Mission 7: Flight of the Wolves

Gabriel Arthur wrote:

[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."

He had indeed been "in the zone" when he'd attempted to ask the Commander for a call up to the Bridge, but really he'd also been trying to follow protocol. Unless ordered to do so by Commander Arthur, he didn't have the authority to contact the Bridge himself. Still, he should have properly asked rather than presumed, even in this hectic situation wherein speed as well as accuracy were both needed.

Tufezr tapped a few extra keys on the panel as quickly as he could, as if he was programming a bomb as well as starting the detonation sequence simultaneously, while still leaving time for him to run 'like a bat out of hell'. Weird metaphor, but the Joined Trill could probably understand it in another situation. He attached a cascading scramble to the pathfinder program that was embedding itself into the jamming signal, as his superior had told him to do so, and then began inspecting the coordinates that began to show up on his screen.

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"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."

The coordinates showed up in a corner of his screen and he compared them to the ones he was just now receiving from the deflector array's computer. "Commander," he spoke up, remembering the rank system this time, "I think whatever jamming device they're using isn't exactly where the missile launcher is, but it's relatively close. That could mean a lot of things, but most likely it's part of a compound or base of some kind, where they have a lot of personnel and power. This jammer is one of a kind, it would benefit Starfleet greatly if it could be acquired rather than destroyed." The possibilities ran through his head as he had the computer show him where on the planet the two sets of coordinates were located, indeed within less than a mile of each other.

[Pullock V - Streets]

=/\= Jiseth here. Ensign Telak requires immediate transport with Van Gelder. Fornell and Meru require... full honors... Beam them up as well. Shuttles Mondrian and Diogenes are on station here at the hospital. Area is secure for now, but civilians are in need of medical aid. The rest of the squadron is hunkered down outside the settlement. We have four prisoners still unconscious. What are your orders, Captain? =/\=

The Romulan gave her Cardassian patient a hypo of metorapan as recommended before standing up and surveying the scene. People were starting to crowd now and her crewmen had to double up around the prisoners. A tinge of annoyance waved over her as it meant fewer could be delivering first aid. It was not long before she began yelling for people to clear out and the captives to be moved to the Diogenes where they could be monitored easier.

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"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?"

[Bridge]

"Yes, sir."

Though she had worked quickly, the probe launched just as the communications had been restored. She tracked the flight path away from the ship, making sure it was within the navigation threshold. So far so good. The last thing she wanted was to have to send out another of the things.

Once it reached the proper altitude, Reyaen's screens began to fill with telemetry from the probe. However, she had to divert to manning the transporter controls as she overheard the situation down below. The timing was in their favor though as now she had a much better resolution to lock on to the away team with for the transporter beam. The LCARS displayed the faces next to Starfleet insignia of Van Gelder, Epath, Telak, Fornell, and Meru though two of them had no life signs and two more were growing faint.

=/\= Bridge to Sickbay, prepare for arrivals. =/\=

Selecting the five on the screen, she activated the transporter and let out a slight sight of relief when the tags appeared on the Phoenix and were no longer among those still below.

Jiseth wrote:

[Pullock V - Streets]

=/\= Jiseth here. Ensign Telak requires immediate transport with Van Gelder. Fornell and Meru require... full honors... Beam them up as well. Shuttles Mondrian and Diogenes are on station here at the hospital. Area is secure for now, but civilians are in need of medical aid. The rest of the squadron is hunkered down outside the settlement. We have four prisoners still unconscious. What are your orders, Captain? =/\=

The Romulan gave her Cardassian patient a hypo of metorapan as recommended before standing up and surveying the scene. People were starting to crowd now and her crewmen had to double up around the prisoners. A tinge of annoyance waved over her as it meant fewer could be delivering first aid. It was not long before she began yelling for people to clear out and the captives to be moved to the Diogenes where they could be monitored easier.

[Pullock V]

Gav allowed a little sigh of relief to escape from his lips as he felt the beam of the ship's transporters envelop himself and Nelkar, and saw that it was doing the very same to Telak and Jiseth. While he had doubts about the Cardassian's leg, at least with the shipboard facilities, there would be little question about saving the man's life. Telak, too, probably. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Gavin remembered that Ilana was mated to a Klingon. He certainly didn't want to see that man in full grief-mode.

[USS Phoenix - Sickbay]

The smoke and heat and blood and death of the planet surface was quickly replaced with the comparatively cold and sterile environs of sickbay. Gavin took a step and stumbled, remembering too late the damage to his own ankle from the crash. The brightness of sickbay's lights sent a wave of dizziness through him as he wondered just how much head damage he'd suffered. Gavin felt a nurse gently touching his arm, guiding him over to a biobed. You're in sickbay, now, he told himself, where the real doctors are...not just the science officers who play pretend. A needlessly dark thought, but...then again, it had been a needlessly dark day.

Tufezr Nefen wrote:

The coordinates showed up in a corner of his screen and he compared them to the ones he was just now receiving from the deflector array's computer. "Commander," he spoke up, remembering the rank system this time, "I think whatever jamming device they're using isn't exactly where the missile launcher is, but it's relatively close. That could mean a lot of things, but most likely it's part of a compound or base of some kind, where they have a lot of personnel and power. This jammer is one of a kind, it would benefit Starfleet greatly if it could be acquired rather than destroyed." The possibilities ran through his head as he had the computer show him where on the planet the two sets of coordinates were located, indeed within less than a mile of each other.

[Engineering]

Frowning, Gabriel nodded along with Nefen. "Agreed, and hopefully we can collect it and turn it over to Daystrom or something. However," he said, tapping his lower lip as he considered the readouts. "Our first priority here is to make sure that whatever this is cannot hurt the ship or our people again. If we have to destroy it, we certainly will. I'm sending these readings up to the bridge," he said, putting action to words with a few key commands.

[Sickbay]

Kintiss was lamenting his lack of time off when Ensign Van Gelder materialised in sickbay. Grabbing a medical tricorder, he moved over to the biobed and ran it over the Ensign. It looked like he'd been badly injured.

"Sssssrak'sssss bonesssss," he cursed as he read the tricorder's findings "what happened to you?" This was far beyond the regular raquetball-related sprains and bruises the crew came in with. Using a hypospray, he quickly applied a general anesthetic to Enisgn Van Gelder. It would dull the pain while he worked to fix the injuries.

Jiseth wrote:

[Pullock V - Streets]

=/\= Jiseth here. Ensign Telak requires immediate transport with Van Gelder. Fornell and Meru require... full honors... Beam them up as well. Shuttles Mondrian and Diogenes are on station here at the hospital. Area is secure for now, but civilians are in need of medical aid. The rest of the squadron is hunkered down outside the settlement. We have four prisoners still unconscious. What are your orders, Captain? =/\=

[Bridge]

Archangel cursed under her breath as she realised that Jiseth hadn't transported back to the ship and wasn't on her way back either. With the crisis rapidly building, between the attack on the Phoenix and the goings-on on the planet below, she was rapidly becoming concerned about her crew and the imminent danger. She had already lost a handful to this aid mission. She'd rather be damned before letting any more slip through.

"Jiseth, get yourself and all your teams back to the ship with all haste. We're withdrawing until we can better analyse the situation. Bring your prisoners with you and get them to the brig. I'll want a word with them once they're conscious again."

Reyaen 3 wrote:

=/\= Bridge to Sickbay, prepare for arrivals. =/\=

[Sickbay]

Zero had not been happy to be called from her research work to deal with incoming casualties, but she didn't really have a choice in this case. Being on duty in sickbay meant that, even if you were supposed to be in the research labs, you still had to report if there were a large number of casualties.

Striding into the main section of sickbay, the first thing the young Augment came across were the bodies of two of Jiseth's flight crew, familiar faces to Zero. She blinked, dropping down into a crouch between them in order to take their pulses from their carotid arteries. Feeling nothing, she mentally tagged them as black, adding a note to herself that she would have to make herself available to Jiseth for a long talk that evening when the opportunity presented itself. The Romulan would not be in an emotionally stable state once the crisis had passed.

The next patient she came across was a male Cardassian who had already been moved to a biobed by the nurses while waiting for a doctor to arrive. Her pale eyes picked out the strip of cloth acting as a tourniquet at the top of the thigh of his shredded right leg. That was going to have to come off, but a quick sweep with a tricorder told her that the leg was already beyond saving.

Barking out an order for a blood transfusion to be given, the pale young woman leaned over her patient, observing him for a second to ensure that he would be able to understand what she was about to tell him.

"I must remove your right leg from the hip," she stated.

[Sickbay]

As usual, Thelos and the rest of sickbay only became aware of the situation outside when the casualties were effectively dumped at their doorstep. The Andorian doctor was considering an impassioned complaint to command about how ill-informed medical tended to be but he was certain it would fall on deaf ears.

There were more important things to consider at the moment, anyway. The casualties beamed in were in severe shape-- in fact, two were already dead, and the two cardassians on the biobeds were in critical condition. Seeing that Alpha had gone to the male cardassian with a battered leg, he immediately rushed over to Telak. The doctor was going to be treating another doctor.

And it looked bad. Even right off the bat, Thelos could see bone, and charring, and some horrible gaps where there should be flesh. Two seconds with a tricorder and his eyes widened. Surgical, *now*, he thought to himself as he immediately got the feeble cardassian on a stretcher. "I need 3 liters of cardassian blood, immediately!" he called out, a nurse immediately darting off in response.

Intense surgical reparation was inevitable. As he shoved the rolling stretcher along into one of the surgical wards, he looked down at his patient, nothing that she was awake- if barely. "We're going to fix you up, Telak," the surgeon assured. "I'm going to put you under for it. Do you understand me?"

Zero Alpha wrote:

[Sickbay]

Zero had not been happy to be called from her research work to deal with incoming casualties, but she didn't really have a choice in this case.  Being on duty in sickbay meant that, even if you were supposed to be in the research labs, you still had to report if there were a large number of casualties.

Striding into the main section of sickbay, the first thing the young Augment came across were the bodies of two of Jiseth's flight crew, familiar faces to Zero.  She blinked, dropping down into a crouch between them in order to take their pulses from their carotid arteries.  Feeling nothing, she mentally tagged them as black, adding a note to herself that she would have to make herself available to Jiseth for a long talk that evening when the opportunity presented itself.  The Romulan would not be in an emotionally stable state once the crisis had passed.

The next patient she came across was a male Cardassian who had already been moved to a biobed by the nurses while waiting for a doctor to arrive.  Her pale eyes picked out the strip of cloth acting as a tourniquet at the top of the thigh of his shredded right leg.  That was going to have to come off, but a quick sweep with a tricorder told her that the leg was already beyond saving.

Barking out an order for a blood transfusion to be given, the pale young woman leaned over her patient, observing him for a second to ensure that he would be able to understand what she was about to tell him.  

"I must remove your right leg from the hip," she stated.

[Sickbay]

With the transport came the realization that the heavy terrorist that had been flung across his lap was missing. Good riddance, Nelkar thought sleepily, squinting as the light changed from natural brightness to the artificial intensity of sickbay. By now, the medication he'd been given was dulling his feeling of pain... and a few shots of endorphins from his implant were mightily helping that, too.

He grunted in the back of his throat as medics started swarming around him. Blood transfusions, scans, prodding, poking... The Cardassian wished he were asleep just to avoid all this nonsense.

Alpha's evaluation stood out most clearly to him. His heart feel even in his weakened state as the doctor confirmed what he had already feared. His leg was useless, a broken mess of shredded flesh and bone that was turning all sort of ugly colours due to the tourniquet.

He appreciated the doctor's straightforward way of delivering the news, at least. Nelkar was much the same. "As I expected," the engineer said stiffly, as though biting back agony-- which, despite the chemicals, he was.

"Take it off. I have no intention of dying."

Thelos th'Zhela wrote:

[Sickbay]

And it looked bad. Even right off the bat, Thelos could see bone, and charring, and some horrible gaps where there should be flesh. Two seconds with a tricorder and his eyes widened. Surgical, *now*, he thought to himself as he immediately got the feeble cardassian on a stretcher. "I need 3 liters of cardassian blood, immediately!" he called out, a nurse immediately darting off in response.

Intense surgical reparation was inevitable. As he shoved the rolling stretcher along into one of the surgical wards, he looked down at his patient, nothing that she was awake- if barely. "We're going to fix you up, Telak," the surgeon assured. "I'm going to put you under for it. Do you understand me?"

[Sickbay]

As she was moved onto a stretcher, Ilana gave a quiet groan. With the urgency of the situation, there wasn't a lot of time dedicated to care. After all, she was already in as much pain as she was likely to be. The metrapan she had been given was already doing its work and dulling any feeling in her body. Or maybe it was the blood loss, she wasn't all that sure.

She blinked a few times as he spoke to her, trying to get the words through her fogged mind. Once they had, she managed a faint smile, reaching over to pat the Andorian's hand.

"I kn-kn-know y-y-you'll d-d-do w-w-w-well," she said, her voice slurring slightly.

Nelkar Epath wrote:

[Sickbay]

With the transport came the realization that the heavy terrorist that had been flung across his lap was missing. Good riddance, Nelkar thought sleepily, squinting as the light changed from natural brightness to the artificial intensity of sickbay. By now, the medication he'd been given was dulling his feeling of pain... and a few shots of endorphins from his implant were mightily helping that, too.

He grunted in the back of his throat as medics started swarming around him. Blood transfusions, scans, prodding, poking... The Cardassian wished he were asleep just to avoid all this nonsense.

Alpha's evaluation stood out most clearly to him. His heart feel even in his weakened state as the doctor confirmed what he had already feared. His leg was useless, a broken mess of shredded flesh and bone that was turning all sort of ugly colours due to the tourniquet.

He appreciated the doctor's straightforward way of delivering the news, at least. Nelkar was much the same. "As I expected," the engineer said stiffly, as though biting back agony-- which, despite the chemicals, he was.

"Take it off. I have no intention of dying."

[Sickbay]

Hearing that the patient actually agreed with her came as something of a surprise to the young Augment. Such a surprise, in fact, that she raised an eyebrow and briefly wondered if the cocktail of drugs was addling his mind. Perhaps fortunately for the patient however, Zero was aware that she was going to have to act quickly and not simply sit and ponder his mental state.

"I will be placing you under anaesthesia for this procedure," she warned him, picking up a hypospray and a delta wave inducer. A leg would be replicated for him later. The main issue here was to get the dead limb removed before infection could set in any make matters any worse.

Kintiss wrote:

[Sickbay]

Kintiss was lamenting his lack of time off when Ensign Van Gelder materialised in sickbay. Grabbing a medical tricorder, he moved over to the biobed and ran it over the Ensign. It looked like he'd been badly injured.

"Sssssrak'sssss bonesssss," he cursed as he read the tricorder's findings "what happened to you?" This was far beyond the regular raquetball-related sprains and bruises the crew came in with. Using a hypospray, he quickly applied a general anesthetic to Enisgn Van Gelder. It would dull the pain while he worked to fix the injuries.

[Sickbay]

Frowning, Gavin propped himself up slightly on an elbow and surveyed the room. Big mistake, however...the medication running through his body protested mightily, sending the room lights spinning. He sighed, settling back down, wishing that he'd not bothered to look. The Cardassians were being worked on, their wounds as nightmarish as ever. That was what Gavin had hoped it all was...just a bad dream.

It's not. It's reality, no simulation...not an abstraction to be read about and studied. They died. They died right in front of me. Fornell, Meru...Jiseth's crew, her friends...and Gavin knew that she didn't have many to spare on the ship. "I'm fine," he murmured, motioning toward the other injured. "Just a hit to the head...see to everyone else. I'm fine." Gavin squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to open them again.

Gavin Van Gelder wrote:

Frowning, Gavin propped himself up slightly on an elbow and surveyed the room.  Big mistake, however...the medication running through his body protested mightily, sending the room lights spinning.  He sighed, settling back down, wishing that he'd not bothered to look.  The Cardassians were being worked on, their wounds as nightmarish as ever.  That was what Gavin had hoped it all was...just a bad dream.

It's not.  It's reality, no simulation...not an abstraction to be read about and studied.   They died.  They died right in front of me.  Fornell, Meru...Jiseth's crew, her friends...and Gavin knew that she didn't have many to spare on the ship.  "I'm fine," he murmured, motioning toward the other injured.  "Just a hit to the head...see to everyone else.  I'm fine."  Gavin squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to open them again.

[Sickbay]

"You conssssider broken bonessss to be "fine"?" Kintiss raised an eyebrow sardonically. Humans were a needlessly stubborn bunch, especially when it came to wounds and injuries. "The otherssss will do fine. You lie back and relax. I'll take care of you." He set aside the hypospray and took up an osteo-regenerator. Holding it over Gavin's broken ankle, he activated the device, keeping his hand steady as the technology did its work.

He watched a couple of medics taking care of the dead crewmen. He didn't know who they were, but he felt the impact of their loss. No doubt they were exemplars of Starfleet. He thought that they'd eventually be put in boxes and shipped back to their families, if they had any.

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"Jiseth, get yourself and all your teams back to the ship with all haste.  We're withdrawing until we can better analyse the situation.  Bring your prisoners with you and get them to the brig.  I'll want a word with them once they're conscious again."

[Pullock V - Streets]

The Romulan gave a hard look at the scene around her. Blood on the walls of the hospital lobby. Bodies being dragged away. The pools of it still on the dusty street. She removed the excess layers of her uniform until her grey razorback undershirt was the only external part which she fixed her rank pips on the right shoulder strap and the commbadge on the left.

=/\= We'll have to get ourselves out of range of their beam weaponry before we attempt to get to orbit, Captain. At the earliest would be roughly an hour unless that threat is neutralized. Also... They took the Monogahela's memory components. =/\=

What will it be, Archangel? Are you going to let them shoot me down again to keep your secret safe?

Zero Alpha wrote:

[Sickbay]

Hearing that the patient actually agreed with her came as something of a surprise to the young Augment.  Such a surprise, in fact, that she raised an eyebrow and briefly wondered if the cocktail of drugs was addling his mind.  Perhaps fortunately for the patient however, Zero was aware that she was going to have to act quickly and not simply sit and ponder his mental state.

"I will be placing you under anaesthesia for this procedure," she warned him, picking up a hypospray and a delta wave inducer.  A leg would be replicated for him later. The main issue here was to get the dead limb removed before infection could set in any make matters any worse.

The Cardassian grunted in acknowledgement under his breath. He was getting very foggy in the headm and finding it difficult to form words and sentences with as much ease as he had a few hours ago. Blasted... bajorans. He'd lived through the occupation... his hands weren't clean, either... but he'd realized he was wrong. Wrong, and probably deserving of some kind of retribution, even if he'd done nothing directly... rather, supported the government committing the atrocities.

Just following orders.

There was no time to think about that now. Nelkar grimaced and nodded at the doctor. Learning to walk with one false leg was going to be hell... and even recovering from the surgery before he could be fitted with one was going to be an unpleasant experience. But there was no way around it.

"Put me out, get it over with." Nelkar was ready to wake up with one leg, and he couldn't stand all this dwaddling.

Jiseth wrote:

=/\= We'll have to get ourselves out of range of their beam weaponry before we attempt to get to orbit, Captain. At the earliest would be roughly an hour unless that threat is neutralized. Also... They took the Monogahela's memory components. =/\=[/i]

[USS Phoenix - Bridge]

Archangel swore quietly under her breath as she tried to think of a way out of this situation. There were times when she felt an intense dislike for her position, even dreaded the decisions she was going to have to make.

Leaning on the railing in front of her, the young Romulan sighed, making her choice.

"Jiseth, get back to the ship with your crews and your prisoners with the minimum of casualties on our side. Right now, there's not a lot we can do about their side. Phoenix out." Looking over to the operations and tactical stations, she nodded to Safefta and Reyaen. "Try to put a dampening field around the coordinates we think they're at, try to prevent them sending any of the data they retrieve from the memory circuits."

NPC wrote:

=/\= Federation vessel... You currently are holding four of our element as prisoner. We will not allow this. A torpedo will be fired upon their location. Any attempt to jam their locator beacons or relocate them and the hospital will be leveled along with most of the block it resides in. Your alternative is withdraw your personnel and leave ours where you found them. You have two minutes to comply. =/\=

Hearing the communication come through from the terrorist element, Archangel clenched her jaw. "Do we have a return channel?"

Nelkar Epath wrote:

The Cardassian grunted in acknowledgement under his breath. He was getting very foggy in the headm and finding it difficult to form words and sentences with as much ease as he had a few hours ago. Blasted... bajorans. He'd lived through the occupation... his hands weren't clean, either... but he'd realized he was wrong. Wrong, and probably deserving of some kind of retribution, even if he'd done nothing directly... rather, supported the government committing the atrocities.

Just following orders.

There was no time to think about that now. Nelkar grimaced and nodded at the doctor. Learning to walk with one false leg was going to be hell... and even recovering from the surgery before he could be fitted with one was going to be an unpleasant experience. But there was no way around it.

"Put me out, get it over with." Nelkar was ready to wake up with one leg, and he couldn't stand all this dwaddling.

[Sickbay]

With the acknowledgement to go ahead with the procedure, Zero nodded once and activated the delta wave inducer. Between that and the sedative hypo that she stuck into his neck, the Cardassian wouldn't be leaving the surgical plane of anaesthesia any time soon.

Very quickly, she went to work. Amputations, despite often being tricky surgery, didn't really need the full surgical suite. In any case, she believed that her Andorian colleague was occupying it with his patient. However, the leg had to come off and come off quickly.

With even, sure strokes, the Augment cut through muscle, tendon and ligament to detach the leg at the hip, carefully extracting the head of the femur from its socket before starting to heal up the gaping wound, thoroughly sterilising it as she went. It would need a lot of cosmetic reconstruction, but that could wait until a biosynthetic leg had been attached.

Once everything had been healed over, she began the process to bring the Cardassian 'round from the anaesthetic.

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

Looking over to the operations and tactical stations, she nodded to Safefta and Reyaen.  "Try to put a dampening field around the coordinates we think they're at, try to prevent them sending any of the data they retrieve from the memory circuits."




Hearing the communication come through from the terrorist element, Archangel clenched her jaw.  "Do we have a return channel?"

[Bridge]

The Vorta stared somewhat blankly at her captain before shaking her head.

"I'm afraid if they took a piece of the hardware then it is unlikely they would transmit whats recorded on it. Given the technical sophistication of their current assets, it's likely they'll try to send it off-world for analysis. Even if I knew where they were, no signal could penetrate the amount of rock they're hiding under. I still have no Bajoran lifesigns other than those of the prisoners with the away team."

Reyaen looked around the bridge as if searching for the disembodied voice that came through the speakers. Her sensors indicated that the message had come from the same location as the jamming signal.

"Negative, sir. Transmission originated from the same antenna array as the one that blocked our communications."

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

Archangel swore quietly under her breath as she tried to think of a way out of this situation.  There were times when she felt an intense dislike for her position, even dreaded the decisions she was going to have to make.  

Leaning on the railing in front of her, the young Romulan sighed, making her choice.  

"Jiseth, get back to the ship with your crews and your prisoners with the minimum of casualties on our side.  Right now, there's not a lot we can do about their side.  Phoenix out."

[Pullock V - Streets]

The local constabulary had finally arrived as well as the volunteer firefighters. Quaint as they seemed to Jiseth, she knew they could take care of their own. The previous days of equipment deliveries had proven that. How she wished she could go back in time. The things she would have said. Altered flight plans to be more safe from ground fire. It was ludicrous.

She looked up towards the sky and hoped to see the faint shimmering disk above that was the Phoenix. There was nothing but blue in the midday brightness though she knew it was there. Reluctantly, she barked her orders for everyone to get back onto their respective shuttles. The engines of both began to spool up and Jiseth found herself at a loss, her gaze upon the scene of the Cardassians.

Minimum casualties...

Her moment was interrupted by a shout from the helm of the Mondrian.

"Lieutenant! Where are we going?"

"To the rest of the pack, Night Owl. We'll have to make a run to orbit."

"...Roger."

Jiseth clenched her fists and stepped on to the boarding ramp. She was the last of them to get on as the hatch closed and sealed behind her.

Gabriel Arthur wrote:

[Engineering]

Frowning, Gabriel nodded along with Nefen.  "Agreed, and hopefully we can collect it and turn it over to Daystrom or something.  However," he said, tapping his lower lip as he considered the readouts.  "Our first priority here is to make sure that whatever this is cannot hurt the ship or our people again.  If we have to destroy it, we certainly will.  I'm sending these readings up to the bridge," he said, putting action to words with a few key commands.  

He understood the Commander's concerns, but Tufezr still felt like it would be better to acquire whatever jamming technology had been used against them so that it could be studied, reverse-engineered, and put to use for Starfleet rather than it's enemies. Clearly these 'freedom fighters' were already two steps ahead, why not use their advantage in other situations as well? In any case, he kept observing the screen before him, trying to discern any other useful information from the coordinates and the readings of that area.

Zero Alpha wrote:

[Sickbay]

With the acknowledgement to go ahead with the procedure, Zero nodded once and activated the delta wave inducer.  Between that and the sedative hypo that she stuck into his neck, the Cardassian wouldn't be leaving the surgical plane of anaesthesia any time soon.

Very quickly, she went to work.  Amputations, despite often being tricky surgery, didn't really need the full surgical suite.  In any case, she believed that her Andorian colleague was occupying it with his patient.  However, the leg had to come off and come off quickly.

With even, sure strokes, the Augment cut through muscle, tendon and ligament to detach the leg at the hip, carefully extracting the head of the femur from its socket before starting to heal up the gaping wound, thoroughly sterilising it as she went.  It would need a lot of cosmetic reconstruction, but that could wait until a biosynthetic leg had been attached.

Once everything had been healed over, she began the process to bring the Cardassian 'round from the anaesthetic.

[Sickbay]

Nelkar was aware even as he was going under that he was going to have this surgery performed in front of quite a big of people... even if they were mostly completely occupied with other patients or other injuries. Still, having an audience wasn't nice. At least he would be out for it. ... No matter. He was too old for worrying about that kind of modesty when he was about to lose his leg.

The delta waves and the cocktail of drugs dragged him under quickly, rendering him oblivious to the relative carnage occouring at his hip. It didn't take long after he woke back up to start feeling the pain, however. Nelkar let out a low groan as he attempted to shake the fuzzy feeling from his head.

What happened? he wondered, before his eyes settled on the pocketed gap where his right leg used to be. He was startled, despite realizing what had happened. So, it's over, he thought a moment later. Even with the new skin stretched across the ugly hip, it was still a painful affair.

Do you have anything stronger? he was about to ask aloud in terms of pain medication, but thought better of it. He'd tough it out like everything else.

"Well."

"......"

"That... is as expected." He was at a loss for anything else to say about being left with one leg.

Nelkar Epath wrote:

[Sickbay]

What happened? he wondered, before his eyes settled on the pocketed gap where his right leg used to be. He was startled, despite realizing what had happened. So, it's over, he thought a moment later. Even with the new skin stretched across the ugly hip, it was still a painful affair.

Do you have anything stronger? he was about to ask aloud in terms of pain medication, but thought better of it. He'd tough it out like everything else.

"Well."

"......"

"That... is as expected." He was at a loss for anything else to say about being left with one leg.

[Sickbay]

Seeing that her patient was coming around and hearing the groan, Zero raised an eyebrow and stepped up to his biobedside. Noting that the groan didn't have the correct pitch for someone simply coming around from anaesthetic, she picked up a hypo and put together a strong painkiller for him before jabbing it into his abdomen.

"I have administered a large dose of bicaridine. You should not feel more than a low level of pain for a few hours. I will mark on your notes when you will be allowed a further dose. Your leg has been removed without complication and the wound healed. When we return to Starbase Athena, we will be able to properly fit you with a biosynthetic replacement."

[Out in Space - USS Carron]

"Preparing to drop out of warp," the pilot said, her strong tone seeming to be exceptionally clipped today. Not that Stark blamed Nalaa, of course. She was Klingon, and although one didn't often find them serving in Federation flight departments, her distrust of Cardassians was fairly par for the course for her kind.

And her commanding officer, too, Stark thought, nodding. "Alright. Hail the Phoenix as soon as we do." Simple enough mission. Help the Cardassian colony, and take T'Koris' ship from under her...

Well. That wasn't exactly fair, or true. Starfleet had assigned him to the Phoenix for a very specific purpose, and that purpose was not to place Archangel T'Koris' competency on trial. At least, his orders from the C-in-C hadn't come right out and said that. Glancing back down at his padd, Stark closed the device down, stuffing it into his attache case. Evaluation was definitely a goal, here, but not necessarily of T'Koris.

"Admiral!" the Klingon to his side exclaimed. The runabout slipped back into realspace, with the huge bulk of the Phoenix floating ahead. "I see it, too," Stark said, sharply arching an eyebrow. Sensors indicated that the starship had recently been fired on. "Jesus," he muttered, sharing a knowing look with Nalaa. Was it really that surprising that the Cardassians had tried something? "Hail T'Koris," he ordered, raising the Carron's shields.