Security Issued

Posted on Mon Mar 22nd, 2021 @ 12:35am by Administrator LordeEmp

Mission: Heroes of the Hov'hurgh
Location: Hov'HurgH, BatlH Tiq
Timeline: Stardate 901432.2

The HoD’s order was very simple sounding. She knew he would get the job done efficiently and effectively. Get security teams aboard the remaining two Klingon ships, and get rescue teams heading towards the Helen Keller and the Space Station. It was anything but simple. First Hov’qIj began sending the rescue teams as he was already managing emergency medical logistics aboard the ship, also adding a hazard team to go over to try and stabilize failing systems to give precious extra time to the medical units.

Next he assembled boarding parties consisting mainly of infantry marines with a medic and engineer with each group. He would be in charge of the teams taking control of the Negh'Var betting that the most action would be seen there. Besides he had always wanted to see the bridge of that type of battleship.

The white haired Klingon next took the turbolift to the Marine staging bay, where the small teams were ready and awaiting his order. Once there he took a moment to look over the troops to insure that they had all the needed tools of the trade. Of course in his own group he took mostly people that he trusted, save for the few in command of the other teams.

“Set disruptors to kill. These guys are not likely to go into the night quietly. Besides we can at least give them an honorable death where we can!” Thinking of the Bird of Prey that was sucked away by the Orphan Maker beam, Hov’qIj was not sure just how the general crew might react to that kind of death.

The away team was clad in the new Heavy ARCANE armor that had only just been set into place. Hov’qIj was glad for it. Not only could there be pockets on the ship that could be open to space or just lacking life support, the armor could take a few shots as it had shields and a tough shell.

The estranged first officer readied his weapon before giving the order to the transportation officer. He knew there could be dangers anywhere on that ship and away they went in a red shimmering field of light to re emerge just outside of the main bridge as it was one of the sections from where the whole ship could be detonated from. Other teams would be taking engineering, torpedo rooms, and other such critical areas.

“Can we see how many people are on the bridge and if so how many?” He spoke quickly in one long sentence. Motioning at the door. Small fires were burning in the hallway outside the bridge but those could be dealt with after the ship was secured. The idea was to move as quickly as possible to avoid an organized resistance.

After finishing his tricorder scans the Medic barked back as quickly as he could. “Yes sir. There are four life signs on the other side of the door. Two are fading.”

Hov’qIj tried the door but it seemed that the power had been cut to it. He then tried the manual release. Luckily it split open slowly and two of his team members helped to pull the two sides of the door the rest of the way open.

The commander could, and maybe should, have had his guys go in first, but he figured that it might be a good chance to prove that he could be an honorable commander. Not just a Federation wanna be and a madman. Someone worth following.

Besides deep down he wanted to. He needed to feel the heat of personal combat.

As he came into the room the commander was greeted with more flames and sparks erupting from some of the consoles on the bridge. To the right was the ship's tactical officer coughing up pink fluid, reaching in vain for a d'k tahg that had fallen to the floor. A sliver of metal was rammed clean through him, impaling him to the chair. “Kill me so that I may die in battle, Traitor!”

Hov’qIj smiled and placed a black leather gloved finger over his lips. “Shhhh, this wouldn’t be combat and perhaps there will be better days to die.” That worked a bit better than he had hoped.

After slapping the site to site transporter lock on the wounded officers arm away he went. Moving into the bridge further he could see another klingon trying to access the computer from the engineering console. “Get down or be fired upon.” This one decided not to heed his warning spinning around at Hov’qIj with a strange pistol in his hand. Before the warrior could turn all the way around the Hov’HurgH’s first officer vaporized him with his twenty-second century type two disrupter. Somehow the pistol made it through.

Picking up the weapon as he looked to make sure of what files the dead man had been accessing he saw, out of the corner of his eye, an Orion woman and a barely breathing Nausicaan huddled in the targ pen. Laying next to them a dead targ and a near dead one. It was plain to see she was not a slave girl and in fact an officer aboard the ship. So was her patient. “Get to the ground! Your wounded will be cared for aboard our ship.” Unlike the Tac Officer she immediately did so. Hov’qIj motioned for the female member of his team to send her onwards. He placed a pattern enhancer on the targ. After all, a trained beast could be useful, or it could find itself on a spit in the feast hall.

Checking the status updates on the ship and of his own men, he was receiving reports that came in from the various teams that were taking the areas that he had outlined. Only two warriors hadn’t made it thus far. According to the functioning ship’s sensors there was a large number of life signs still in crew quarters. “Everyone sweep the ship! Do not give them time to decide to go out fighting.”

After double checking to make sure things were secure on the bridge, Hov’qIj and his team started to make their way towards the center of the still burning vessel. When the first officer came to the turbolift door the edges looked as though they had been welded shut by a furnace, but when he touched it the door was ice cold. “Captain, the turbo lift is damaged can you check it?”

“It is not damaged, it is gone,” VaQ’taj answered after a brief check of the reports, “There is a safer section aft of the separation point. Standby for transport.”

After getting re-deposited in the main corridor of the massive hulk and greeted in the dim light by more fires and sparks, Hov’qIj and his team began going room to room checking for survivors. Even ones not showing life signs were checked just to make sure that there wasn't anything blocking sensors. This did allow him that tour he had wanted and also the chance to get a general idea of how the crew had lived.

When it came to doors with life signs, the pale haired Klingon tried to give those inside the come out quietly speech of one sort or another. If that didn’t work it was guns at the ready on the way in after blowing the door. Most times it was a either a damaged com system so they didn’t hear the warning or someone incapacitated. As most were not Klingon most came quietly.

One of the Officers of the ship, huddled behind his fancy leather couch, tried to make a stand. Only to be sent to the four winds by almost every member of the teams’ disrupters. Luckily the door closed easily when holes in the walls of the room began sucking air from the ship in a violent manner. Hov’qIj mused that if the couch made it he might have to ask about moving it to his room.

About half of the Klingons left alive opted to face imprisonment rather than die honorably against the Commander’s security forces. This relieved him a bit but at the same time made him curious about just how much the empire had changed. Romulans aboard a Klingon vessel and now Klingons not fighting to the last. Everything seemed just... backwards.

In almost the dead center of the massive vessel was a huge vault style door. Just as Hov’qIj’s engineering specialist began checking the heavy blast door it slid open unexpectedly. Everyone on his team raised weapons preparing for the worst. The room was certainly large enough to have a large defence force.

Inside, T’sura stood on the other side of the now open door with the same indignant look that she had on the view screen in the beginning. “I’ve been waiting for you...I wondered how long it would take you to get here.”

Over her shoulder in a massive biotube was something to Hov’qIj’s recollection should not exist. A Klingon Borg Drone inside of some sort of bio-tank filled with green faintly glowing fluid. There was a breathing apparatus on her face and tubes attaching to various places on her dark body suit. My companion and I are more than willing to be escorted to your ship.”

His white eyebrow was still raised when he activated his communicator to speak to the captain. “You're not gonna believe this.” His voice betraying a bit of his own disbelief...

When no answer came quickly there was no time to overthink. It was likely that they were standing in the midst of a dampening field, “Get against the wall with your hands up.” He almost asked her to lower the dampening field but deciding it might be safer if his people figured out a way to turn it off or bypass it. Trying to make sure not to wake the sleeping baby, or activate any other booby traps, they opted to shoot out the emitters in the room.

After which Hov’qIj made sure the most stringent levels of security where ready in the brig for the Romulan. When she materialized in one of the cells her clothes did not arrive with her. A protocol the old security chief had put in place simply because many Klingons had weapons of all sorts worked into uniforms and armor. Outside the cell the pale Romulan could see four soldiers in heavy suits of ARCANE armor, armed with disrupter rifles normally reserved for ground campaigns.

The cells had dampening fields set so things could be accessed from the ship but most things couldn’t go in or out otherwise. In the center of the four well armed guards outside her cell sat the Chief of Security behind his mass of computer terminals. The floor and ceiling were made of a transparent material so that all the cell floors could be seen from his desk area. To some it might have seemed like floating and could take a bit of getting used to.

As for the Borg, the former Security Chief had her beamed into one of the stasis chambers. There was no way of knowing just what havoc it could wreak even from inside of a cell aboard the Hov’HurgH.

He knew his firebird HoD would take issue with both a Romulan and a Borg on her ship, as both at the same time almost sounded catastrophic. Also he felt if left to her tender mercies one or the other might not make it through the day. So no time to dawdle.

The rest of the ship was by no means as stressful to deal with. There were plasma fires and airless vacuums to bypass, but all in all it was a very successful rescue and salvage mission. The fires were snuffed out and stabilization repairs put in place to keep some of the damage from cascading while they marked cargo and materials for transport.

His men had secured all the major areas of the ship with little collateral damage. Most of the major systems began to be shut down; put on standby as the two Klingon ships would likely be the last to receive repairs or attention of any sort.

Before leaving he went back to the bridge and took a seat in the Captain’s old chair. It had been a noble vessel at some point, he was sure. The honor of many ship designers and engineers, just like his own HoD, before she left spacedock. It could have served the empire well in the right hands.

“HoD,” he said sternly on an open frequency. “The Batlh Tiq is your’s to do with as you will.” As he stood and the transporter beam retrieved him from the derelict hulk, Hov’qIj was sure that these would not be the last souls sent onward in the wake of the Dark Star. Nor the last hull to be battered, breached and broken.