Flashback

Posted on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 @ 2:46pm by Staff Sergeant Andromeda Dreik & Major Hailey Weston

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/5
Location: TBD

The hallways seemed to be deserted as the three marines stalked through it, Hailey in the middle, Andi taking point and Jeremy took the rear. t was one of the less elegant types of missions the Raiders went on, a snatch and grab of information, this time on a Romulan outpost world, population three point six million inhabitants, but this particular building was supposed to be empty which was why they were there at night. It was obviously a laboratory building of some sort, but only partially secure. Getting in from the outside was the hard part compared to now. Andi held up at a corner and Hailey inched closer, muzzle of her rifle aimed past the younger woman at an angle, "Left here should take us to the right door third on the left."

Andi nodded, feeling the warmth of Jeremy's back pressed against hers as he fell in behind them, the trio seeming to barely take up the space of one person. "It'll take me about three minutes to download the data and then about two minutes to plant the device. After that, five minutes tops to clear the perimeter before it blows so we need to move fast. Ready?" She took a deep breath not even bothering to wait for an answer before she moved on. It was irrelevant, ready or not they were going in. She slipped silently around the corner, making her way silently along the short corridor before coming to a stop on the other side of the door, taking half a second to assess the locking mechanism before unslinging her own rifle, and nestling it in her shoulder, her finger hovering over the trigger as she waited for Jeremy to step in and clear the lock.

As soon as the door had parted enough to allow her to slide through the door, Andi slipped into the room, her presence taking the two Romulans standing at the computer in the middle of the room by surprise. It took her only a second to close the distance between them and before the first Romulan could even make a sound, Andi had drawn a small blade from the back of her belt and used it to slice clean through his jugular. Feeling his body slump back against her, the warmth of his blood on her hand, she resheathed the blade before lowering his body to the ground quietly and taking his place at the computer, leaving Hailey to take care of his companion.

Hailey had lowered the body of her victim even as Andi did, hand over the Romulan’s face, his eyes bulging in terror after her surgical cut severed both jugular and vocal cords precisely, dragging him to the side, then Andi’s victim as well, there would be no hiding this pair, that’s for sure,. Jeremy had slid in after prizing the door open a little more, then closed it most of the way, deploying a tiny drone that resembled a spider which scurried to the ceiling corner right outside, he flashed a thumbs up, his rifle pointed at the door as he lay in wait and watched through the drone’s cameras. Hailey hovered about Andi, her own rifle in hands, pointed at the floor and away from her team, “Is the decrypt we got working as expected?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Pulling a small handheld device and two small connection leads from a pocket, she dropped to the ground, removing the front panel of the console quickly and handed it to Hailey to set aside quietly as she dropped to her knees, connecting the device to the inner machinations of the console, chewing on the inside of her bottom lip as she focused on the display read out on the screen. "Gimme a second," she muttered as she pulled a data PADD seemingly from nowhere and started scrolling a never ending sea of screens. "Decryption complete but data transfer is crawling..." she cursed under her breath and reached for the top of the console, keying in sequence after sequence without even looking. "We're gonna be cutting it close, REAL close," she finally whispered back with a quick glance first at the door and then at Hailey.

"We've got a plan for this." Hailey reminded her, glancing around the room, "It'll work for this too." She touched the earring in her ear, the one that also was a communications device, "Romeo, this is Juliet. Start the ball, party popper in eight." She keyed it off without waiting for an acknowledgement, "Set up the demo, I'll babysit the data transfer."

With a nod, Andi stood up, glancing around the room momentarily before dropping back to the ground where she was. "The charge is gonna go here," she said, laying on her back on the ground, reaching up into the console again, sliding a hand down inside her jacket and carefully producing a small, very innocuous looking cube. Setting it on her stomach, she closed her eyes, her lips moving soundlessly as she counted off on her fingers before nodding quickly and sliding the device carefully up into the console, connecting it directly to the power conduit. "How long for the data?" she asked quietly. "Once I activate this we have to get the hell out of here, like 10 minutes ago!"

"Thirty more seconds." Hailey stated, then a rumble resounded through the building, three shudders that were from the opposite side of the compound from them, waiting out until the screen blinked solid, "Jeremy, get us out of here." She ordered, telling him to take the point on their way out, "Set it and we gotta go."

Andi was on her feet within a second, disconnecting the leads for the data storage device and secreting everything back away within the confines of her clothing. Grabbing her rifle and slinging it over her shoulder, she followed Hailey toward the door. "Move," she hissed to both of them.

The tall blonde male was already out the door and moving quickly, barely pausing for a heartbeat at the first pair of junctions, then just bulling on through the rest of them when the first ones had been called clear. Time really was of the essence and a little risk had to be taken. After he passed one, there was a shout, but he was already past. Hailey turned and saw what had happened, a pair of Romulans had been running down the hall and had spotted the marine. The Lieutenant never stopped moving, raising the muzzle of her weapon in midstep and firing a short burst at them, the three rounds hitting one of the targets in the chest. As she triggered the second, the new target already falling from the shots Andi had loosed. "Time?"

Andi didn't even need to glance at the chrono on her wrist. The still rhythmic beat of her heart was all the count down she needed. "3 minutes." She turned a boot sharply, using it to both brake her momentum and turn the corner, her rifle already up and firing as another two romulans fell in front of her. Behind her she could hear the sound of all hell breaking out, yet despite the chaos and the destruction, she remained calm. Getting clear of the perimeter was going to be a push, especially now that their presence had been made known. It seemed like every Romulan on the outworld had suddenly appeared in the building they were trying to escape from.

It wasn't much more than a mad dash and while yes, they were clearing any potential pursuit by eliminating them on the go, but their best defense was speed. Hailey heard and then felt the disruptor beam's heat as it flew past. She skidded onto one knee, turning a hundred-eighty degrees with her weapon up and sighted, triggering a three-round burst even as her momentum continued to keep her in motion, then another burst and the guard fell hard and she let herself spin the rest of the one eighty and pushed off, only having lost speed, but enough to make her into rear-end charlie as Andi had passed her, but she bulled on instead of really looking back. "Door!" she heard Jeremy call out a bare second before the sound of him crashing into and through it.

"One!" Andi called. They were down to one minute. 60 seconds and the perimeter was finally almost in sight. She skidded through the door behind Jeremy, fully aware that they were about to cross over into the open and they would have to face a hundred odd yard dash through an open space before they could get to cover again.

Thirty seconds to spare, Hailey realized, it would be a fifteen second dash to cross that distance at a full run, despite being weighed down by all their gear, about fifty pounds of it in all. The sounds of other gunfire from the opposite side of the compound, but it was fading away as Romeo, the other part of this infiltration team, fell back from their distraction job. The last dash went without any sort of problem and Hailey hit the ground just inside the treeline, turning and counting down the last few seconds to see the result of the explosion.

Sliding into the treeline, Andi turned as well, silently counting down the last seconds. As the countdown ended, there was silence, an eerie silence as all the commotion from the other team silenced almost immediately. She caught the fleeting look of concern on Hailey's face and raised a finger to her lips without making a sound. Almost as suddenly as the silence had fallen around them it was shattered by a deafening explosion as the entire compound in front of them seemed to just crumble, the shockwave rippling out around them. "There's my baby," she whispered with a smile. "C'mon, lets get to the rendezvous point."

Hailey took one more look at the compound, then turned away. She wouldn't find out about Romeo until they made the rendezvous. It really was an annoying situation, but comms were traceable and while the first transmission was necessary, she didn't get to the age of 26 by making bad decisions. She hefted her rifle again and headed off into the woods. Eight hours, then two hours and it was just a ride back to base.

Silently, Andi shouldered her own rifle, did a quick pat down to make sure she still had everything required and then followed suit. Deities willing, she would be back on the ship in time for a hot shower, a warm dinner and, well, some after dinner entertainment of course.

OFF:
Captain Hailey Weston
Raider Team Delta Commanding Officer
Marine Raiders

Corporal Andromeda Kydoime
Raider Team Delta Demolitions Expert
Marine Raiders