When A Plan Comes Together

Posted on Wed Sep 30th, 2020 @ 5:27am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Captain Garrett Lovejoy [ Taylor]

Mission: SEASON 4: Episode 1: Know Thy Self!
Location: SS Serpents Tooth, somewhere in the MU
Timeline: Straight After "Talespin"
1227 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON]

The crew of the Serpents Tooth were gathered in the Cargo Bay, standing or sitting on crates and boxes. All of them had been rescued from inquisitors and worse as Lianej's work for the resistance had taken her to and fro across known space. Now they were all happy to take the fight to the Terran Empire.

Standing on one crate at the front, Malcolm Garrison was calling for a show of hands. There were a dozen or so 'nays'. "And in favour say 'Aye'!" There was a roar from assembled crew, and a forest of hands, all shapes, sizes and colours, raised. Mal looked over them to Lianej and Garrett and nodded. As promised he had the votes.

She joined him on the box. "What did you do?" she asked suspiciously.

"We make shares once we reach safe port. Officers only get one share, any one dies, next of kin gets paid. Lady Penelope's in play." Mal shrugged. "Elysium's not your typical prize. It wasn't going to carry without some negotiations."

"I'm beginning to think I should be jealous." She murmured.

Mal gave her a fond look. "There's only one woman for me." He turned back to the crew. "Captain on Deck! Listen up!"

Lianej stepped forward. "The ISS Elysium is not so far away. It has in tow another odyssey, a double from an alternate universe. That will make it slow, and it will be sucking its power. This is the best chance we have to strike a blow of this size on Emperor Phillip. So we're taking it.

"We're going to drop out of warp under cloak, and fire two shots up her arse, try and take her out at the neck. At that point, we're expecting them to turn around to us. That's when the Havreha will drop her cloak, and strike again. Whilst they're busy with Mishka and her people, we're going to roll around and attach to the engineering section. We will drill for engineering and the brig, whilst Mishka keep their attention. When we get through we're going to split into two - "

"Three." Mal interrupted.

"Three groups. The majority will go to free the crew of the towed ship. The second will take Engineering and disable the engines, weapons and shields. And no more than four volunteers will go with the QM, to try and capture Lady Penelope." She tried not to roll her eyes at Mal's obsession.
"This is Garrett Lovejoy. He was the resistance agent on board. He can tell us more about what we'll be up against." She turned to him.

Garrett looked at the faces around and when he spoke he didn't sugar coat it. He gave it to them straight up. "Make no mistake, the security teams on the Elysium are the best in the Empire. They don't rattle, they don't run and they give no quarter. Lady Penelope is being held in the VIP suite on board the Elysium. She's locked in the suite and there's no exit from the inside. Two guards are outside her doors and four more staged at various intervals in the corridor leading to her suite. There is also a roving patrol of two officers that comes through every twelve minutes. So get in, grab Lady Penelope and get out. You don't have time to stop an smell the roses."

"What about in Engineering?" A huge tattooed nausicaan called out.

"Security patrols there as well. Again two man patrols. There are also security personnel stationed at the warp core, environmental controls, life support and other key stations." Garrett looked at them. "You need to understand, the Elysium is a flying arsenal and it's highly secure, you just don't walk in and out of security areas. So know where you want to go, hit your target and get out."

Mishka stepped forwards again, "So how heavily will the brig area be guarded?" She turned to Lianeji, "I only ask, as you might need some of my crew as back up".

"Surprisingly not that heavily. Have a brig control officer that monitors the brig and two officers inside to watch the prisoners" Lovejoy replied.

Lianej looked at Mishka. "I won't say no to volunteers. Not for this." She turned to Garrett. "I'll take you to the armory, you can kit up before boarding." She addressed her crew again. "Don't be stupid. Our only hope of pulling this off is freeing those prisoners. Get them out, get them to their ship so they can fight with us. We won't have much time to do that and get everyone home before we detach and blow Gary Taylor back to hell, so no lollygagging or settling scores. "

"Ok I'll send about a dozen over before we leave to find that damned fool, Garrett do you know where they are exactly heading for?" She wanted co-ords do she could get there as fast as possible. "I hope we're close Lainej, I need to brief my crew on what we're doing".

Garrett nodded, "Yes, I do. Knowing that psycho Taylor and his way of thinking, Their headed for the Arena station. There they will dump most if not all of the crew, to fight in games of survival of the fittest. The ones that make past the hounds and the games will be rounded up and sold as slaves. It's a nice little package the Empire has going there." He spit in disgust.


"Any minute..." Lianej was listening to her ship. "Now!" she smiled. And even as she spoke the drop from warp was obvious, and the call from the bridge came through. "The Havraha are calling. They miss their mommy." Lianej shot Mishka an apologetic look. "Tell them Captain Valdran will be right over."

"I can't wait to see Taylor's face when you blow him out the stars," Lianej said. "No surrender, no betrayal, no grave but the stars," It was and old farewell from Cort, but it felt appropriate now.

A small smile crossed Mishka's lips, "I don't know about blowing him out of the stars, but I intend to do him a lot of damage. And Captain Valdran will be having a word with her Comms Officer when she gets aboard."

"Arena Station? Hell's Bells." Mal had gone pale. He'd been there several times when he'd still been pretending to be the Commodore's dutiful son. Every time he'd left thanking his lucky stars he wasn't one of the poor saps running its gauntlet. "They'll be eaten alive. Literally. There won't be enough of them left to crew their own ship."

The final destination held no fear for Mishka, she'd been through it with another crew. She'd escaped with only one thought, kill the Terran who'd put her there Gary Taylor. "That settles it, we leave now!" She turned to Garrett, "Don't let us down, or the hounds just might find a present from us". He was Terran, so he needed to be reminded this wasn't his world. Not any more, times they were a changin'.

"Don't worry about me, just make sure you do your job." Garrett fired back. He wasn't cowed by the Romulan commander. Not in the least. he had faced much worse than her.

[OFF]

Riov Mishka Valdran
R.I.S. Havraha

Garrett Lovejoy
All round good guy

Captain Lianej Derani
SS Serpent's Tooth