Mount Up, Move Out

Posted on Thu Dec 23rd, 2021 @ 5:45am by Gunnery Sergeant Reishi Hijani & Captain Natalya Markova

Mission: The Dexic Negotiations
Location: Marine Ops, Shuttle Bay

ON

"Markova to Marine Ops. I want all Marines geared up, and assembled in the shuttlebay."

=•=•=•=

By the time the Turbo lift doors opened, the tears had been wiped away, and Nat's expression was calm. Too calm.

She marched into the new Marine Ops center, a recently converted series of cargo bays to find the Marines still scrambling for equipment.

Stepping to the main computer terminal, Nat hit the comm channel. "Bridge, this is Markova in Marine Ops. I need every piece of sensor data from the Terrorist's transmission sent to the shuttle's computer. Also, we cannot do this is an hour. We need to buy more time. Helm, your orders are to leave orbit as soon as we launch. That buys us the time we need to do our job. Markova out."

As she straightened up, a buck sergeant eased up onto her side. "What's the flap?"

"Hostage rescue. Full briefing in two minutes in the shuttle bay." Her flat tone and lack of embellishment snapped the marine to attention. A figure caught her peripheral vision. "Deadeye!"

Corporal Oscanian stopped in his tracks as his nickname rang out. "Lieutenant?"

"Pack Vera. We're on a trophy hunt."

The corporal blinked, but nodded, heading for a rack of equipment, and hefting a large, matte black metallic case.

Lee was doing an equipment check out on the assembled Marines. Once finished he had his squad hold fast and stepped over to Natalya. "El-Tee, first squad is set with full combat kits. You want me to get them down to the shuttlebay?"

"Affirmative, Sergeant. Full briefing will be held there." Nat saw Gunnery Sergeant Hijani in the Ops centre, and excused herself from the sergeant. "Gunny!" Heading over, Nat intercepted the marine. "I checked the roster. We got nine marines on board, plus the two of us. Add in four hostages to be extracted, we will have a total of fifteen people. I think we need two shuttles for this."

Rei did some mental math as she surreptitiously pulled her pistol gripped phaser to check the charge, then tossed her head to the Lieutenant to follow her as she started her way to the armory, “Is that all we’re bringing back, ma’am?” She asked mildly, “Two of our shuttles, yes, but I got a look at that other shuttle of theirs. The flight crew is alive but under security guard, but it’s plenty big enough for all of us. I monitored the comm from down here and if they see one of our shuttles separate, won’t go good for the rest of the hostages, why not take theirs?”

Too fast. Too fucking fast! Nat's mind screamed at her to slow down, consider all the options. One wrong move would mean more than a single dead marine. They needed more time, more time to properly put together an operation. Time they didn't have. "We have zero indication of the other team. Once we have the hostages out, we can consider an extraction for the others. We'll take their shuttle - assuming it ain't too difficult to fly."

“Wayne’s team is already back aboard, ma’am.” Rei pointed out, stepping into the armory and selecting a slug pistol with silencer that would reduce the noise, then grabbing her own personal rifle, “Just the six from Vallery’s. Well, five now with Richardson down.” She considered that for a moment, “Did you say four hostages? They should still have five unless they took out one of the others.”

Picking out her own weaponry - rifle, pistol, and after a moment's reflection, a Ka-bar knife - Nat gave the Gunny a look. "You saw the transmission. They said they had four. Either they have taken one out of play, or we have a loose element in the field."

"Wild card." Rei said without any sort of hesitation, "They were counting coup with their hostages, if they had six, they would have said it. And my guess is that they don't even know there's another one out there." She loaded a magazine into the rifle, but didn't cycle the chamber, instead slinging it over her shoulder and loading the silenced pistol, this time racking the chamber, but ensuring the safety was on and reholstering it, "Possible data source on the ground."

"Assuming we can make contact. Assuming we can make it down there without getting blown out of the sky." Nat led the way out of the armoury and towards the shuttlebay on Deck 6. "Who's the best shuttle pilot we got?" Yeah, she 'could' do it, but she wasn't good at it.

"The Captain." Rei said, sliding sideways out of the armory, "But she's not available at the moment. We don't have one, we need one of the Fleeties." Her eyes swept over the rest of the troops, all nearly finished getting armed and armored, "Or we can use the ones that came with the shuttle. Your pick. I can find a pilot if we need one, one of the Fleet."

As they were moving, Nat tapped her commbadge. "Lieutenant Markova to Flight Ops Control. I need to requisition one of your Shuttle Pilots. Please have them meet me in the Shuttlebay in 2 minutes."

“Or there’s that.” Rei agreed. They were quick, probably eight minutes since Nat had conned from the bridge and they were in the shuttlebay where engineers were still busy cleaning up the wreckage, and the other set of doors hissed open to allow another figure in red to the hanger. Rei scowled at him and glanced over at Natalya, “Get the troops aboard, ma’am, let me handle this.”

The Japanese woman didn’t even wait for the response before she broke away on an intercept course for the Chief of the Boat and held a hand out in a stop gesture for him, “Master Chief? Don’t even start and I won’t have to disobey your instructions. And you’re not going to get to the Lieutenant, so don’t even try.”

Nat did a double take at the Master Chief, saw her Gunny intercept the man, and made a choice. She squared her shoulders, and walked - no, the Marine 'marched' - towards the CoB. "Unless the Counsellor has sent you down here to wish us well, turn around. One of my Marines was murdered in cold blood on the viewscreen in front of me. We. Are. Leaving. Just as soon as I get the troops briefed, and loaded. If I have to blow out the forcefield, I will."

Sam's facial expression was unreadable as the Marine officer marched up to him. He held up a PADD and handed it to Nat. "Quite the contrary Lieutenant. Ensign Rouen was able to avoid capture. He is currently hiding in a building around the corner from where the hostages are being held. The information on the PADD has his location and the that of the hostages. However, he couldn't get accurate scans of the building without compromising his position. The terrorists are suspected to have active EMS detection capabilities."

Natalya chewed her lip for a moment, and took the PADD. "Well, I feel like a bitch." She scanned the data, and looked at the Master Chief. "Thank you, genuinely." Her voice had shifted from the confrontational tone she had had, to a more pleasant one. "If you'll excuse me, I have a team to brief."

"On the boat, Ma'am." Rei flashed a grin at Sam before turning away to see the rest of the troops just watching them, almost as if they were waiting to see if they were actually going and she started off with big steps instantly towards them, raising her voice, "What are you all looking at? This isn't a play! On the shuttle, move it, move it!" Back to business as normal.