Just Bombin' Around

Posted on Tue Mar 4th, 2025 @ 4:34am by Gunnery Sergeant Reishi Hijani & Captain Natalya Markova

Mission: Doing What We Do Best
Location: Freighter

ON

The noise and light of the transporter faded, leaving only the darkness of the room around them. A series of sharp beams of light snapped on in quick succession.

Natalya moved the light on her rifle around the room, sure that the squad was doing the same. Nothing immediately jumped out at them. The only thing she saw was the heavy machinery used for moving cargo containers. They were in one of the auxiliary cargo bays of the freighter.

“Clear.” The assessment was echoed by the other Marines around her. No hostiles in sight. No… anyone in sight. ‘No life signs’ never prepared anyone for the eerie emptiness of a ship adrift. “Alright. We were told to expect explosives and boobytraps. Start fanning out. Hit the main cargo-hold, engineering, crew quarters. Stay in pairs, no one goes anywhere alone. Gunny and I are headed for the Bridge.” The Marine Captain tapped her commbadge once, setting an open link. “Stay in open communications. I wanna hear everything.”

"Roger that," Corporal Callen responded, waving over one of the privates, "We're going to engineering Shaddix." And the pair were off.

Rei glanced as the rest of the unit paired off and peeled off aside from herself, then edged ahead of her officer as they started their way down the corridor behind another pair of the Marines on their way to another location. A quick check of the PADD confirmed that they were truly on the way to the bridge of the large ship, but this was more a large series of cargo holds with a spinal-mounted crew area, the bridge at the front of the ship for best visibility.

"Cap, what are you thinking? If it really IS rigged to blow, could be a bit dangerous. I mean, I know that the Skipper knows what she's doing, probably, but wouldn't we be of better use when she finds the enemy?" The Gunny kept her eyes not only ahead of them, but also off to the sides as they passed doors.

Nat kept her eyes sweeping the corridor as the two of them made their way along. “I’m thinking Skyie knows we have the better EOD / IED experience.” She felt very aware of the open Comms channel with the team.

“I’m also thinking intelligence reports point to a lack of transporter tech in this region. The powers here use shuttles, and transport ships to move people. That means that any trigger will likely be on external hatches like the primary cargo bay doors.”

A ship’s size could be deceptively small, Nat was realising, until you had to walk in a straight line.

“Lastly, I’m thinking the best place for ogs, and crew records is the Bridge. We’re gonna see if we can give some families closure.”

”Damn, this is spooky.”

“Yeah, just a whole lot of empty bunks. No sign of weapons fire.”

“Boss.” it was Called, who had gone to Engineering. ”Bingo on a bomb. Looks like a Hytritium device strapped to the core.”

“Ain't that kinda banned?”

“We ain't in Fed space, remember? Cap, I got something similar on the primary cargo dicking bay doors. You were right. Anyone tries to dick, they get an explosion to the face.”

Nat took a breath. “Alright. That's what training is for. Corp, Sergeant. Take a look at those devices, see if you can disarm them. Don't take any risks. Just a look.”

She switched channels on her commbadge, wondering if the pirates were monitoring communications. It was possible. “Washout to Calamity. TNT on the barn door, more on the boiler. Heading for the farmhouse.” She hoped it was coded enough to confuse the enemy, but clear enough for Skyie.

"Disarm if possible and bring all devices to the cargo bay." Rei added to the conversation, "Let's put them where they can't do as much harm if they do go off." She brought her tone of voice back to where it was obvious she was talking to Nat, "And gives us a spitball to use if we have a chance."

It was a couple more tense minutes until the pair reached the Bridge. The view out the windows looked down on the nose of the ship. The consoles were dark, and offline. Nat played her light over them, recalling her lessons in basic ship operations. She found what looked like the main access console, and brought some power online.

Light filled the room as the Bridge came alive. Consoles, screens, and displays lit up. Most of it was in a language she couldn't understand. One terminal, though, was clear enough in its data. "The pirates are firing on Chimera." The sensor data was coming in fast.

"Good news, bad news, Boss. Got the device off the Core, but can't disarm it. Good news is, it's not remote activated. It's trigger is fluctuations in the power grid."

"That must be what this baby does. Cargo doors cleared. Anyone who came in through there would get a boom to the face, then the ship goes up just for the hell of it."

"First the injury, then the insult." Nat said, mostly to herself. "If these murdering bastards weren't vile, I'd kinda like their thinking."

"If they think we're a disabled freighter, we could have the element of surprise. I'm not an Engineer, but I can give you impulse. Ram their docking hatch open, we can board, and give them an ass kicking."

"Uh, how do we get over there?"

"We can use the atmo suits from here. The crew must use them when transgerring cargo. Yhe bay is designed to be open to space."

Nat glanced over at Rei. She was sure the Gunny would have objections, but the Chimera needed backup, and a broken-down barge was all she had to use. "Alright, that's the plan. Everyone get into the suits. I'll see about flying this rust bucket from here. Meet you all in the forward cargo bay."

Nat found the flight control station. It took precious time to figure out the controls, but she did manage it. Something in the back of her mind told her what to do. Her hands paused on the controls, as she could hear a voice she hadn't heard since she was a teen. "Always hold the attitude controls. She'll yaw on you otherwise." The voice of her brother came at her from over a decade in the past.

"We set?"

"As we'll ever be, Cap. Let's give those pirates something else to think about."

"Punching impulse." Nat said as the freighter rumbled into life, the nose swinging around to come at the pirate ship.

Knowing precisely what her Captain was going to do, Rei had made a dash for the cargo bay. Crashing the ship didn't require two people and the troops could use her leadership. "Squad One, once we make impact, blow the doors, then move in and take left, Squad Two, take the right, Squad Three with me and we're going down the center to take the command deck."

She skidded into the cargo bay to see the marines taking cover, all suited up and one of the sergeants held out one for her, "We've got about thirty seconds, Gunny, and you don't want to be out of it when we hit." He helped her with the seals as she finagled her way into it, "Five seconds, brace!"

The impact of the ships together came as a jarring shock before the explosion of the bombs on the cargo bay doors slapped them back again, but that's where their cover helped them. The shock had been applied, now for the awe, "Move out, move, move, move." Rei stated over the Marine comms, the troops moving out like the professionals they were.

The freighter shuddered as it moved. The rust bucket wasn't built for combat damage. Nat ran her eyes over the sensors. Most of it was untranslatable gibberish. What she could glean, there were two ships. Chimera had switched weapons fire from the one she was ramming. Good, less chance of friendly fire.

What it did mean though, was that pirate ship was also free to switch targets. The freighter rocked under a barrage. No doubt they had realised their explosives weren't responding.

Nat tried to think back to her Academy days. She had been in the Marine Officer program - a rifle company in her future. Yet, Starfleet wanted her trained in basic starship operations.

Still, she wasn't a pilot. She didn't know how this barge handled. She had no evasive procedure. Thoughts of the Academy flicked her mind over to Alex. What would he do? Make some funny quip, and get back to work.

Nat focused back on the helm controls. One didn't need to be a good pilot to kamikaze. She watched the Pirate ship stay still just a moment too long.

When they realised she wasn't bluffing, it was too late. The nose of the freighter collided with the pirate frigate. Metal tore, and buckled. Panels blew, and then every light went out as the cargo bay doors detonated, and it felt as though the whole universe held a breath.


OFF