Peacekeeping ((Kassem/Caine))

[C.T. Caine 0]

Kairi was walking through one of the yet unexplored parts of the demolished city. She was missing her uniform jacket, which was left in her tent back at base camp. Her long raven hair was tied back in a pony tail, behind her pointed ears. It was hot in this part of the city, partly from the climate and partly from the recent fires. Walking next to her was the new Security Chief, Caine. The other engineers, marines, and security officers had their assignments and this was a great way for the Engineering Chief to get to know her.

 

Caine moved a little behind the Chief Engineer as the two pointy-eared senior officers moved through the city. Lieutenant Commander Kassem had asked the half-Vulcan security chief to accompany her in an excursion into the city, and Caine had agreed; she had left the remainder of her men (minus those who were accompanying more of the engineering teams) looking into getting the camp locked down for a possible quick evacuation. The planet had begun to shake more and more in the area where they had set up their triage facilities and Caine didn't much trust it. For now, though, her grey eyes were flicking around the beaten city as she moved with Kassem, looking for places where they could be of assistance in the still ongoing rescues and retrievals.

 

The Chief Engineer glanced back at her partner. "Has anyone checked this area yet for survivors?" She took note of the ruined buildings, frowning. "This place is a mess..."

 

"I'm not sure..." Caine said, glancing around, altering her pace to move her across the street from the engineer so they would cover slightly more ground. It was eerily silent even to Vulcan hearing, except for the occasional rumble under her feet and the collapsed buildings around her groaning occasionally with strain. She reached to her side and pulled out a tricorder, beginning to scan around them for life signs as she moved. "Hopefully so, but it doesn't hurt to do a double-check, either. Don't want to leave anyone...trapped..." She grimaced with an expression of distaste then eyed the results from the first scan. "Definitely life forms in the area...they seem to be moving around though -- a couple of streets over."

 

A smile crossed Kairi's face at that news. "That's good. I was hoping we would find survivors." She took out her own tricorder, confirming the scans. "We should go see if they need help."

 

Caine quirked an eyebrow at Kassem's expression and returned the smile with a faint grin. "Right with you," she said, turning her steps off to the left to veer into the cross-street that would bring them towards the survivor's lifesigns the tricorder read. They had jogged a few moments in silence before Caine eyed the engineer sidelong again. "You are not a full-Vulcan either, then, I take it?"

 

Kairi laughed at that remark and stopped before they got to the corner. "No. I'm not a Vulcan at all."

 

The eyebrow quirked higher and Caine let out a short laugh. "Sorry for the assumption," she said, moving up towards the corner and leaning herself against the wall as she poked her head around it.

 

"I'm actually half Romulan," replied the engineer as she poked her head over Caine's shoulder to get a peek. ""Can you see anyone?"

 

That was a bit surprising, and both eyebrows now went up towards Caine's hairline as the engineer looked past her shoulder. Fascinating... she thought to herself with amusement, though this revelation did add another layer of complexity and uncertainty to a person she already didn't know very well. "Romulan, hmmm? No doubt many stories there but I'll save the asking for another time," she said, the faint grin growing a little wider before dropping as she peered into the street. "No one...they've gone--" she began, but her voice cut off as she saw a human shape disappearing into one of the half-ruined buildings; they appeared to have found a row of storefronts. "Down there," she pointed, and broke into a jog again.

 

"What the...?" said Kairi as Caine took off. She wasn't sure what she had seen, but the engineer began to sprint to keep up.

 

"They're down there," Caine said, slowing her pace slightly to let Kairi catch up. "Must've taken shelter in the stores; the--" She was cut off again, this time by the splintering sound of broken glass. She suddenly remembered what Commander JoNs had told her earlier about reports of looters in the city areas and groaned. "Oh, great."

 

Kairi also heard the shattered glass. "That doesn't sound like someone in trouble..." She looks down the street, taking note of all of the small shops. "Looters, perhaps?"

 

"That would be...the logical assumption, I think," Caine said with a wry laugh. She reached for the sidearm hanging on her hip and spun it quickly out into her hand, setting for stun and bringing it up into a guard position as she swung around a curve in the street and looked at the offending storefront. There were four broad-shouldered men in ripped shirts standing just inside what appeared to have once been an electronics depot of some kind; one of them had just smashed through a glass case and was going through the merchandise inside.

 

The engineer quickly followed suit, grabbing her phaser from her belt. She stood by Caine, standing ready to act if she had too.

 

"All of you, stand down!" Caine called into the store, wondering if perhaps they might take the easy way out and just come quietly, though she rather doubted it.

 

Sure enough, one of the men caught sight of the two uniformed women and scowled. "Ayyyy, get out of it, Starfleet!" he barked, pulling out what looked like a small projectile pistol of some sort. "Ain't been much help so far, so stay outta the way!" He squeezed the trigger and a bullet clanged off a municipal trash can next to Caine.

 

Immediately she dropped to one knee and fired off a stun bolt into the group, rolling sideways out of his immediate line of sight. "So much for the easy way..." she muttered.

 

Kairi quickly dropped below the building's window line, pressing up against the wall. "It never is," she chuckled before popping up for a shot.

 

"Well, no, but one can always hope..." Caine said dryly, crawling quickly in to take up a position on the other side of the building's entrance. "Take the two on the left, I'll take the right...I'd like to do this without roughing 'em up too much." Poking her head into the open entrance she squeezed off a shot at one of her assigned targets and received a yowl of anger and another bullet in return, which whistled past her ear. "Holy mother..." she muttered, her Vulcan expression twisting with aggravation, and dropped to the ground again. This wasn't a great tactical position, as their opponents had their backs to the wall, but the odds were good enough that calling for reinforcements just yet seemed a waste of everyone's time.

 

The engineer fired off another stun bolt, aimed at one of the two men on the left. She ducked back down at the sound of the bullets. "Well..." a bullet pinged off the wall. "At least they will run out of bullets before or phasers dry up." She couldn't help but smile. Her smile didn't last, though, as she felt a sting in her right shoulder. A bullet had just barely nicked her, causing a small amount of blood to drip down.

 

Caine winced as she saw the bullet scrape the engineer's shoulder, though she couldn't help a grin at Kairi's words. "Way to look on the bright side, Commander," she said dryly, and popped up, firing at the man who had shot last. Finally the stun bolt found a mark and she heard the heavy man drop with a very satisfying thud. One down.

 

"If you stand down we will make sure you get food and water and medical attention!" she called through the entrance, but the stream of expletives in response told her that they were still not making much progress in the diplomatic vein.

 

"We can take care of ourselves!" one of the men barked and Caine rolled her eyes, poking her phaser up and blasting off another stun bolt.

 

Kairi looked at her shoulder. It hurt some, but this was far from over. "I'm just glad they are lousy shots." She fired another round, managing to hit one of her targets as well. "Playing field is even."

 

Two on two. Caine liked those odds. "Good shooting," she said, and sat up to take another shot; her phaser blast this time glanced off the far wall and scorched a mark in the stone floor by her target's feet.

 

"Thanks. Not bad for an engineer, huh?" smiled Kairi. She took another shot before ducking back down. "I wish they'd just give up already."

 

Caine slid herself down onto the ground and angled around into the doorway, firing again. Her shot found another mark and left only one man standing. He was slightly smaller than the others and his features grew abruptly terrified as he stood alone. "Stand down!" Caine called and there was a slow pause before the man nodded slowly in silence.

 

He let the gun fall from his fingers to hit the ground; the impact set it off with a bang and another bullet whizzed between the two Starfleet officers, burying itself in the wall of the building. "Jesu Christe..." Caine muttered, raising her eyes to the sky before climbing up to her feet and raising her phaser.

 

Kairi followed suit, making sure the other men were down. "We better call this in. I'm sure the camp will want to hear from us." She poked one of the downed men. "Besides, they need to be looked after."

 

"Yeah, we'll need a few stretchers -- and we'll want the word out the the marines that some of the looters are using projectile weapons. Crude but...effective enough," Caine said, glancing at Kairi's shoulder. "Are you alright?" She approached the one man still standing and quickly checked to relieve him of other weapons.

 

"I'm fine. It's just a scratch." The engineer made sure the stunned men didn't have any weapons near them.

 

Caine grinned again, her looser, more laconic smile resurfacing now that the crisis had passed. She appreciated that resilient attitude in the other woman. "Well, then it'll give the docs a nice break. Something good and simple," she said, and tapped her commbadge. "Caine to Avaros base camp -- Commander Kassem and I have subdued a small looting party in the southwest corner of the city; we're going to need a site to site and three stretchers, and two sec men for when these boys start waking up with a bit of a headache." She paused, then chuckled. "Bit feisty, but nothing we couldn't handle."