Mission 7: Flight of the Wolves

Jiseth wrote:

There was a slight smirk from Jiseth, but it faded away as she crossed her arms and began to contemplate their next moves. They had yet to be shot down, but it could happen at any moment. Or would it? There were only two people who entered their runabout.

"Gavin... Fornell killed two of them yet there were no guards, no reinforcements, even though they were handling something sensitive... They transported it and were going to go on foot, but why not go along? What are we missing?"

Slowly, the others in the cabin turned to the stranger among them. There was a slight bit of reverence as Jiseth rarely asked anyone outside the department for their opinion. Even Zero's recommendations were bent from time to time so long as no one became impaired in their duties. They waited for some divination from the curly-haired oracle.

[Shuttlecraft Mondrian]

Gavin stepped back from the 'fresher, having tossed his old pants into a recycling unit. He was pretty sure it was thorium grease. Or just plain old hydraulic fluid. He sat down just as he realized that Jiseth, and by extension the rest of the room, was looking at him. His brain scrambled, backpedaling to re-play what he'd heard.

He cocked a slight eyebrow, wondering what the Romulan was getting at. She could probably see the facts just as well as he could. Why then --

She's giving you something to do.

The thought crossed his mind, settling there and feeling a little more comfortable as a slight afterimage of a smile touched his lips. "Well," the young science officer said, "there seem to be three main points. One," he counted off on his fingers, "we're dealing with a rogue element. That much is intuitively obvious to casual observation. Two, they either had no backing support planned. Otherwise, they would have sent more in to make sure such a sensitive retrieval operation was completed. Especially if it was worth openly attacking Federation craft. They were after something from the computers, I assume?" he asked, shrugging. "And, finally...we could just be dealing with the criminally insane."

He settled back into his seat, frowning in thought. "Oh," Gavin said, perking up once again. "I forgot something. They could also have let us escape, and are following or waiting until we get to the hospital, to kill us all together." Sighing, he sat back.

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"T'Koris here, engineering," she replied after tapping her comm badge.  "We were hit by a torpedo from a terrorist movement.  There's some sort of jamming signal keeping us from communicating or using sensors.  See if you can break through it!"

[Main Engineering]

=^="On it! Good to hear your voice,"=^= Gabriel replied, smiling slightly, meaning it in both ways. =^="We'll do our best to maintain an active link. Engineering out."=^=

He wondered just what kind of torpedo could have slapped an entire Nebula-class starship out of commission. Perhaps it was best not to know...at least, not right now. Turning around, Gabriel called off two officers to make sure the backup shield generators were ready and on standby in case the auxiliary power was called for. "Mr. Nefen," he asked the Trill, "let's have an update on that deflector dish."

Gavin Van Gelder wrote:

The thought crossed his mind, settling there and feeling a little more comfortable as a slight afterimage of a smile touched his lips.  "Well," the young science officer said, "there seem to be three main points.  One," he counted off on his fingers, "we're dealing with a rogue element.  That much is intuitively obvious to casual observation.  Two,  they either had no backing support planned.  Otherwise, they would have sent more in to make sure such a sensitive retrieval operation was completed.  Especially if it was worth openly attacking Federation craft.  They were after something from the computers, I assume?" he asked, shrugging.  "And, finally...we could just be dealing with the criminally insane."

He settled back into his seat, frowning in thought.  "Oh," Gavin said, perking up once again.  "I forgot something.  They could also have let us escape, and are following or waiting until we get to the hospital, to kill us all together."  Sighing, he sat back.

[Shuttlecraft Mondrian]

Part of her hoped the jamming signal remained intact. The moment communication was restored she'd have to report to Captain T'Koris and for some unpleasant reasons may promptly disappear in the coming days. It was very likely someone could find a way to recover the information in the flight recorder. Jiseth had been hoping to dispose of it when a replacement component arrived which would have solved everything.

"They would have had all the time in the world between when we got shot down and now to take out the other shuttles, but they didn't. Perhaps... Something else. A distraction. Local constabulary would have headed to the crash site which would leave another target more vulnerable... Night Owl, what's transmitting on local frequencies?"

"...Lots of requests for information, lots of silence from various quadrants. Probably several of their ground units are down-uh... My lady, it seems there's situation at the hospital. Two wounded Federation hostages."

Jiseth shot to her feet, and moved to the copilot station. Quickly she tapped away in Morse as an external light flashed to the Diogenes. They flashed back their acknowledgement and split off from formation between the buildings.

"Get us there now! Princess will come around and trap them."

"Yes, ma'am! 45 seconds out."

Moving back to the rear of the cabin, Jiseth took the hand phasers from their racks and began handing them out to her crewmen before leaving one for herself. She set the weapon to a high stun setting. The Captain would at least want as few casualties as possible. She took a deep breath and looked up to Gavin after eyeing her phaser.

"Looks like you're going to play doctor after all."

Turning away from him, she pulled the release lever and the rear hatch opened. The ramp extended out and Jiseth stood at the top, just barely peaking hear head out as she held on to the handrail along the lining of the hatch. Her crewmen lined up behind her and stood ready.

"Stay on the shuttle, Gavin. You're too valuable to be running around in the crossfire."

[Pullock V]

"Listen to you. Replaced? Supplanted by another of your own? That's right, you Cardassians care nothing about lives, just the State. You're a disease, not heroes."

With a hand wave and a pointed index finger, Gly's men pulled both of the Cardassians into the middle of the street. Both were left with backs propped up against each other and the circle around them formed again. Time was beginning to run short, but she wanted one last bit to get their point across. Also, have some sadistic enjoyment in the process.

"Your sins aren't forgiven just because you flee to a different uniform. Every world you lay claim to will burn from the fires of the wrathful, the pagh of those who were cut down by your occupation. Think on that, while you can, I give you half an hour until you've bled out enough to cause death."

Gly took several steps toward Ilana and stepped on the hand that was covering the wound on her hip. First there was just the weight of her leg, then she quickly leaned into it with her body weight. The Bajoran's lips twisting as she slowly drew a smile.

[Pullock V - Street]

Nelkar had barely begun to hand Ilana a bandage or a pain hypo from the mess of supplies on him when he found himself being dragged again. In a rush, the older Cardassian gathered up as much as he could even as they pulled them out into the street. The sun was too bright, too heavy for Nelkar to adjust to immediately, but he forced himself to focus. He was back-to-back with the good doctor, and it seemed like they were becoming even more of a display than before.

He ignored the taunts. She knew nothing of him, nothing of Ilana. Her self-sacrificing tendencies were always done out of concern for the lives of others- no matter how stupid they could be. He didn't need to tell this filthy terrorist that to know what he stood for.

The eyes that had evolved for hot caverns eventually focused in the bright light, just in time for him to see the bajoran's foot press down on Ilana's wound. He didn't wait for her to scream in pain. He looked over what he had on his lap, spread over his bloody leg and the ground around him. He found what he was looking for a moment later- a hypo filled with a strong sedative. He could barely turn with the pain in his leg, but in a moment of clarified anger, the cardassian whipped his arm around and stabbed the terrorist in the ankle pressing on Ilana with the medication.

It took mere seconds for her to fall. In some moment of cruelty, she happened to land on his injured knee. Nelkar bit back a howl of pain. Even unconscious you cause misery, he thought, immediately pulling his sidearm out and pointing it at the head of the fallen Bajoran. It felt good to have a little control back.

"Make any move toward myself or the doctor, and I will not hesitate," he warned at the semi-circle of shrouded figures. He wished he could see their faces, gauge their reactions ahead of time. This was the only card he had, and it wasn't going to last long if the two of them bled out. Even with the tourniquet on his leg, he was still bleeding.

"Doctor, are you alright?" he asked a second later, in a much less aggressive and quieter tone, though he never took his eyes off the people around him. What does it matter? We're dead anyway.

[Pullock V - Street]

Somewhere in the back of her mind, the part of Ilana's mind that wasn't focused on the pain in her hip sat back and considered the terrorist's words. Caring nothing about lives? Fleeing to a different uniform? Occupation? None of those things, as far as she could tell, applied to her. She hadn't even been old enough during the occupation of Bajor to have any kind of influence!

Most of that line of thought happened while they were being dragged outside, probably as a defense mechanism against the pain she felt. However, it wasn't nearly enough to keep her from being wrenched back into the real world as a foot rapidly began an attempt to crush the bones in her hands, which also happened to be clamped over the wound to her hip. She screamed again, dissolving rapidly into panting sobs.

Although it felt like far longer, the weight was relieved within seconds of being applied as the terrorist fell back, apparently sedated. It was probably a premature emotion, but a sensation of relief still washed over her. Without the weight of the Bajoran on it, the pain actually felt closer to tolerable than it had been before. Strange, the psychological reactions one can have, was a strange thought that floated across her mind as she forced herself to twist around and grab hold of the Bajoran's phaser, leveling it at one of the others who had taken a step forward to intervene.

"D-d-d-don't c-come any c-c-closer," she growled.

[Bridge]

The spectroscopy analysis had just finished and the results made Reyaen turn her head away in disbelief though her eyes were still focused on the screen. Given her background and at times the paranoia within Starfleet, especially with a Romulan captain, there was a great deal of resistance to coming forward with the information. The origin of the torpedo itself meant little. How it got to this quadrant was an altogether different, more important, mystery.

There were no leads as of yet. Simply a torpedo fired. The jamming signal would have to be routed, but then an idea hit her. They had the map of the planet. At least visually, they could see the trajectory of the torpedo's path from what the main viewer saw. Sifting back through the recordings, the Vorta zoomed in on where the torpedo first became noticeable to her which was just as it crossed the planet's edge and lit up amid the black of space.

Following its arch, the computer drew a line toward the surface where a small circle appeared. Small was relative, a person on the ground would have found the area fairly sizable. Still, it was progress. Something to report other than potential self-incrimination.

"Captain, I have something regarding the torpedo. It was a type made by the Karemma. The calculated launch site is within a square kilometer area around 39.09 North latitude and 94.58 West longitude."

Jiseth wrote:

Moving back to the rear of the cabin, Jiseth took the hand phasers from their racks and began handing them out to her crewmen before leaving one for herself. She set the weapon to a high stun setting. The Captain would at least want as few casualties as possible. She took a deep breath and looked up to Gavin after eyeing her phaser.

"Looks like you're going to play doctor after all."

Turning away from him, she pulled the release lever and the rear hatch opened. The ramp extended out and Jiseth stood at the top, just barely peaking hear head out as she held on to the handrail along the lining of the hatch. Her crewmen lined up behind her and stood ready.

"Stay on the shuttle, Gavin. You're too valuable to be running around in the crossfire."

[Shuttlecraft Mondrian]

Staying on the shuttle sounded like a fantastic idea, and Gavin was very well prepared to do just that. He frowned, though, torn between what he wanted to do and what he felt he had to do. What would Thelos think? Gavin knew damn well what Thelos would do. The Andorian was a doctor, and a former Imperial Guard. Thelos would charge right in...because it was the right thing to do.

There was also the fact of the matter that, even though politics had forced him to switch to Sciences instead of Medical...Gavin was a doctor in his heart. He'd known since he was five years old what he wanted to be. He had a duty.

"I'm going," Gavin said, standing up to join the rest. "People are hurt, and the hospital facilities might be salvageable. It'd be easier to treat them there than to bring them here." He set his feet, a hint of his and Jiseth's usual adversarial relationship creeping back into the tone of his voice. "I'm going."

Gavin Van Gelder wrote:

"I'm going," Gavin said, standing up to join the rest.  "People are hurt, and the hospital facilities might be salvageable.  It'd be easier to treat them there than to bring them here."  He set his feet, a hint of his and Jiseth's usual adversarial relationship creeping back into the tone of his voice.  "I'm going."

[Shuttlecraft Mondrian]

The crewmen eyed him for a moment before looking to Jiseth. There were only precious seconds before they came down, but this was an important time regardless of how short it was. There had been always a grudging respect for him. His mental faculties were impressing and at times something she feared. That this little genius brain would calculate the exact reason she and Zero would fail together. Now though, there was no tinge of resentment. No ill will as she reached over and firmly squeezed his shoulder.

"Now you're one of us."

"We're coming in-taking fire!"

"I do love a warm welcome... Let the hunt begin, Wolves!"

The shuttle was still two meters above the ground when the Romulan took her first shot and jumped out the back into the middle of the circle. Her crewmen followed swiftly as they too fired their phasers at the bewildered group. The Diogenes also swooped in with a hail of short bursts that knocked the rest rag-encased Bajorans to the ground before it unloaded its own group of Jiseth's pack.

[Pullock V - Street]

Gly was shocked. She had to admit the Cardassians were clever. It made her hate them all the more. As she fell over, a curse to them escaped her lips. Her vision tunneled and the last thing she saw was the dust in the street beginning to whirl around in angry vortexes as a shuttlecraft came over the top of a neighboring building.

Then all hell broke loose.

Her men had been preoccupied trying to down the incoming ship that the armed assault took them by surprise. Since when did the limp resolve of the Federation become a fighting force? It went poorly rather quickly for the Bajorans. Though knocked prone, one went for a device on his own wrist and disappeared in a transport beam. Four more did the same as they were the only ones still conscious.


[Mountain Camp]

"What happened?"

"We were ambused. They captured Gly, Metarn, Serice, and Bonn."

"How do we proceed? The jammer is eating up a lot of power. We had to take the turret offline."

"Get the ship ready. That other torpedo too."

NPC wrote:

[Pullock V - Street]

Gly was shocked. She had to admit the Cardassians were clever. It made her hate them all the more. As she fell over, a curse to them escaped her lips. Her vision tunneled and the last thing she saw was the dust in the street beginning to whirl around in angry vortexes as a shuttlecraft came over the top of a neighboring building.

Then all hell broke loose.

Her men had been preoccupied trying to down the incoming ship that the armed assault took them by surprise. Since when did the limp resolve of the Federation become a fighting force? It went poorly rather quickly for the Bajorans. Though knocked prone, one went for a device on his own wrist and disappeared in a transport beam. Four more did the same as they were the only ones still conscious.


[Mountain Camp]

"What happened?"

"We were ambused. They captured Gly, Metarn, Serice, and Bonn."

"How do we proceed? The jammer is eating up a lot of power. We had to take the turret offline."

"Get the ship ready. That other torpedo too."

[Pullock V - Street]

A stalemate had been reached, at least for the time being. The terrorist group couldn't attack him without risking the life of their leader, and Nelkar couldn't fire without expecting the same once the variable of the leader was out of the question. The only difference was that the terrorists had time. They could wait until he and Ilana bled out.

Turns out, they didn't have to see it to that end. An utter hellstorm of weapons fire and yelling broke out suddenly as the other members of the starfleet ship stormed in and took the terrorists by surprise. Neither he nor Ilana were in much shape to help-- Nelkar was growing so dizzy that only one of the shots he fired during the fray hit a target at all. He could only imagine that the frail doctor behind him was faring much worse.

In the end, it was over quickly. Unfortunately, that was only half the battle. He and Ilana were still in a life-threatening condition, and it seemed as though there was still no way to return to the ship.

Nelkar forced himself to focus his light-headed thoughts and concentrate on the Romulan standing among the others.

"I... don't suppose you've brought some surgical tools?" he asked in a voice that sounded as though he was fighting to stay awake. "The doctor's probably worse off..." he at least a tourniquet. Ilana had nothing and was far less sturdy than he was. Then again, he himself was going to die or lose his leg in a few minutes no matter what was done. He hoped for the latter.

"Her first."

Reyaen 3 wrote:

[Bridge]

Following its arch, the computer drew a line toward the surface where a small circle appeared. Small was relative, a person on the ground would have found the area fairly sizable. Still, it was progress. Something to report other than potential self-incrimination.

"Captain, I have something regarding the torpedo. It was a type made by the Karemma. The calculated launch site is within a square kilometer area around 39.09 North latitude and 94.58 West longitude."

[Bridge]

Turning to look at the crew member who had spoken, Archangel carefully took in the information, processing it quickly within the confines of her mind. She didn't bother asking how Reyaen had known that the torpedo had been one of those made by a Gamma Quadrant species known as the Karemma, since it was pretty obvious that Reyaen was probably the only individual on board who could make that call so quickly. No, she was more concerned by the fact that whoever this terrorist group was, they had access to such weaponry.

"Prepare a probe, Cadet, and send it out into a synchronous orbit above that location. I want as much information as we can gather on whatever's down there. Pardek, I want our shields working overtime in case they figure out that we're spying on them and decide to take another pot shot at us, understood?"

[Pullock V - Street]

It hadn't taken long after Ilana had lifted the phaser in an attempt to ward off any of the terrorists for her hand to drop back to the ground and for her to slump to the ground. Cold had started to settle in to her body along with the lightheadedness associated with the significant blood loss. Even the pain seemed to have dulled. With a quiet sigh, she let her eyelids slide closed as the bone-deep exhaustion started to take over.

The young Cardassian was only vaguely aware of the brief firefight going on, or group of officers moving in to assist. It didn't seem to be important to her at that moment, not when she was pretty sure that she was close to dying from the trauma and blood loss.

On the other hand, there was one element that she couldn't turn off in her mind, and that was her doctor's instincts.

"T-t-t-tourniquet... G-g-g-et i-if off," she protested to Nelkar, knowing that if he kept it on much longer, his leg would be unsalvageable. Taking a few seconds to take it off wouldn't do all that much damage to either of them.

[Pullock V - Street]

Nelkar had zoned out a moment while staring at the face of the terrorist who had been keen on their lives ending a moment ago. She wasn't dead, jus incapacitated, but he didn't want her on him any longer than they needed to. He was interrupted in thinking of all the horrible ways he'd like to gain retribution by a soft, stammering voice.

Ah, so now she responds, Nelkar thought vaguely to himself. She hadn't when he'd first asked... but maybe she was too tired. The fact that it was his unsafe medical practices that brought her around to talking was a slight bit amusing, and he didn't know why. He just shook his head and looked at the ground.

He should probably take it off... but because of the damned anti-clotting agent in the weapon, removing it would probably cause a rush of blood to start again. It was already still bleeding, though mostly from what was left in his leg before he cut it off from circulation.

"...My leg's dead anyway, Telak. I refuse to black out." He was wavering enough as it is, and he knew that even if he removed the thing, his knee and leg was so destroyed that repairing it would be less work than an amputation. There was a reason those weapons were illegal in the federation.

[Pullock V - Streets]

"My God," Gavin breathed, as he saw the results of the firefight. Jiseth and her crew had charged right into it, of course, talking about the hunt and other such madness. She practically had sounded Klingon. Warrior races, he thought. Every one of them is bugnut crazy.

He stuffed the phaser back into the holster, glad to put the weapon away. Jiseth and her wolves had done most of the firing, and he'd basically just kept his head down and concentrated on finding survivors.

And find them he did. "Disruptors? Bunch of goddamn barbarians," he snarled, opening a medkit as he dropped to his knees. "Jiseth, take the other medkit. No time for anything fancy, so you should be fine. Just stop that bleeding and get those wounds stabilized!" He recognized the Cardassian in front of him as Epath, from Engineering. And the man was about to lose a leg. "Easy. We're going to take you out of here," he said, fingers flying as he mixed available medicines for a hypo.

[Pullock V - Streets]

Stop the bleeding...

Were it so easy. A simple medkit would not do. The chemicals in the wound forced the body to send more blood to it and in doing so shock would set in shortly. Jiseth looked around as she scanned Ilana with the tricorder and noticed the Cardassians were still quite on edge. She motioned with her hand for her crews to holster their weapons.

"Run into the hospital and get me a blood pack! Here's the type to look for! Someone grab me the lifter too!"

Holding out the device, two of her men nodded and darted away into the building while another hopped into the Diogenes and returned shortly with the device. The Romulan looked down to her patient, someone who would probably earn a great deal more pity due to who her medical provider currently was. Jiseth prepared a hypo and stuck it to Ilana's arm as she administered the spray.

"Alright... There's good news and bad news. Good news is, the chemicals preventing your clotting are almost entirely contained in the wound. Bad news is, we need to get them out, like 5 minutes ago. I saw this technique done once before. It's like ancient dentistry. Remove the decay and rebuild, although this will be um... A field version. Raynor will be proud of you because this is going to hurt. A lot."

Jiseth tore off a piece of her sleeve and folded it over several times before sticking it in the Cardassian's mouth so she would not bite her own tongue or crush her own teeth. The rest of her tunic jacket she pulled off and rolled up, propping Ilana's head up with it. Her crewman with the handheld tractor beam emitter stood over her shoulder while others were barked at to hold Ilana down to keep her from moving.

"We normally use this device to move heavy objects into places shuttles can't reach, today though, it's going to save your life. I'm going to have to cut away the dead flesh as the charred bits contain the most of the chemical. Then we're going to pull it all out of you. Let me be very clear, I am so, so sorry."

The Wolves held down firmly as Jiseth made small quick swipes with the laser scalpel, skimming over the wound to make sure she would not go too deep. It was in large a purely flesh wound, but the blood would have to be transfused soon. The Romulan pulled her hand away and shielded her eyes as the others looked away save for the one with the emitter. A bright blue cone of light shot down onto the bloody spot and began to lift away burnt material and blood. He shut it off after a few seconds and took a step back to wipe away. Mostly to wipe away all the stuff that had then fallen onto his boot and pant leg.

For a brief moment, the wound looked clean and clear before blood started pooling up. First came the vascular regenerator and then the dermal one as well. Being the supposed fiance of a medical genius was paying off. As was the semester of emergency aid training from when she was at the Imperial Academy. Finally, the two returned each with a pack of blood. Jiseth took little time hooking up the first to Ilana's left arm before letting the bag set on her chest.

"Your boss is going to have my head for doing such a novice job, Telak."

[Pullock V - Street]

The wound to Ilana's hip was deep, the thin flesh that covered the bone almost burned away in places. Thankfully, the shot had been angled so that she hadn't taken it completely side on, but partially from the front. As Jiseth approached, the frail Cardassian was already teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, only barely aware of the hypo being jabbed into her arm and the voice speaking to her.

As something was pushed into her mouth, she weakly protested with a quiet whimper but there was nothing that she could do, especially as several of her crewmates moved in to pin her shoulders and legs to the ground.

Her weak protests soon turned into a full scale screaming and attempted thrashing as soon as Jiseth made her first cut into the wound. All sensation of pain was focused on such a small area of her body, coming close to driving the Cardassian out of her mind. Even to her sub-par hearing, the sound of the occasional scrape of the laser scalpel against the bone of her hip jarred her teeth. Blood welled up in gushes, flooding the surgical site and spilling over with alarming speed given the amount of blood she had already lost.

After what seemed like hours of work, Jiseth stopped carving at her hip, leaving behind a crater of bloody flesh and muscle. The weak patient finally relaxed a little more, the pain receding from its tortuous agony. Several elements of her internal anatomy would need reconstruction once they reached a dedicated medical facility and the pale bone of her ilium and iliac crest were still exposed to the elements, but the important task in field surgery was to remove the cause of the problem and stabilise the patient.

As soon as the Romulan reached for the regenerators, a shaking hand tried to push her away. "N-n-n-no," she murmured, still clinging desperately onto the consciousness that was trying to escape her grasp. "C-c-c-cauterise... D-d-d-don't r-r-r-r-regenerate..."

[Pullock V]

Watching the impromptu surgery from the edge of his peripheral, Gavin wondered if Jiseth even knew what she was going on about. Apparently, her cross-training had gone beyond the usual basic first aid that every officer was required to qualify for every year. Whatever was being done for Telak, Gavin knew that he likely had a different story with Nelkar. The Cardassian had applied a tourniquet, and...as barbaric as it was, it was likely the only thing keeping the man from bleeding out. The young science officer's sea-green eyes widened in exasperation at the sight of Epath's wounds. There was a reason the Federation did not use disruptors.

"The bleeding should be staunched, Nelkar, but...I'm sorry. I don't think we can save the leg." Reaching up, Gavin wiped blood and sweat from his brow. "I'll be able to better tell when we get to the ship's facilities, but...you have to understand that it's a possibility." Gavin frowned a little, wondering what effect the hypo had had on Epath. "Can you understand me?"

[Pullock V - Street]

There was an irritatingly spry medic fluttering around him, that much Epath could recognize. Between the cocktail of drugs he'd been given and the blood loss, he was having some trouble clinging onto everything else. But just as before, he was forcing himself to focus, to fully understand and comprehend everything going on to the best of his ability. Cardassians did not like being caught off guard.

He steadied his wavering head long enough to look at Gavin. Leg... he was going to lose the leg. He'd figured as much before, once he saw how much he was bleeding and how long he'd had the tourniquet on. The Obsideon... Order, he thought to himself, then accidently finished the sentence aloud: "... won't be pleased to hear of this."

Nelkar blinked twice. "I understand," he said slowly. "Though I'm concerned that... losing the leg won't be my only problem if I don't get out of here."

"I'll get a new one." He laughed, at that. Bio-synthetic legs were ugly as sin, and tended to lend one a robotic look. At least they were better than the makeshift nonsense of the previous centuries. He'd be able to move and feel it. Still, an amputation was serious business.

[Pullock V - Streets]

"Cauterize... Right."

Jiseth scrambled through her medkit for the proper device. Her crews began taking other kits to assist those inside the hospital while others gathered their new found prisoners. They would come to eventually and for all they knew their compatriots would return as well. With the right tool in hand, the Romulan activated it and a cone of orange light came down with a hiss.

"We need to get you back to the ship. Both of you. Well, four of you. I lost my lieutenants: one to the crash and the other to them... Any recommendations for pain killers? I'm not sure what you Cardassians go for."

Gabriel Arthur wrote:

[Main Engineering]

=^="On it!  Good to hear your voice,"=^= Gabriel replied, smiling slightly, meaning it in both ways.  =^="We'll do our best to maintain an active link.  Engineering out."=^=

He wondered just what kind of torpedo could have slapped an entire Nebula-class starship out of commission.  Perhaps it was best not to know...at least, not right now.  Turning around, Gabriel called off two officers to make sure the backup shield generators were ready and on standby in case the auxiliary power was called for.  "Mr. Nefen," he asked the Trill, "let's have an update on that deflector dish."

As Commander Arthur had begun to speak to Tufezr, the Joined Trill had been working tirelessly on getting the aforementioned deflector dish to align with and tune into the jamming signal. It was difficult to operate the thing from Engineering, as it was designed to be used on the Bridge at the Operations console, but he could manage. He'd been onboard the Phoenix long enough to be familiar with all the inner-workings of Engineering, how each and every console could be a back-up to anything on the Bridge and elsewhere. That was the beauty of Starfleet starship design, in emergencies, even the under-appreciated Engineers could take over once things hit the fan.

So, it was at that moment Tufezr had found a frequency, a sub-space frequency, that was very close to stopping the jamming signal. HE couldn't trace it just yet, nor could he restore ship-to-surface comms, but he'd seen on his console that the Bridge was launching a probe to get around it anyway. He briefly nodded to the Commander as a respectful salute, still tapping furiously at the console. "Sir, I think I've just about found it. The jamming signal uses some kind of sub-space frequency to transmit, only it stops the moment it finds a solid object like our ship. I'm in the right transmission band, I'm only going to need a few more minutes to cycle through the possibilities and-" At that moment, the computer chirped in that the present frequency had attuned perfectly: 106.1, he stared at the screen a moment to memorize the number, just in case, and then repositioned and directed the deflector array. He stood up straight and turned to the Chief of Engineering. "That should do it, call up to the Bridge and see if they have ship-wide and ship-to-surface comms back up, I'm going to try and track the source of the signal."

Jiseth wrote:

[Pullock V - Streets]

"Cauterize... Right."

Jiseth scrambled through her medkit for the proper device. Her crews began taking other kits to assist those inside the hospital while others gathered their new found prisoners. They would come to eventually and for all they knew their compatriots would return as well. With the right tool in hand, the Romulan activated it and a cone of orange light came down with a hiss.

"We need to get you back to the ship. Both of you. Well, four of you. I lost my lieutenants: one to the crash and the other to them... Any recommendations for pain killers? I'm not sure what you Cardassians go for."

[Pullock V - Streets]

The Cardassian wasn't in much of a shape any more to react to the searing pain of the cauteriser being applied to her hip beyond baring her teeth in a grimace and a low groan. Her tired adrenal glands had exhausted their abilities. The smell of burnt flesh drifted up to her nose as the tool did its work, charring the flesh and sealing the blood vessels to keep them from leaking the blood being transfused into her. She would need far more than the one transfusion, but it would at least tide her over until they could get to a medical facility.

While she was aware of Jiseth's question concerning a painkiller, Ilana found that she simply didn't have the energy to respond, only just managing to cling on to consciousness. Her own physical weakness had caught up with her, dragging her into sleep even though a Cardassian like Nelkar would have an easier time of staying awake. Her brain started to sift sluggishly through the medications she would have administered to someone in her condition, and simply hoped that Ensign Van Gelder was familiar enough with them to come to the same conclusion.

Tufezr Nefen wrote:

As Commander Arthur had begun to speak to Tufezr, the Joined Trill had been working tirelessly on getting the aforementioned deflector dish to align with and tune into the jamming signal. It was difficult to operate the thing from Engineering, as it was designed to be used on the Bridge at the Operations console, but he could manage. He'd been onboard the Phoenix long enough to be familiar with all the inner-workings of Engineering, how each and every console could be a back-up to anything on the Bridge and elsewhere. That was the beauty of Starfleet starship design, in emergencies, even the under-appreciated Engineers could take over once things hit the fan.

So, it was at that moment Tufezr had found a frequency, a sub-space frequency, that was very close to stopping the jamming signal. HE couldn't trace it just yet, nor could he restore ship-to-surface comms, but he'd seen on his console that the Bridge was launching a probe to get around it anyway. He briefly nodded to the Commander as a respectful salute, still tapping furiously at the console. "Sir, I think I've just about found it. The jamming signal uses some kind of sub-space frequency to transmit, only it stops the moment it finds a solid object like our ship. I'm in the right transmission band, I'm only going to need a few more minutes to cycle through the possibilities and-" At that moment, the computer chirped in that the present frequency had attuned perfectly: 106.1, he stared at the screen a moment to memorize the number, just in case, and then repositioned and directed the deflector array. He stood up straight and turned to the Chief of Engineering. "That should do it, call up to the Bridge and see if they have ship-wide and ship-to-surface comms back up, I'm going to try and track the source of the signal."

[Main Engineering]

Gabriel smiled slightly as the ensign gave him what could be construed as a command, though he just nodded. One, he was never one to trip over ceremony, and...two, engineers knew what needed to be done, and sometimes slipped into 'the zone' easier than other departments. Besides, the Trill kid was right. Kid? He's probably actually got a century or so on me, Gabriel thought, calling up to the bridge.

=^="Arthur to bridge, you should have comm links back up. We're routing three-quarters of auxiliary power to the transporter gains, and working to trace the source of this."=^=

That much extra juice should punch through most anything but a pea soup of ion storms, he thought, leaning against the trouble table. "Lets send a cascading scramble effect along with your pathfinder signal, Mr. Nefen. Whatever we find, I want to make sure it isn't in commission to do this to us again any time soon."

Gabriel Arthur wrote:

=^="Arthur to bridge, you should have comm links back up.  We're routing three-quarters of auxiliary power to the transporter gains, and working to trace the source of this."=^=  

[Bridge]

Hearing the communication come in from Engineering, Archangel felt some of the weight lift from her shoulders, both from the news and from the voice bearing the news. It never failed to surprise her just how much something as simple as hearing Gabriel's voice could make everything seem so much better.

"Acknowledged, Engineering. Let me know when you have any news. Our cadet's found a set of coordinates for a launch site of the torpedo that took us out," she replied, stepping over to a console and tapping out a few commands. "Sending the coordinates to you now. They might be a good starting point for you."

Although she would far rather have continued speaking to her husband, or even go and join him in Engineering to work out this latest puzzle, she reluctantly closed the channel in order to open a new one down to the members of her crew who had been trapped down on the planet.

"Phoenix to away teams, report!"

Jiseth wrote:

[Pullock V - Streets]

"Cauterize... Right."

Jiseth scrambled through her medkit for the proper device. Her crews began taking other kits to assist those inside the hospital while others gathered their new found prisoners. They would come to eventually and for all they knew their compatriots would return as well. With the right tool in hand, the Romulan activated it and a cone of orange light came down with a hiss.

"We need to get you back to the ship. Both of you. Well, four of you. I lost my lieutenants: one to the crash and the other to them... Any recommendations for pain killers? I'm not sure what you Cardassians go for."

[Pullock V]

"Bicaridine," Gavin quickly replied, frowning sharply. "Unfortunately, it isn't exactly standard-issue for medkits, so we'll have to wait until we get to the damn ship. Metorapan will do for now," he sighed. The science officer touched another hypo to Epath, one with just a little bit in it. "Touch of axinol. Keep you from moving too much. Relax...stay calm," he added, hoping that the medicine would start doing the job soon.

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"Phoenix to away teams, report!"

The sound of Captain T'Koris' voice seemed to cut through all the ambient noise of their street triage area, making Gavin nearly jump out of his skin. "Hey!" he said, before realizing that he needed to physically touch his commbadge.

=^="Ensign Van Gelder! We're down with heavy casualties...my commbadge should be sending you our coordinates! I need beamed to sickbay like, yesterday!"=^=