Deck 8 - Well this sucks

Posted on Mon Oct 27th, 2025 @ 8:28am by Lieutenant Cassia Cavendish & Lieutenant Sapphire Morgan [Lalor] & Lieutenant Samaire MacBride-Reece [Lalor] & 1st Lieutenant Joshua Young [Taylor] & Conglomerate (Reece) & Lieutenant JG Tarr Zell ( Barclay de Tolly )

Mission: Season 6: Episode 6: Conglomerate
Location: Deck 8
Timeline: MD1/15h00
1453 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

When the pods reached the Elysiums shields, they were caught briefly, before pushing through. Each one then slammed onto the hull at various locations on Elysium, the spinning drill heads digging into the solid duranium hull plating as if it was thin aluminum.

::The bridge shook again as the pods slammed against the Elysium’s duranium plating. The sound of drilling reverberated through the decks.::

As soon as the pods latched on, the front hatches irised open and the hounds poured out, attacking anyone nearby, killing everyone in front of them.

As soon as the pods connected with the hull, new alarm klaxond began ringing through the ship. "Breach! Intruder alert!! We have breaches on decks five, eight, ten, fifteen and twenty!"

Cassia had been going over some training materials from two of Operations Officers. Sapphire and her sister in law Samaire, had brought the training materials to her and they had walked her through it.
They had been about to grab coffee when the klaxons had gone off. Cassia had frozen until Sapphire had grabbed her by the arm and all but dragged her to the nearest armory point.

Samaire contacted the nursery and school, confirming it was totally locked down and protected. She took a rifle that Sapphire handed to her.

Cassia's hands shook. She held the rifle and took a breath.

Sapphire studied the Lieutenant. "Cassia?"

"I am fine." She got out between gritted teeth.

"The kids are safe" Samaire said softly. "We need to make sure whatever comes our way does not get past us."

Josh was getting a coffee when the alarms sounded and the ship shook violently several times. His first thought was to get to the main armory but there wasn't time for that. Thankfully he had his sidearm (phaser) He pulled it out and checked it, it was fully charged. Now he cautiously headed down the corridor to hopefully connect with some others of the Elysium crew.

At the far end of the corridor, leading to the school, a pair of Hounds were wreaking havoc, bursting through sealed doors and killing any who got in their line of sight. The carnage was horrific.

Cassia raised her rifle and aimed at the beasts. "Ladies, let us clean house."

Samaire grinned and raised her own rifle. "Good Idea"

Sapphire merely opened fire, and the other two joined in, sending hot phaser blasts down the hall.

As the beams struck home, one of the beasts went down. The other two, however, turned their focus on the three women, and started to advance, the phaser beams stopped by personal shields that seemed to protect the front of the creatures.

One of the lumbering beats crouched slightly and fired a projectile from a launcher on it's back. As it was firing, its aim was disrupted by more phaser fire from the women, and the vicious harpoon struck the bulkhead, mere inches to the left of Cassia's head.

Hearing federation phaser fire, Josh moved cautiously but steadily toward the sound. Arriving he saw three women firing on one of the beasts. He didn't hesitate raising his phaser to join theirs, he fired on the beast.

When Josh joined the fight, he had come from a side corridor, so his beam, unlike the ones being fired by the other three women, did not have to deal with an energy shield to stop it. His shot rang true, striking the hound center mass, disintegrating it in a matter to seconds.

The explosion near her head, had stunned Cassia for a moment, Her left ear began to bleed even as she turned to face the man who had fired. "Thank you Lieutenant." She said.

Sapphire nodded. "Crossfire seems to work rather than a full frontal assault."

Josh nodded, "You are welcome. Glad to help." He looked at Sapphire, "That is useful information. A way to combat these creatures."

The ops officer nodded. "We should however try to meet up with others and get out of the halls. I have a bad feeling that this is going to get worse."

"No doubt you are right. I've found things usually get worse before they get better. " Josh replied a she looked around, "As for getting out of the corridors I agree, We can use the Jeffries tubes to move about the ship and hopefully find other crew.'

As they were talking, one of the alien handlers peered around the corner of a cross corridor a few dozen meters away and tossed a spherical device towards the gathered Syarfleet officers. It bounced along the corridor, until it finally rolled to a stop two meters away.

Samaire cursed and grabbed Cassia and pushed her towards the nearest tube entrance. "MOVE!" She yelled.

Sapphire reacted with the shout and followed them, grabbing Josh by his arm as she did so.

A couple beats after they got into the Jeffries tube, the device exploded, sending deadly shrapnel in all directions.

Samaire was holding the hatch closed and shuddered as the explosion shook the hatch. She looked at the other three officers and said "These aliens suck"

After the explosion, the handler glanced around the corner again and saw that the prey has escaped. It howled in anger, then let loose its lat remaining hound, instructing it to search and kill the prey.

The hound quickly set about its task, using its enhanced sense of smell and hearing. As it approached the site of the explosion, it paused and cocked its head to the side. Tiring towards the Jeffries tube hatch, it roared and slashed out with its metallic claws ripping long gashes in the bulkhead, partially dislodging the tube hatch. Roaring again, its nose sicked up the swell of fear from the prey, and it extended it cybornclaws, activating the heating elements in them, and swung its massive paws down again, completely destroying the hatch. Seeing its quarry inside, it snapped a paw inside the tube, swiping at Samaire's left leg, causing a serious, nearly foot-long laceration that was instantly cauterized by the burning hot claw.

As Samaire screamed, Cassia lifted her rifle and shot at the creature's open mouth. The bolt went into the soft tissue of the upper mouth and into the brain. "Sapphire! Josh! Grab Sam and get moving! DOWN - medical!"

Sapphire grabbed Sam's left arm and began to haul her towards the ladder leading down.

Samaire barely responded as she was slowly going into shock.

Josh quickly grabbed Samaire about her shoulders and pulled her further into the tube. "Sapphire, you lead the way, I'll take care of Samaire. We'll be right behind you." To Samaire he said, "Stay with us. "We're going to get you to medical. Just hang on." He implored her. As the trio began to slowly move down the tube.

Samaire barely nodded. She was shutting down.

Cassia fired at the roof of the tube near the hatch, collapsing it and then hurried to join the other three.

Sapphire helped Josh lower Sam down the first ladder.

"Easy, easy." Josh muttered as he and Sapphire lowered Sam down the first ladder. "Hang on Sam." He whispered to her. "Hang on. We'll get you Sickbay."

As they made their way down the ladder, there was an explosion above them, which rocked the entire area. Then, a spherical device rolled over the edge of the ladder well, quickly falling past them. As soon as it hit the bottom of the shaft, nearly ten meters below them, it exploded, sending a concussion wave in all directions, including directly up at them.

Sapphire was flung into the bulkhead and she tumbled down the ladder, landing on a landing below, and didn't move.

Cassia managed to throw herself over Samaire and Josh and slumped unconscious.

The blast rocked the enclosed space even as Cassia threw herself atop Josh and Samaire. When the tube stopped spinning Josh let out a groan. He looked at Cassia and Sam. He felt something wet on his face and realized his nose was bloody. He tore at his sleeve to make a makeshift gauze pad all while tending to cassia and Sam. 'Cassia, Cassia." he said softly trying to rouse the woman. His eyes went Sam, She was unconscious but seemed to be breathing evenly. "Got to get you to medical." He muttered as he tried again to wake Cassia.

Cassia came around and shook her head. "oh by the gods that hurt." she got out. She pushed herself up. "You ok Josh?"

Together they got Samaire down to Sapphire who they found was breathing and while Cassia began pulling Sapphire by the under arms, Josh carried the all but catatonic Samaire out of the tubes and to medical.

OFF