Avaros: The Mirror Image

[Kansas 0]

Note: The following is a non plot advancing log set the Mirror Universe that parallels the current Regular Universe mission to the Avaros colony world, set two weeks after the events in Blast From The Past (Caine/JoNs Log) and Caine: The Abel Factor (JoNs Log).

 

06.03.09

ISS Agincourt NCC-81762

“Avaros: The Mirror Image”

 

The Avaros colony world situation was coming along, more or less. Some of the overall concerns were progressing at a more satisfactory pace then some of the tactical concerns however.

 

The chief of sciences had made some strong arm headway with the local research scientists, and the civilian geeks were making some headway as well with the research into why the planet kept experiencing rolling earthquakes. There had been some speculation from both the Avaros civilian and Starfleet Agincourt camps that there may have been some local interference that had set off the seismic equipment at the research center, causing the quakes in the first place.

 

Now, regarding the Avaros ground combat situation? Not moving along very smoothly, no it was not. It hadn’t quite gone into clusterfrag territory, but let’s just say the local militant upstarts were giving the ‘Court’s marine sharks and the security squids a tactical run for their credits in some of the ground engagements, particularly the one that was currently underway planet side.

 

The Avarosian terrorist situation had become much more involved then the on site Intelligence from the Agincourt preliminary patrol squads had originally indicated. To complicate matters, the riff raff were armed to the teeth with modern weapons and equipment as well as old school projectile weapons. The terrorists were not affiliated with the sector wide Rebellion movement per se; this was more a locally contained uprising, against the Empire yes, but on a much more home grown local level. The militants held a discontentment against the Starfleet and the Imperial Empire, and they had used the rolling quakes as a convenient backdrop in order to launch their so called coup as the phenomena had continued to destabilize the cities within the area.

 

An unfortunate side effect of the uprising was the fact that the other, non-rabble rousing residents were caught in the crossfire, initiated by their so called colony brethren. But, the Agincourt had sent out a semi-evacuation order for the areas of the city compromised by the rebellious faction, and caution markers had been placed about the skirmish areas as well – if a civilian happened to wander into a tagged area and got his fool head blown off? Then so be it.

 

Commander Kansas “Will” JoNs swept her sniper rifle from side to side, sighting down through the scope on any moving and stationary targets and popping off shots. She concentrated, like the other snipers set on point guard and stationed within the interior of this dusty warehouse, on keeping the terrorist faction soldiers away from the ‘Court teams who were scattered about the exterior yard where the grouping of warehouse structures were located and various other heavy transport equipment was stored. Most of the ground side Starfleet teams were under some semblance of cover, utilizing the vehicles and equipment to their advantage. The militants were enthusiastic but not properly trained in military tactics, and kept exposing their positions by darting from cover spot to cover spot, offering easy targets to the highly trained Fleet and Marine officers as they ran.

 

The ISS Agincourt’s resident Ex Oh feline had been planet side, overseeing the current skirmish of interest from her (relatively) safe warehouse vantage point with the joint marine and security sniper patrol covering Caine, Matthews, Hefner and the various other marine and security crew members who were currently scrambling about down there.

 

The only reason she had started providing sniper cover along with the other men and women located within the warehouse was because the young man who had been covering this section of one of the large warehouse windows had taken a shot right to the head. The rank smell of blood and gray matter was strong within the feline’s nostrils, but she ignored the unpleasant smell as best she could. JoNs had been standing right next to the man when he had gone down, and the ships Ex Oh had automatically kicked into her training, grabbed his rifle, and started firing to close the gap in the defensive line.

 

Petty Officer Darjhan, the felinoid commander’s secondary full time bodyguard had accompanied the feline senior officer to the surface of the planet and he had also procured a borrowed sniper weapon to fire alongside the Caitian out one of the other warehouse windows that had been shattered during the back and forth weapons fire. And while the Petty Officer was concerned with providing cover fire for the teams, he was also watching Kansas’s back – per his main duty. Regardless, everyone pitching for the ‘Court sniper team was kept quite busy keeping the proverbial wolves away from the door and off their men and women at the ground level fighting.

 

Unfortunately, Darjhan didn’t happen to keep a portable force field generator within the pockets of his uniform: the feline had taken a stray bullet to the neck about ten minutes ago, and while the wound was not serious, thankfully, and the projectile had merely grazed her neck, she had still bled making her fur and the left top section of her red sleeveless uniform tunic jacket wet and sticky. Hurt cat is not a happy cat.

 

“Sir! The ground teams report that the run and gun is moving one section over into the far end of the commercial property. The sniper team is ordered to move to the adjacent warehouse and re-condition our firing support for the new location.”

 

JoNs ducked down out of range of the window she had been firing her shots from, and turned her head to acknowledge the officer who had spoken to her, trying to ignore the twinge of pain in her shoulder and neck muscles. “Who called in the regroup bug out order?”

 

“Called in by the senior on site lead Sir – Junior. Confirmed by Buddha as second site lead.”

 

Lieutenant Caine called in the initial move and regroup order eh? Hell of a first two weeks as the security chief, ain’t it sweetie? JoNs would enjoy nailing Caine’s hide to the bulkhead if the Vulcan woman had miscalculated the current confrontation with the militants as the on site line officer, and perhaps this situation was something to be looked into and manipulated for the Cait Commander’s own personal use. The possibilities were there to be exploited if JoNs chose too, indeed.

 

“Then carry out your orders Sergeant.”

 

“Ma’am, with due respect, I suggest you disengage from your sniper support position with my squad and fall back to the Agincourt.”

 

Her ears went completely flat. “Are you giving orders to me, Sergeant?”

 

One of the home made shrapnel RPG’s that the insurgents had been peppering the teams with impacted with the warehouse structure next to the one the sniper team was hunkered down in. The Sergeant, Darjhan, and JoNs all ducked their heads while scattered debris and glass flew across the access alley that separated the two structures and landed across the warehouse flooring section where the three personnel where located. Once the projectile threat had passed and he was clear to do so, the marine officer resumed speaking to Kansas.

 

“Yes Will, I am giving you an order.” The dark eyed enlisted marine easily slipped into the usage of the ‘Court call signs that most of the senior line and enlisted officers had for combat and mission operations. “You are bleeding and require medical attention. If this situation cannot be contained within the next few klicks, I cannot guarantee that my team will be able to protect you. And with due respect, if you do happen to pass out from blood loss I do not want to have to cover your furred ass.”

 

Indeed, Kansas would laugh out loud later, when she had time to breathe and was out of immediate danger. She could handle blunt and to the point. Blunt was good. Her ears popped back up, and a quick and genuine smile broke out on her muzzle, exposing her fangs and causing her green eyes to twinkle with that manic mischievous light. She snapped off a salute, “Tell me how you really feel. Orders received. Will is falling back. Hoo rah and happy hunting Sergeant,” and then shouldered the sniper rifle that she had taken off the aforementioned dead marine.

 

With a curt nod, the Human resumed his bug out pace with his team as the marine soldiers filed out of the current warehouse that had been used as a support staging ground in order to secure the new location for the third wave of the ground engagement.

 

Soon, Kansas was alone save for her male Zaldan guard, in the wide interior expanse of the structure. And while she was by no means safe – her keen ears were still picking up the sounds of the outside battle – the typical sounds of battle were also going distant, indicating that the skirmish was in fact moving onto the next section of the commercial property as indicated by Lieutenant Caine. Darjhan remained under cover and out of view, with his back against one of the gray cement walls, phaser rifle at the ready and gripped in his webbed hands as he surveyed their surroundings like a hawk.

 

Hesitating for just a moment, Kansas then half crawl walked over to the prone form of the soldier that she had replaced, taking care to keep her profile low and out of view of the various large windows that were part of the structures design. The golden furred Caitian officer began to rummage through a pocket on the inside of his flak vest, and she soon withdrew a small battlefield medicinal pack, and she opened the item and withdrew a self sealing medicated gauze cloth and slapped it to her clotting neck wound.

 

It was illogical, considering he couldn’t hear her, but the feline command officer still spoke in a gentle purred tone to the dead male Human. “Sorry son, but I need your medicine pack right now.”

 

JoNs then withdrew a locater patch from her own weapons utility belt and slapped the small rounded beacon device to a chest pocket of his fatigue jacket so the transporter techs ship side could locate and beam his body back to the ship.

 

Staying low on her haunches, and mindful about casting her gaze about her to avoid any ambushes from straggler enemy patrols, Kansas brought a paw to her muzzle and spoke into her wrist communicator. “This is Will to Agincourt, lock onto my signal and beam out.”

 

Kansas was caught in the shimmer beam effect, and she and all her molecules soon re-materialized on the transporter beam platform pad, her bodyguard Darjhan materializing right beside her. The transporter technician on duty behind the control desk console was a dark skinned Bajoran enlisted officer. Her eyebrows flew to her hairline when she caught site of the two combat mussed officers, particularly JoNs and her gashed neck. “Well damn.”

 

Despite the hellish situation that she had just come from, the Cait officer couldn’t help but quirk her muzzle into a smirk and stepped down lightly from the platform. “At ease, Crewman. How’s the transport traffic?”

 

Both Kansas and Darjhan handed off their sniper rifles to the security guard assigned to the transporter room for the shift duration; typically, the guards assigned to transporter room duty were the most extreme junior officers and any newbie’s that had transferred on board the ship, usually until they got their feet wet with guard duty and got used to the shift cycles. But, the tall and skinny Human male quickly, quietly, and efficiently took charge of the incoming weapons, an indication that Lt. Caine was training any of her new Security recruits very well.

 

The transporter technician’s answer to the senior officer was prompt and professional. “Currently low level Commander - most of the squads are hoofing it rather then going for site to site, and no new injury beam outs have been called into Bridge Ops just yet.”

 

The golden furred Cait nodded to the tech. “Okay, while you have a break in the overlap beam traffic, coordinate with the bridge Ops officer on duty and do a wide grid beam out to snag any of the locater beacons. Bring our dead home, Mister.”

 

With that grim order hanging on the recycled air, JoNs whooshed out of the transporter room with her attentive guard trailing her in uncharacteristic silence. Darjhan could usually be quite the talker, but the well muscled and webbed hand Zaldan wasn’t saying much. The feline was as well quiet, ordering her thoughts as best she could.

 

Exiting the transporter area, Commander JoNs walked upright on her hind paws, her chest puffed out with a confidence she didn’t really feel at this moment. The golden furred Ex Oh had an Avaros skirmish update report to make to the Agincourts commanding officer and the Caitian was definitely not looking forward to that conversation with Colonel Harper.

 

Once the senior and enlisted officers had entered the relatively private confines of the turbolift conveyance, Darjhan did venture to speak with her.

 

“Sir?”

 

Kansas threw a glance over her shoulder and immediately regretted the movement as her neck muscles protested. “Yes Petty Officer Darjhan?”

 

“How exactly does one delicately convey to a superior officer that the current tactical situation on the planetary surface is currently, how does that Human description phrase go, balls to the wall?”

 

JoNs chuckled lightly. “Very carefully Mister Darjhan … very carefully …"