Survivors in Balance

Posted on Thu Jan 5th, 2023 @ 11:47am by Captain Samuel Woolheater & Captain David Tonelly [Reece] & Lieutenant JG Damien Blackford & Gunnery Sergeant Luxa Gami [Naxea]

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Deck 30
Timeline: MD03 - 0430
4623 words - 9.2 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON:]

Gami let out a sigh as she pulled herself up to the jeffries tube platform for Deck 30. She hated the confined space of these tubes. The damage to Deck 30 was less than 29 as there were no known hull breaches on this deck. She pulled up the ship's internal schematic of their location on her tactical HUD of her Armor's face plate. Hopefully they would be able to reach a Deck access point that could lead to Deck 29 and Main Engineering.

Next out of the hole was LCpl. Evan Griffin. Griffin’s MOS is marine combat engineer, the “sapper” with combat explosives and demolitions expertise. Griffin’s birthday is tomorrow, and he will be twenty-five years old. Griffin comes from a family tradition of Starfleet. He is the first of his family to be a Starfleet Marine. On his body armor is a painted logo of a Sasquatch. A mythical creature from Earth that was legendary for not being able to be found. The Sasquatch "Bigfoot" as it was called, is dressed in combat armor and has gear like a combat engineer from the 1st platoon. The text underneath the image reads, "Nobody fucks with a Tacti-Squatch. Nobody."

Griffin hauls himself out of the tube and then his ILBE field pack. It was empty of field rations. And packed full of ordnance and explosives. Griffin, dressed in his combat armor, combat tricorder searching for plasma energy signatures whined. He lent a hand and grasped the top handle and pulled the ILBE up and onto deck thirty. His body armor’s light illuminated the deck signage: DECK 30 – STARDRIVE SECTION – ENGINEERING LEVEL 3. Putting the ILBE backpack back on, he offered a hand up to the next marine. “Yo! Need a hand?” he asked the next person coming up out of the hole.

Unlike his marine counterparts, Tobias wasn’t adorned with any body armour or equipped with enough explosives to make him feel sick. But he did have his emergency medical pack and enough painkillers for a good evening. “Thanks” he breathed pulling himself through the hole and taking the marine's hand. “I know I’ve asked before but do you really need that many explosives?”

Griffin cocked his head to one side. Akin to a German Shepherd being asked if he wants to go for a ride in the car. "Huh? This? Think of them as 'party favors' doc. Never can have too much of a good thing."

Tobias was going to explain how there were in fact times when there was too much of a good thing such as Morphine, more than 20mgs of that would turn something reality good into something very not-so-good but he decided to keep it to himself as he finished pulling his lower half through the hatch and carried on with the rest of the group.

Griffin offered a hand up to the next person coming up. "Need a hand?" he asked.

"I'd rip your arm out of your socket before you lifted me, son." The deep, powerful voice of Gunnery Sergeant Moses Henderson, platoon sergeant for the unit's heavy weapons platoon, vibrated up through the Jeffries Tube. A few beats later, the large man started to squeeze himself out of the tube and onto the deck. "Gami," he grumbled softly, "Don't you laugh at me, girl." He smirked over at his fellow NONCOM as he got back up to his feet.

Gami couldn't help but chuckle. "Too late. I really should have taken a holo picture of you coming up." 'Teddy,' she thought, continuing to smirk at the nickname she had unknowingly given Gunny Henderson in comparison to a teddy bear.

Damien still wasn't one hundred percent why he'd offered to join this excursion. Maybe he just didn't want to spend his time sitting around doing nothing. He needed to get out and do something, anything. So, here he was.

"Thanks." He said, taking the offered hand, and offering a weak smile to the assembled group.

Griffin helped pull him up and then offered a friendly nod, "Last but not least" Evan said and then put on his ILBE pack and strapped it to his body. Inside, he carried all the tools necessary to help make the mission successful, including a portable mini LCARS processor to help non-engineers read engineering diagrams and output readings. About the size of a modern laptop. The rest of his gear was for sapping. He took to it like a duck to water. The ILBE backpack fitting snug. "Ready!"

"Alright, let's move," Gami ordered as she pulled the manual override lever for the hatch release. The hatch leading to the deck corridor slid open. as she pulled herself out and stood in the corridor. Smoke filled the corridor meaning the environmental systems were still out. She scanned the immediate area with her tactical tricorder built into her armor. "Looks clear so far save for a few fires in the area," she reported.

Damien followed her out, standing up straight, dusting his uniform off. Not that there was any point. The ship was in such a state of disarray, he'd just end up more dust-covered once they set off again. Nodding, Damien pulled out his own Tricorder, scanning the area.

Next was Griffin. He had to watch for radiation, plasma, variable gravity fields. Some of the ordinance he carried didn't like very hot or very cold swings of temperature. Of course, almost everything was inert until it was brought together. Almost everything. "Fire suppression systems are out. Gravity plating in this section and ahead is nominal. Power levels...almost non-existent" Griffin read off his analysis as they followed Sergeant Gami.

Gami moved down the corridor. The scene as she moved was eerie with the smoke and the flickering of orange light from nearby fires. She turned down a side corridor and came to a stop. The corridor was blocked by a large fallen support beam. She double checked the route on her HUD. "Damn," this corridor is the only route to the Deck Access hatch. We either blow it or we have to circumvent the entire deck to get to the other one."

Moses pulled up the rear, keeping an eye out for any danger or trapped crewmen. When the group stopped, he saw the beam in question. Stepping forward, he looked over the beam itself. "I got this." He brought around his pulse phaser and, after fine-tuning the beam emitter, fired at the raised end of the beam, melting through it like a welders torch.

After a few beats, the section broke free and thudded to the deck. After slinging his rifle, he stepped over and took hold of the beam. After grunting a bit, he lifted the five foot section and turned to the side, dropping it back down to the deck with a loud thud.

Breathing heavily, he turned back and grinned at Gami. "What? You couldn't do that? Thought you were tough?"

"No, I just wanted you to feel useful for once," she teased back, grinning.

Griffin was all smiles, "And that's the way we do that! BUH-lam! We call that 'Henderson's Chopsticks'." Indicating to the beam on the ground still glowing at both ends. "Watch your feet? That's super hot metal now." And he made a clicking sound with his tongue and a gun with his hand, "Don't want it to getcha!" he said to Tobias and Damien. Then he returned to his armor mounted tri-corder and followed after Sergeant Gami.

Gami stepped over the beam as she continued down the side corridor before coming to an intersection. An alarm in her suit went off and it was instantly not a good reading. "Shit, we've got Theta Radiation spiking." She knew enough to know that meant the warp core was leaking radiation some....Luckily the levels were still low enough to not cause any ill effects. She stopped as she heard a muffled scream. Reaching out with her mind, she felt pain and fear coming from nearby.

Tobias followed carefully behind the two marines, his own readings shows the same non-lethal levels of theta radiation but still he put his hand into his pack and began picking out the radiation supplements just in case, it wouldn't stop radiation illness but it might prolong their exposure as they worked their way through. The scream caused him to stop and look around both visually with his eyes and audibly with his ears since he did not share the same abilities as Gami.

Gami moved off in the direction of the person she was reading, luckily it was in the direction they needed to go and unfortunately seemed top towards the source of the theta radiation. Why hadn't she sensed the person before? Had they been unconscious? A minute later, they came to a door as she checked her tricorder. There was a trill life sign as well as another bio signature, but no activity levels registered. "There's someone inside! Let's get this door opened!"

Griffin unbuckled his ILBE and slipped it off his back. He knelt down, opening it up and found a set of maglocks to manually unlock the doors when there is no power. "Sergeant? Maglocks." He got to his feet and attached one to the door and then activated the coil. The doors unlocked and popped open about an inch. Just enough to get fingers through and get a grip. Smoke poured out of the opened crack and then became less. Griffin pulled and then the doors opened wider.

Gami moved to step through, seeing a two people on the deck. One laid near the bulkhead and the now conscious woman was sitting against the opposite bulkhead with a nasty looking head wound and her leg bent at an unnatural angle. That's when she heard a sound that nearly made her heart stop. It was a loud groaning sound coming from the opposite end of the quarters. The outer bulkhead with a viewport of the space outside was beginning to buckle! Time seemed to slow as she knew she had a second to make a decision. "Stay back!" she ordered as she rushed forward towards the woman on the deck. The groaning increased in intensity.

Griffin could just make out the interior of the room, illuminated in the pulsing red of the visual annunciators, smoke filled the air. A small fire still smoldered in the corner. The sound of the fatigued structure sent a corkscrew up one's spine. "Oh shit!" he said as he realized what this would mean. They could all be sucked out into space. They had no guarantee the emergency forcefields worked in this section that was damaged, or if there was enough reserve power or if the field would energize fast enough to prevent them from becoming frozen meat popsicles in four seconds.

Moses was by the door when he heard Gami call out.

He then saw Griffen's reaction and quickly activated his helmet. "Helmets on, now! Activate maglocks!" His voice was full of command power, earned from nearly fifteen years of leading Marines as an NCO. He then grabbed his teather magnet and stuck it to the bulkhead beside him as he also activated the maglocks in his boots. Then, in one fluid motion, he pulled his rappel line launcher, brought it up, aimed at Gami's back, and fired. The small magnetic anchor shot out and attached to the back of her suit. He then braced himself for the inevitable.

Griffin slapped his forearm button and the helmet encapsulated his head. His boots magnetized and he braced for the shockwave that would be atmosphere venting into space. At that moment, he realized that Doctor Michaels and Lieutenant JG Blackford didn't have any body armor. ~No bodyarmor, no breathers, SHIT!~ he thought to himself.

In one fluid motion, like a linebacker on a football team, he attempted to fallback into th rear compartment aft of their position and behind that sections doors and bulkheads. With open arms he tried to gather both officers and push them into the fallback position to try and both anchor them from being sucked out into space and, if the section failed, keep them here long enough for the emergency bulkhead to close. With his ILBE backpack on, Evan didn't move as fast as he would have normally. He took quick steps towards them; arms outstretched and tried his best to grab them. "I GOT YOU!!"

Being tackled by a Marine in full gear was no joke before the hull would even breach fi the emergency bulkheads or forcefields didn't activate the air in his lungs was knocked out of him by a Griffin-shaped ballistic marine. "Argh!" He shouted as he was pinned down with all the weight and force Griffin had probably intended. Sucking for air he couldn't tell if it was lack of oxygen in the room or lack of breathing space that stopped him.

Inside the room, Gami knelt down, forcing herself to focus on the woman as she lifted the woman up with a grunt as the trill woman let out a scream of pain from her mangled leg. "Come--" at that moment, the pressure in the cabin along with the vacuum of space cause a rupture in the hull, that with no Structural Integrity fields active in the area, cause a cascading failure in the hull, ripping it apart like a tin can. Gami immediately wrapped the woman into a bear hug with all her strength. The magboots in her armor were still offline from the earlier malfunction and didn't engage. The only thing keeping her from being sucked into space was the tether attached to her back from moses. She felt herself being reeled in. "Close the door as soon as we're through!" she called out through her comms. Her arms ached more and more with each passing moment before wrapping her legs and locking them together as she was being reeled. She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth as she struggled to hang onto the panicking woman before the forcefields finally activated.

Sighing, she let the woman go, who kept screaming and sobbing. "You're fine!"

"My leg! Where is my husband?" she cried out in pain.

"You still have your life," Gami mentioned as she took a deep breath, standing as leaned against the bulkhead. She was spent already from the ordeal. "As for your husband...I'm sorry."

The woman sobbed on the deck in the corridor as the medic looked at her leg.

Griffin got to his feet and offered a hand up to Damien and Tobias. He opened his helmet back up and said, "Never a dull moment."

After the forcefield activated and they were safe for the moment, Moses deactivated his helmet and maglocks. Next, he disconnected the grapple line from Gami's back and stood the device. Reaching out, he laid a gentle hand on Gami's shoulder. "You okay?" He asked softly, a level of tenderness in his voice that did not fit with his size.

"Yeah...just tired," she breathed. In that moment, Gami felt the full weight of her armor and equipment as her body wanted to give out. However, she knew she had to push through it and go on as she pushed herself off the bulkhead and shaking her head.

Gami then paused as she sensed another person's mind. "Shit, there's another."

Footsteps. Were those footsteps? Those were definitely footsteps. Prashani couldn't quite hear, but somehow, she felt quite certain of that. Her head swam. She could definitely feel that her midsection was soft. Maybe she'd broken a few ribs when she hit the floor. Whatever it was, she needed to take a chance.

"Hhh. Is- is someone there? Help!" She croaked, forcing herself to a sitting position behind a bulkhead. "I'm over here..."

Hearing the voice, Moses moved off quickly to its source. "We're here! Keep talking so we can find you!"

Keep talking. Just keep talking. Her head swam violently, but she could make that out at least. "Okay! Okay. Uhhhh. Hi! Hello! I'm... I'm Prashani Chet, uh..." The Cardassian winced. "Who am I talking to right now? What's your name, and uh... species? Yeah. Species!".

"I'm Gunnery Sergeant Moses Henderson, Ma'am," the big man called back as the team started to clear debris. "I'm Human from the farming moon of Gralta."

Gami moved behind Moses but she was worried--their job was to try to find a way to Engineering but they now had two survivors with them which complicated things in regard to her mission.

Griffin looked at their surroundings and the close call they just had. He began to think the worst. They had made it to deck thirty, an engineering deck, yes. But they still had not found a way into engineering. When they heard another voice, Evan joined in the search. Helping to move debris, lift heavy equipment and assist in any way that he could.

Then, the comm badge went off. Every marine comm badge went off, =A= Sergeant Gami, this is Captain Woolheater. What is your status and position? =A=

Gami sighed at hearing the comm link go off--she had enough on her plate at the moment. "We've had a hull breach when rescuing a survivor. Survivor was rescued but is injured and we're in the process of rescuing a second survivor. Status of second survivor is unknown."

Woolheater said, =A= Copy and kill. Sending help. Hold your position. SAR team enroute to your location to transfer your wounded to that detail. After medic Tobias stabilizes your wounded they will transport them back to thirty-two. Find a way into Engineering. If you can regain control of the ship and restore power to main bridge. Acknowledge? =A=

"Acknowledge, Sir. Gunnery Sergeant Gami, Out." Gami closed the link as she helped Moses out.

Hearing that more help was on the way made Griffin feel a little better as he continued to dig towards the injured crewman.

Prashani could definitely hear debris being shifted and blocks falling to the ground. Someone was digging their way towards her! That was great! She just had to keep talking. Keep talking... "Uhhhh. So what do you do for fun?" She asked, stifling a coughing fit. Her chest still felt like mush. "Sports maybe? Cook? That sort of thing?"

"When I'm not spending time with my fellow Marines," Moses replied as he and Gami nearly finished removing debris. "I enjoy reading literature, 19th and 20th Century Earth literature mostly." He paused, then decided to express his secret passion, to simply keep the possibly injured woman talking. "I..uh...I am also interested in learning and practicing ballroom dancing."

Griffin looked at GSgt. Moses with a 'WTF?' look.

A weak laugh issued from the Cardassian's lips. So woozy. Her head still swam. But she needed to keep talking. It was her sole chance at being found "Ballroom dancing? That's cute." She said. "I wish I could ballroom dance. Heh. Mmm- maybe we could learn together when we're not dying like this, eh? I wouldn't mind the company at all."

A laugh came from Gami. "I am so getting you a pink tutu," she teased.

Seeing Moses lift the last of the debris off the survivor, Gami's communication came to life as she heard Captain Woolheater's voice again.

=A= Sergeant Gami? 1st Platoon is going EVA to SAR decks thirty-four through thirty-seven. Captain Charles confirms there may be at least forty marine pilots and crew that could have survived. If you can find any Engineers along the way; your discretion on using them to accomplish your mission. We need power and comms back on line. Limited communication established with Lieutenant Rin on the battle bridge. You got all that Sergeant? =A= In the background, Sam was gearing up for EVA and noises could be heard.

"Understood, Sir," Gami replied. "We'll get it done. Gami, out."

Just then, four marines from third platoon carrying a stretcher appeared and they hailed them, "Sergeant Gami sir! Sergeant Moses, we're here for your wounded."

Gami looked at the four Marines, placing her hands on her hips. "Sir? I actually work for a living and I have tits, you asshats!"

Two of them had worked with Sergeant Gami before and so knew better. The other two, not exactly greenhorns, looked at each other for help. Then one said, "Sorry Gunny Gami. We noticed." Now that was supposed to have come out like, "Oh how dumb of me - sorry about that I'll address you properly next time Gunnery Sergeant Gami." But it didn't come out that way. It came out just like it sounded.

"I mean...I didn't mean that we couldn't tell because of the body armor. I mean...it fits you well and all. Nice. Snug. Tight." The other three marines looking at him.

"Just shut up before you dig yourself a hole you can't get out of," Gami replied with a shake of her head.

LCpl. Griffin stifled a laugh and moved out of the way, "Doc Tobias? Your patient?" and stepped out of the way for the medic.

Tobias who himself was still recovering from having a Marine knock the air out of him, though this was better than the alternative of having the air completely knocked and permanently removed form his body. "Of course, thankyou Lance Corporal." The doctor turned to Prashani just in time to see here begin to sway on the spot.

Oh, thank goodness. Prashani could barely manage a smile of abject relief as she saw the faces of people at last. She only wished she weren't so tired. And so woozy. So, so woozy and achy... her head lolled, and her eyes fluttered closed as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Moses saw the woman slip under, and he turned to the doctor. "DOC!"

Rushing forward and knelt down next to the woman, he quickly assessed her for any signs of catastrophic bleeding. Having seen her fine one moment and unconscious the next he suspected a conscious best case scenario with internal bleeding the worst. "Lets get her on a stretcher and to a sickbay immediately, I can't administer anything here and thanks to the little incident of which I am very grateful for the Lance Corporal saving my life my medical pack is unusable." He smiled to let the Marine know it was one of those things.

The stretcher was moved closer. They had clasping straps now, the kind for putting a person into a stretcher like they were being airlifted out. That would greatly help with transpo to Marine Country. LCpl. Griffin's combat tricorder started pinging. There was a lifeform coming this way. The tricorder couldn't settle on what kind of lifeform was coming to them, probably due to interference. Then, a distinct sound was heard, as familiar and resonate as a bell. It was not so distant now; it sounded lost. There it is again, can you hear it?

"BARK! bark! bark-bark-bark rrroooWOOOOOOOwoa!!!"

Evan said, "It's a dog! Somebody's dog! There might be someone with it? Or, it could be looking for help?" One of the four marines was closest to the badly damaged corridor. He stepped into the corridor and called, "HERE! COME HERE! WE CAN HEAR YOU!" On Griffin's combat tricorder the canine's pace quickened until the tricorder had a solid reading of 'canine'. The other marine in the corridor clapped his hands ad the dog came hobbling and running as fast as it could. It started crying with joy as h bent down to pet it. Some of the fur was burned. It was a large dog, Griffin shone his light in that direction and the grey eyes of an Alaskan Husky shone back. Ears flat, tail wagging stiffly, left front paw up and held in pain, kicking the other marines face in greeting.

The dog was clearly injured, but it wasn't standing still. It would proceed a meter or two down the corridor, then come running back. Then back down the corridor. "Let me take a look boy? Here. Stand still? I think it wants us to follow it?" Evan said. "Maybe there is someone else hurt? But where does that corridor lead? The markers for this section have been burned off."

Gami looked in the direction of the corridor where the dog was leading. She was confused as to why there was a dog on an engineering dedicated deck. Did someone bring the animal to work with them? "That leads towards Engineering Level Three--where we were headed to begin with."

Griffin stood scanning and said, "What's that?" he asked and lifted his left arm to aim the tricorder down the corridor. The dog came hobbling back quickly. Down the corridor there was a fireball. The flames seemed to be floating in mid-air. There was a conduit that was fallen into the corridor. The corridor lights flickered on and off again. Beyond that, the emergency bulkhead to Engineering had been opened. And lights were streaming through the doorway. "Sergeant? Getting some very weird readings? Plasma fire? But I've never seen one like that?" he asked. The whole ship shuddered. There was a groan and they heard something crash above their heads. Perhaps three or four decks above them by the sound of it.

The dog came back and stood near Griffin. He said as he reached down to pet the lost animal and comfort it, "Whole ship is tearing itself apart above our heads. That sounded like it came from the deck or two above. Aren't those Engineering decks? Suppose nobody is left alive in Engineering?"

Gami was silent for a moment as she concentrated. She could hear a jumble of thoughts above them. The thoughts were a mix of frantic, calm, and dedicated towards problem solving. "There are still people alive." She then looked at the debris blocking their way. She scanned the surrounding section, and it didn't look good. Moving and cutting through the debris could cause the deck to collapse. "Looks like this is a dead end. Seems Main Engineering is sealed up tight, for now at least. We need to get back to Marine Country."

"I Agree, we already have patients and for me to be effective the Marine Sickbay is the best place for it, besides Doctor Carmichael was there when we left if he hasn't left for the main sickbay he'd be able to help. We could also come back now we know a way." The doctor in tow offered.

Moses nodded. "We need to proceed carefully anyway. Too much done at once and we risk unnecessary injuries, or worse." His deep voice boomed in the empty corridor. "Y'all heard Gunny Gami! Gather what you can carry and let's get back to Marine Country!"

Gami stood to move as she turned to Griffin and the canine next to him. "Looks like you found a friend, Griffin," she nodded at the dog as they began to move back.

Evan looked at the rather large pooch. He was no medic but the wound looked like a burn. It was too dangerous to go poking around down near a zero-g plasma fire. The flame was getting smaller by the minute as the fuel was expended. Griffin pet the dog while he considered whether or not to take the dog back with him to marine country. "You'll have to walk. I can't carry you and a shitload of explosives on my back. C'mon? We'll get you fixed up back at the MC. (whistles) C'mon?"

Sheepishly looking around, the stray dog followed the marine party back down the damaged corridors. Griffin would look for the owner and hoped for a happy reunion.


[OFF:]