Forgotten Glory – Control Room
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Jared

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Post Details

Title   Control Room
Mission   Forgotten Glory
Author(s)   HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Jared
Posted   Tue Mar 04, 2014 @ 10:25am
Location   Control Room
Timeline   T 0:00
There was a white light and a ringing noise in May'bel's ears. For a moment he was dazed and disoriented, much like the first time he had tried to drink Jared under the table.

As the ringing subsided and his vision cleared he became aware that he was in a moderately sized room full of monitors and controls. He had been in enough security facilities to recognize a security hub when he saw one.

He also recognized signs of a fight. There was a vast amount of blood, not Klingon, and a number of bodies that, assuredly, were the previous owners of the afore mentioned gore. What he couldn't work out was if they were dead because they had been trying to get in, or keep him out.

One other figure stood out, hunched over a terminal. It was the small figure of Jared. As he watched Jared groaned and seemed to rouse.

As the TiQ stirred, May'Bel quickly ran his hand over his gear, checking what he was equipped with. Finding his holsters empty, he quickly checked the ground around him. As Jared looked up and blinked, he snatched both weapons up from the ground beside where he'd been lying.

The TiQ looked around blearily.

"What the heck...? Where are we?"

"No idea," May'Bel replied abruptly, checking his disruptors. "I take it I'm not the only one who has no memory of why we're here."

Jared shook his head and glanced around the room taking in the scene. At the same time, both sets of eyes caught sight of a metallic orb in the middle of the floor.

"Isn't that one of my toys?" Jared asked with a frown.

May'Bel nodded, kneeling beside the object.

"It's one of the flash grenades you made me. It's been used."

He glanced around again.

"This room went down quickly. This wasn't a fight for fun. These people have been stunned and then taken out before they could raise the alarm."

"It... actually looks a lot like your handiwork."

May'Bel nodded, and walked over to what seemed to be the alarm switch. One of the dead appeared to be pinned to the wall through the neck with a bloodstained Tajtiq, just beyond reach of the button. May'Bel yanked the weapon free, letting the body fall. He wiped the blade on the corpse's clothing and re-sheathed it in his empty scabbard alongside it's twin.

"I'd have to agree. I seem to be kitted out for a mission, and my disruptors have seen some action. Wherever we are, we're right in the middle of something."

Jared nodded, looking at the monitors.

"Looks like we're in some kind of security station," he said, looking over the controls.

"Perhaps we've been sent to neutralize security. Or more probably I've been sent to escort you in to do something to the security network."

Jared nodded, as he tapped a few keys.

"Likely. I can't see Ro' sending me to help you take down some guards."

"Which means whatever we're supposed to be doing, isn't getting done," May'Bel said grimly.

"Unless I finished already," responded Jared, half distracted by the monitors. He tapped a few keys.

"Looks like we're in some kind of... base, or facility. Quite a large place."

He worked a bit more.

"This is definitely security. Shield controls, internal sensors, long range scanners... oh!"

"What?"

"... Looks like there's a firefight going on in orbit. A moderate sized federation ship against a small fleet of skirmishing craft."

May'Bel grimaced.

"But the question is which are we allied with? If any! Any sign of the F'Hew."

Jared shook his head.

"Could easily be cloaked though. Oh, that's interesting."

"What?"

"There's a security field around the facility. But there seems to be a hole with some kind of... vehicle in it. Looks like some kind of medical vehicle."

"Our method of insertion into the facility, perhaps?"

"Possibly. Or... possibly we're here out of desperation and we need to keep something OUT. I'm not sure we know enough about anything to take action."

May'Bel was taking position by the door, listening for anyone coming.

"We have eyes though. This place seems to have visuals all over the base. And if we're here... it's likely something's going on that we didn't want these people seeing."

"See if you can scan the place. Try and catch a glimpse of anyone we know. Start with high security areas."

"Good idea! On it!"

The camera's flicked through a number of scenes. Two leapt out quickly.

One appeared to be some sort of medical wing where the front foyer was in chaos. Medical staff were holding down rioting patients. In the back of the crowd was HIchop. He looked bad, as if someone had torn his heart out. However, he was standing, calmly surveying the scene as if he wasn't loosing blood freely from his open chest cavity. He was also carrying some device it was difficult to make out at this magnification.

The second was a ballroom. Lots of people dancing and mingling. Jared's sharp eyes picked out Tell in a resplendent green dress talking to a waiter who looked a little like Marie. As he watched a waitress approached and suddenly there were weapons passed around. The monitors didn't have sounds, but they weren't really needed as the crowds parted around Tell the waitress, how Jared could now make out to be Marie, and an Orion woman, also dressed as a waitress. One figure stepped towards them, obviously the man in charge. He was flanked by two massive minders who seemed to be made of living stone - marking him as a significant figure in the Corporation.

Then the Orion woman threw a grenade and pandemonium broke loose. The advanced tracking system managed to lock onto the three women and follow them in the panicked crowd. The question was, how to help them before the authorities grabbed them.

It occurred to Jared that this may have been the very reason he had been stationed here.

"Can we contact them?" May'Bel asked, grabbing his communicator off his belt. Jared shook his head.

"This console can track communications devices, and I'm pretty sure they don't have any. I probably could have told you that without the sensors, with the dress Tell's wearing."

"Then can we help them out somehow?" May'Bel suggested. "Add to the chaos perhaps? Make them harder to find?"

Jared nodded, working away at the console.

"Yes... actually, I think we can. Activating fire alarms, bringing on sprinklers, and lowering lights to 25% illumination."

They watched as the chaos of the scene intensified, fueled by darkness, noise and unexpected inside rain. Jared then started messing with door controls, sealing a number of the access doors. He left three open though - two large, well lit ones, and one small door where he killed the lighting.

"Why the dark door?" May'Bel asked with a frown.

"Most of the people in the scene will be trying to get back to order and out of trouble. They'll naturally gravitate towards the lit doors. Our three will be looking to disappear, so they'll be looking for a dark hole to escape down. With any luck, I can separate them out and guide them clear of trouble with doors and lights."

He nodded to a small map screen, with a large number of green points moving frantically around the map towards the ballroom.

"Especially since we can track the security teams from here!"

Jared was opening and closing doors and fire suppression bulkheads, opening up a corridor out of the facility for Tell and the others and directing security away from it. It wasn't a foolproof process - there were some areas in the escape corridor that already had the odd security blip in it. But Jared was also dropping lighting in key areas to make escape as easy as possible.

May'Bel was watching the security tracking station monitor with a frown.

"Jared. I think a few of these blips might be on their way to us."

The little man nodded, "Not surprising. The teams aren't getting coordinating instructions, and the fire and door systems are hampering them. Wouldn't be hard to figure out something's wrong at security central."

"I mean 'on their way' as in 'we're going to have company in about forty seconds'," May'Bel provided.

"Oh!" Jared said, with a glimpse at the monitor.

"Lots of company in growing numbers," May'Bel added.

They both looked at the security tracking monitor for a moment. Jared swallowed.

"Right... uh... well, hopefully that'll give the girls the way out they need. Uh, we might leave that there. We should probably cripple this equipment somehow. A grenade might do the job of we're lucky - these consoles seem to be Tritanium encased. If only I had some kind of Endoplasmic Charge. That would..."

He trailed off as May'Bel handed him a moderate sized cylinder, with a magnetic strip on one side and an obvious timer/detonator on the other.

"Do you always carry one of those?" Jared asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No," May'Bel replied simply. "It's almost like someone gave me this one for a specific job."

Jared nodded. He quickly dialed up 30 seconds on the timer and clipped it to the bottom of the security console.

"Time to go!" he said, scrambling out from underneath. He grabbed his communicator and spoke quickly into it.

"Security Station Team to F'Hew. If you guys are out there somewhere listening, I think a few of us are going to need extraction really soon!"

He tucked it back into his jacket, and then glanced at May'Bel.

May'Bel drew both disruptors with a nod, and they moved towards the door.