weren't small -
but different - cracks on the walls of the tunnel here and there,
Jaseb would have believed that he was walking in a circle. Junctions
looked all the same, tunnels looked all the same. Just fatigue,
physical and psychological, was their only guide through helping them
to measure time already passed by. Leera pointed always the way they
should go, and Jaseb was quite sure, she led them in the right way,
still the feeling that she is slightly stretching the path to confuse
them, was there.
Jaseb understood her. She could trust them,
but the reliance was something still up to them to earn. And if they
fell into the hands of the enemy, it was better if they did not know
the straight way to the resistance camp. History has already shown many
examples of the fact that one could think how strong someones will
is, but torture has many ways to break even the strongest of
them.
Next junction led them to an aqueduct of some kind, or
possibly sewer. It stank like a sewer. Only way forward was to ladder up
to the surface. But they did not go up there, not all the way up. Leera
stopped next to the electrical panel on the wall, opened the cover and
reached inside. After a while, the whole panel moved in, revealing a
hidden tunnel leading further below the surface.
Leera: Just
through here.
Dakora:
Not bad.
Leera:
Like I said, the engineers among us are few – but they’ve been
integral to our survival. This little facade is Nieran’s… You’ll
meet him in a minute. ::Slightly-furrowed brow:: He’s not the
most trusting person, but he’ll come around.
Jaseb
stepped into the darkness of the tunnel first, while Leera was closing
the entrance hatch. It didn't take long before they met the person
mentioned, as a voice called out to them from the dark. Jaseb pushed
himself against the wall, and let his legs slide slightly to his
knees. He pressed the butt of his rifle into his shoulder and immediately scolded himself for his overly tense nerves and maybe a
little too happy trigger attitude.
Dwayx: Leera, tell me you
haven’t brought home a bunch of strays?
Leera:
Nieran – these aren’t just any ‘strays’. See for yourself…
::She turned to the others.:: Take off your cloaks.
Jaseb
lowered the rifle from the sights, and let it slowly slide along his
side, holding it only by the grip. With his second hand he unclasped
the cloak and let it fall to the ground, revealing a yellow Starfleet
undershirt with a combadge pinned to the chest. He didn't know if
anything would be visible for the guy on the other side of the tunnel. A lightless darkness was giving hard work to his optronic implant so he saw a little more than the contours of the corridor,
but a little hope never hurts.
Dwayx: Response
Chevalier:
Ensign Chevalier, Starfleet Operations.
Dakora/Z’Vahme:
Response
Savel:
I am Ensign Savel, a security officer.
Savel closed their little circle of introduction, which Leera took as a closed topic.
Group moved forward to the base hallway, darkened and minimally lit
bare room behind the heavy hardened door, similar to one on the
merchant marine ships used for the compartment blast
doors.
Leera: We should get out of this hallway now. It isn’t
as well shielded as the nerve center. Things got a little messy in
town, and the Jem’Hadar may be running concentric scans already.
::Beat:: Destro won’t be coming.
Dwayx:
Response
With the door closed, and the eyes of everyone better
adjusted to the red lightning in the room, Leera continued with her
mission debriefing.
Leera: Illux might have bunkered down
somewhere. We’ll hear from him before the curfew, or else tomorrow.
::Indicating Talos:: This is my cousin, Ares…
oO And this is
his Vulcan number one, Vulcan number two, and his Borgish friend whom
they picked as he hitchhiked on the side of the road.. Oo
Jaseb
nodded in the direction of Nieran - as a sign of he's that Borg - with a smile of
his own, while he
held his rifle against his chest.
Leera: We can trust him.
He’s with Starfleet… His crew’s been separated from their ship.
I think they can help us. And we can help them.
Savel: Indeed,
I believe our time here can be mutually beneficial.
Jaseb
raised his mechanical hand and let his fingers conjure up something
that, with a little imagination, was a really bad
attempt on the Vulcan greetings.
Chevalier: Live long and
prosper, our friend. We are here to help.
Dwayx/Dakora/Z’Vahme:
Response
The camp entrance slowly began to fill up with
curious resistance members, who were interested in Starfleet newcomers.
Especially one, who pushed his way forward and stepped towards the
group, more precisely towards Savel.
Zarek:
You haven't been here long but you already managed to get your hands
on a whiteblood weapon?
So, there it was. Celebratory
curiosity over the defeat of the enemy. Apparently not such a common
thing – killing Jem'Hadar by other means than with the weight of the
whole collapsing building - in these circles.
Savel: I was
able to recover it after the Jem'Hadar carrying it fell to his death.
It was through no physical achievement of my own.
Jaseb raised
his eyebrows and sighed quietly.
oO C'mon, Savel, you need to
spoil this magic moment immediately? Oo
Betazoid resistance
fighter nodded over Savel's words and shifted his focus from Savel to
the rest of the group.
Zarek: I see ::turning to the rest of
the group:: So, that one can get weapons off of dead whitebloods.
What're the rest of you bringing to the table?
Chevalier:
Right attitude and two pairs of hands capable of handling not just a
rifle. Plus a little knowledge of combat chemistry, medicine and
engineering, on top of that.
Dakora/Z'Vahme: Response
None
of the introductory words said satisfied the resistance fighter.
Skepticism could be read from his eyes and one would not even need
to understand behavior sciences. If there were ever any doubts from
this resistance cell about Starfleet's ability to help this
resistance group, his eyes expressed them all.
Zarek: We'll
see if that's good enough. ::looking to Leera:: Hope this isn't a
mistake.
Leera:
Response
Dakora/Savel/Z'Vahme:
Response?
Jaseb
lost his interest in the exchange, as he as well began to evaluate
this resistance group with his look. As he scanned the faces,
environment, he stopped at a distant background face. It took him a second to
catch his breath again. Shock shot through his
spine as
his mind was
refusing to acknowledge what he
had seen. He knew that face.
That
brown, straight hair. Those innocent eyes... no, not that innocent
anymore. Was it her?
He
knew her from the family photo of his roommate at the Academy. But
she...she was supposed to be dead for
years, killed during the occupation...
but...
obviously... not anymore...
Chevalier: What? Yes, sir.
::nods::
TAGS / TBC